eye drops for baby at birth?

[MrsMcJnr]

Can anyone tell me what these are for? and what the pros and cons are? I am abroad and they give them here whereas they no longer do in Scotland where I had my DS.

hi mrsmc,

jj here,

what are the drops for/

i believe breast milk is great for the eyes

Hello there. I have no idea what they are I remember when I had DS in Scotland last year that they said at NCT classes that they used to put drops in babies' eyes in the UK at birth (some sort of antibiotic?) but that they didn't anymore so I didn't read up on it. This time round, the opportunity to ask questions is scarce as are reading materials!!

I believe hospitals used to use silver nitrate (?) eye drops in all newborns to protect against an infection - could have been chlamydia? (Sheila Kitzinger talks about it in her books!). They don't use them now as the infection transfer is so low and the babies were effectively blinded by them in the first few hours of life when they are initially most alert and looking for mum. I think they may still be used as standard in the USA and other countries outside the UK.

HTH xxx

Thanks I read on the net that they use erythamiicin (sp!) these days and it is to protect against infections from the birth canal. I am loathe to inflict them on my newborn I have to say especially as I have to have Abs through labour to protect her from GBS.