DD has gunky eyes

[neverenoughMEtime]

11mo DD has sticky half closed eyes, started last night. They keep sticking together and im bathing them with cooled boiled water often. I took her to the doctor today who said to leave it until wednesday and then if no better use the eye ointment she gave us on prescription.

Tonight her eyes look really swollen and gunky. Is it really ok to just leave it? Obviously im going to keep bathing them gently but i used to work in a pharmacy and they used to tell people you shouldn't "mess around" with eyes and to get them sorted asap...

What would you do? I do trust the GP but i keep thinking maybe if she could see DD's eyes tonight she may say to use the ointment! Not sure what to do.

DS has this every time he gets a cold. When he was about 6 months he happened to have an appointment with an ophthalmologist on the same day as it flared up. His advice was to just clean it with cool boiled water and only get drops if it didn't clear in 48 hours which it did.

add a drop of baby shampoo to the cooled boiled water.

Use the eye ointment prescribed for a couple of days and see how it goes.

I would start using the eye ointment. Also, if the gunk is thick and yellow it is likely to be bacterial, and you need anti biotic drops/eye cream, if it is watery it is more likely to be viral (could also be herpes virus I believe) and there is a different ointment for that. By the way, conjunctivitis is highly infectious so very important to wash hands, have separate towels etc.

Thanks all! I'll get the ointment tonight and start tomorrow.

She keeps smacking the side of her head, it must be very annoying for her :(

Thanks dikkertjedap, we are washing hands and keeping towels etc seperate. The gunk is thick and yellow.

If you are still breastfeeding then a few drops of breast milk works wonders

If yuo are wiping them - always inside corner to outside corner - one wipe only and throw away the cotton wool pad.

I would personally be using cooled boiled water with a little salt in it

Oh right activate, i started off wiping inside to outside but the doctor told me to wipe outside to inside!!

OK -- he's probably right

IIRC I was never able to do the full sweep and just held the soaked cotton wool against it to soak for bit thenn wiped downwards

Yes thats what ive been doing too because DD bats my hand away every time, so been wiping corner to corner when i can and sometimes holding the cotton wool against the eye then wiping downwards...it has all crusted now on her eye lids and i can't get it off at all she won't tolerate me holding the cotton wool against it for long enough. Maybe DH should hold her tight while i try for longer. sigh...am off to get the prescription now and hopefully they will look a little better tomorrow night.

Thanks for all your help :)