blocked tear duct.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

baby is 8 months. I have self diagnosed that she has a blocked tear duct (has always been blocked). Some googling has told me that this usually resolves itself by 12 months. What do you wise mumsnetters think? Am I being too blase about this - should I worry?

[cece]

Two of mine had this from birth, Yes both cleared naturally by 12 months.

[bebespain]

DS1 had this from birth. I was told to massage it as much as possible and that yes it would probably clear without intervention.
However in the end he had an operation to unblock it as it just wasnt improving at all. It was done under GA but was over with fairly quickly and I am pleased to say it was 100% successful!

[mintyneb]

my DD had a blocked duct that finally cleared at 2.5 yo. fortunately once she'd got passed about 1yo it didn't get as infected so often but she nearly always had a tear running her cheek particularly when she was outside or in cold weather.

We did get referred to the eye hospital but they said that they were very reluctant to do anything to fix it as it would require a GA for a short operation that wasn't always successful.

So, it may take a while but it should hopefully clear by itself

[iskra]

I wouldn't worry. DD had a blocked tear duct for ages (from birth). I asked a paediatrician friend of mine & she said that it was advised to leave it alone & only intervene if they hadn't grown out of it by around 2 years (I think). So we left it alone & she did grow out of it at some point after 1 year.

[ALovelyBunchOfCoconuts]

My DD had a blocked tear duct when she was about 6-7 months old. I took her to the GP convinced she had an infection but he assured me it wasn't and that it resolve itself. Sure enough it did.