FSIL rude about baby eye gunk

[merlotmummy14]

My 15 week old DD has a bit of gunk around the corners of her eye and has had it for roughly a week now. Nothing severe and hasn't effected her eyesight or irritated her or her skin in any way. My mother (midwife), aunt (paediatric nurse) and cousin (infant paediatric nurse) all noticed it when I was up at theirs and said it was nothing to worry about and to just keep cleaning it with sterile water and some gauze. Have been doing so and glad to say it's nearly gone today. However yesterday I received multiple messages from both my FFIL and FSIL telling me I need to take her to the doctors and get her seen by a 'professional' because apparently my relatives (a collective 80 years nursing experience behind them) isn't good enough. My FSIL (who is early thirties, has no kids of her own, no childcare or medical experience, can't be in the same room when we change a dirty diaper without gagging and being a drama queen about it and spends the entire time shes with our DD taking selfies with her) said "The wee soul has had a minging eye for a week and it's oozing throughout the day". Just to clarify she's seen her twice while shes had it and usually sees her max once a week at my FPILs. AIBU to have taken offence to this? It might be a little unsightly but she's happy as larry and the doctors unlikely to prescribe any antibiotic treatment given I have history of allergic reactions to antibiotics. My other mum friends have also had the same things happen with their babies and it's all cleared up by itself within a few weeks. I just feel like telling her to mind her own business and stop making it out to me that I'm abusing the 'wee soul' by not taking her to the GP.

I’ve just woken up with sleep in my eyes. It’s a sign of poor tear quality apparently. Had it my whole life with no issues. You’ve had professionals check your baby maybe the next time they bring it up say you’ve spoken to your health visitor.

My GP relative said the same^^, that they can take over a year to clear in some babies. But I still think it’s worth having it checked out, as we did and although it seemed like it just needed time to clear, it turned out to be infected which we only realised when the swab came back.

My mum calls it goul. Pronounced gowl. Yorkshire. I've taught my DC to call it goul too. 😆

I've always called it eye snot.

My grandmother (b.1888) called it duck-meat. God knows why!

I didn’t know it was called anything else but sleepy men.

Duck-meat? These are so funny.

We always called it sleep.

Duck meat is grotty bits of dried sweat in between kids' toes where I come from!

Ignore them, the eyes are getting better.

Sleepy men love it! We call it eye bogies x

We call it sleep or ‘sleepy eyes’

I’m in Yorkshire too and I’ve never heard goul

Tubbyinthehottub - that makes more sense in a weird kind of way! Ducks might gobble at feet, but not eyes, surely!

Never heard of sleeping men lol.

We call it 'sleep in your eyes'

In West Central Scotland we’ve always used ‘sleepy men’, although I’m keeping ‘eye snot’ in reserve for when the children are older

Just plain old “sleep” here.

They are interfering and should butt out.

Eye snot seems a bit grim! I've never heard of sleepy men, we call it sleepy dust.

I always called it sleep, but DH says eye poo.
Your in-laws are being weird. Ignore.

Ignore it, she sounds like she hasn’t got a clue. It’s very normal for babies to have this. My son had it until he was about 3.5 months. I just used cooled boiled water and it eventually went away by itself. We were on holiday in Cornwall at the time so it might have been the sea air too!

Mention it to HV on your next visit who will agree with your relatives. Next time they ask you then say 'oh well maybe your son can take him if he is bothered but I have consulted medical professionals who say there is no need.'

BTW it is sleepy dust which gets in your eyes from the smoke from the sleep train which takes you to the land of dreams. I thought everyone knew that .

confused have you examined the baby?

No, but from the OP's description of "gunk in the corner of the eye" of a well baby I know from experience that it's due to a blocked tear duct. Bacterial conjunctivitis is very uncommon in babies, particularly at that age and causes redness and injection of the conjunctiva, not just gunk in the corner. In a newborn gonorrhoea and chlamydia need to be considered but not in a 15 week old and have a different clinical picture. True infective conjunctivitis in babies is nearly always viral and also causes redness and injection of the conjunctivae (bilaterally). There is never any point doing a swab unless you have high suspicion of gonorrhoea or chlamydia; if you swab any gunky eye it will grow some bacteria, usually haemophilus sp. or staph, but it's colonisation not infection. As I said, gunky eyes from blocked tear ducts are massively over treated.

As someone mentioned, blocked ducts nearly always resolve by 12 months. General consensus is to probe them around 18 months if no improvement.

zzzzz

Do you have any other suggestions as to what it could be? Considering the OP's relatives who are experienced with babies have said the same?

No it really can't be anything else. I see it several times a week. The breastmilk thing doesn't really work, it just stops babies going to GPs, or possibly provides a bit of a wash out. It can often flare up if a baby has a snotty nose; the tear duct drains into the nose so there's congestion it can stop the duct draining properly. Sometimes some saline in the nose can alleviate that. As someone mentioned up thread, massaging the eye across the top towards the nose in a sweeping motion can sometimes help. But generally you're cleaning it so the baby can open their eye while it self-resolves.

Well, my newborn was swabbed and it grew something Which he got eye drops for. I bloody hope it was gonorrhoea or chlamydia! They certainly never told me if it was, which seems a bit negligent.

Wasn’t*