To take my 24 month old to a pharmacist instead

[Emmmie]

My 24 month old has woken up with a slight redness in the white of her eye and a bit of mucousy discharge. I am suspecting pink eye.

NHS suggests that this can be treated by a pharmacist for children over 2. However, the 111 is sending us to the A&E! I don't want my otherwise healthy baby to pick up a more serious illness in the A&E waiting room. Besides, we would be able to see the pharmacist sooner.

Am I being unreasonable?

Also top tip for giving eye drops. Lay child down and put drop on inside corner of eye only - the child will blink and take the drops in. You don’t need to try and get the drops in the middle of their eye or anything, as long as they open and shut their eyes while you’re doing it it’ll go in - it’s genius!

I imagine what you had was a corneal abrasion following an injury, not conjunctivitis. Totally different situation.

Id just treat with cooked boiled water tbh!

Get to Tesco pharmacy on Monday and buy infected eye drops.

Also confused at you stating 24 months to prove she's 2...

That's an OTT response even for 111.
Exactly what @NannyR says.
You don't need a pharmacy immediately for simple conjunctivitis, you definitely don't need ED. It's a minor, often self limiting condition.
You might find this helpful to identify conjunctivitis as opposed to something more serious (highly unlikely).
https://patient.info/eye-care/eye-problems/infective-conjunctivitis

Me too - it usually clears up on its own.

look On nhs choices it will show which pharmacies are open this evening and tomorrow. There is always a bank holiday rota. Or go to an optician
best to get it looked at but if it’s simple conjunctivitis frequent wiping with cooled boiled water may well shift it

True. No evidence of benefit from antibacterial eye drops and I wouldn’t fancy trying to get them into a two year old eyes four times a day. Only one who benefits is the chemist from selling you them. Just clean the gunk with tap water.

Is there not a danger now though that as OP has been referred to A&E that if she doesn’t show up it’ll flag somewhere as a concern? I mean, it’s easily explained, but I’m not sure I’d take the risk.

When it happened to my DD we went to the pharmacist who said she needed to be seen by a dr. So we called 111 and saw an out of hours GP who said the guidance is now to wash the eye regularly with cooled boiled water rather than prescribing anything. So a total waste of time, very annoying!

If they’re red only it’s likely to be viral, but when you have the sticky discharge as well it’s more likely to be bacterial. The ointment or drops work well for that, although the children hate it!
The only advantage I can think of in a hospital is that their pharmacy is probably open all hours. I’d search up some late night pharmacies though. If you can’t and you have to leave it, it’s not the end of the world, when the eyes stick together just use a warm cloth to open them.
The advantage to starting the drops/ointment is that it’s less likely to spread.

Yes, but I didn’t know that - all I knew was very sore, red, weepy eye!

If pink eye is conjunctivitis then I wouldnt bother with a pharmacist or a A&E. My youngest caught it fairly often and the GP said not to bother with drops and instead just bathe the eye with cool boiled water. We did this every 30 minutes or so and it was gone within a day or two (used new water every time and a new cooton wool pad each time & never cross contaminated with the other eye). DC was under 6 months when we got this advice and have continued with it whenever DC got it again.

Much easier than faffing with drops and no wasted visit to A&E.

I thought this - that if you’re referred with a child you have to do. As ridiculous as the advice from 111 is, I would ring a and e and see what they say about not going

I always treated sore looking red eyes with cooled boiled water (or breastmilk) as a first point of call. That generally cleared it up quickly and if it didn't then a teabag dipped in cooled boiled water worked every time but I appreciate that's not advice everyone will be comfortable following and I am not a healthcare professional! But those are good things to try first if this happens again. A pharmacist is a good idea for this though, 111 do tend to be over cautious with little ones.

I wouldn't have wasted the time of the 11 call handlers for a mild case of conjunctivitis. I definitely wouldn't be going to a and e, which is pretty much what 111 always suggest for anything to do with young children. Clean the eye regularly with cooled boiled water and cotton wool and it will probably clear up in a couple of days. If after a couple of days it shows bo improvement then I would be calling my gp for an appointment.

What I mean is that in the OP’s case there’s no history of an injury, so the advice you received is not relevant to the OP. I didn’t want her thinking that she needed to rush to A&E.

Fair enough 👍🏻

I was told by a gp that if there's swelling around the eye or you're worried to take them to a&e or an eye hospital. It's tricky as mostly it's v mild and if you clean the eyes regularly it sorts it (and if not get the drops or ointment), but in some cases they need to be seen.

I usually give it 24hrs to see if it clears up on its own before seeking treatment

24 month old - I wanted to make it clear she is over two years old

Saying she was 2 would have covered that… it’s actually more obvious than saying 24 months old. Your child is 2.

Id try the pharmacist first, if they can’t help theyl send you elsewhere.

I thought “pink eye” was viral conjunctivitis, for which no treatment is needed, except maybe some artificial tears drops for comfort. With viral conjunctivitis I would expect it to be watery only, no sticky discharge.

If there is a sticky discharge it’s more likely to be bacterial conjunctivitis, which can be treated with antibiotic drops or ointment (but also may well get better on its own anyway).

The minute you mention that the patient is a child, 111 always say you need to see a medical practitioner of some sort. It’s what the algorithm seems to do.

111 doctors are often dicks who won't take responsibility. My baby kept spitting out an antibiotic. I needed a different one to be prescribed. A common problem and a common solution. The doctor tried to train me on the phone how to give the antibiotic orally successfully. I was at my wit's end to have called 111 and couldn't believe this was what I was getting from them. "You need to go to A&E, as it's a baby", he said. We were there from 9pm until 6am. It was unreal. Amazed we didn't get Covid. I also had to bring my baby's twin. Feedimg them was horrible. Being in A&E was horrible. Really ill people were leaving. When we finally saw a hugely apologetic doctor he asked why we hadn't simply just called 111 🙄. And was incredulous we'd been sent to A&E. Use the pharmacist.

If you have any camomile tea in, make some, allow to cool then wipe from centre to outer eye with cotton wool pad dipped in it. Throw away after each wipe so fresh pad each time to avoid cross contamination. Its very soothing and always worked for my babies 👶

I wonder if the introduction of 111 has caused an increase in A+E use unnecessarily.

They aren't doctors! That's the whole point. They are mostly non clinically trained and work by protocol which is why they often suggest ED/ ambulances that are unnecessary and would not be suggested by experienced clinicians.