Baby with viral conjunctivitis - need treatment?

[ElusiveMoose]

I think my 6MO has viral conjuncitivitis. He's had cough/cold symptoms for a couple of weeks (which flared up into tonsillitis about 10 days ago), and has had sticky eyes for about week. His face is also a bit rough and red, and his eyes/cheeks look puffy, and he's been generally grumpy and irritable. I'm guessing that all these things are connected. I took him to the doctor a couple of days ago, but he said it was just a general virus and didn't need treatment. I forgot to mention the sticky eyes, though (idiot). My older DS has never had conjunctivitis, so I'm not really familiar with it. Does it need treatment?

You can't treat viral conjunctivitis (I had it for a couple of months before xmas :() and it can take a while to clear up. However, I don't think it usually involves sticky eyes. Sounds more like bacterial conjunctivitis.

I'd say it's worth going back to GP to get it checked out. In the meantime, clean the eyes with clean cotton wool balls soaked in salt water.

Hi, my DD has it too and the doctor reccomended only to use water and cotton wool too

Are you breastfeeding? If so, EBM on cotton wool to wipe the eyes.

DD has just had exactly these symptoms. Red slightly sore cheeks, slightly puffy, sticky eyes, cough, cold, lethargy, sore throat etc.

Even with bacterial conjunctivitis, you generally don't need antibiotics (they don't speed up healing). Clean with sterile water or breastmilk if you are bfing. Antibiotics should only be used if it really isn't shifting without.

When it accompanies cough/cold symptoms it's generally viral and all part of the same thing. Viral conjunctivitis does present with sticky, watery, gungy eyes as well as bacterial.

Thanks for the advice on cleaning the eyes (not bf'ing, so will have to be water).

ShowofHands, are you my GP?! He said precisely the same thing (bacterial is only usually when the eyes are excessively gungy, and also very red on the corneas, which DS's aren't). No, he just said it's a virus, keep going with the Calpol as often as DS needs it, and wait it out. Looking forward to him not waking up every hour through the night, though .

Incidentally, ShowofHands, is your DD better yet? How long did it take? DS has been ill for about 3 weeks now, and I've had enough!

my dd has this at the moment. the gp advised to buy saline solution (in the contact lens department of the pharmacy) and clean the eyes regularly with a clean pad of cotton wool and saline solution.
last time ds had this it went away very quickly.

I was just coming on to post something similar.

Ds has had a cold/cough for the last few days as well as a bit of gunk in his eye. Went away yesterday morning but came back in the afternoon. He is fine this morning but a but bloodshot in the corner of one eye.

He doesn't really need to go to the doctors does he? I don't want to take an emergency appointment for nothing.

Sorry for hijack!

I would only take my child to the dr with conjunctivitis if it is really bad (dc can't open eyes, glued shut even wiping regularly doesn't help) or if he gets a fever as well. or if he needs to stay at home because nursery would not take him. then I would need a certificate for my work...

My DS (nearly 3) has this for the first time at the moment. He's had full on raging green discharge out of both eyes, red eyes, eyes completely stuck shut after sleeping, needing cleaning every 2 hours... we wasted 5 days with the Optrex infected eye drops which did sod all, and which he HATED having put in, then went to the GP who prescribed antibiotic eye gel which he tolerates much better... on day 3 of that today and I think he is MARGINALLY better this morning; only one eye was stuck shut though both still gunky.

I don't know why I'm typing all this really except to tell you at what threshold we went to the GP. I wish we'd gone from the start though instead of wasting time with the Optrex ones. He's not had it before so I didn't really know what I was doing.

That sounds like a bit of a nightmare Casserole!

Ds isn't that bad at all, just a small amount of gunk every now and then.

He is at this moment knocking down plastic bottles with a ball..

I won't bother with the doctor then.

Thanks!

It's been horrid! Awful having to clean his eyes, put drops in etc against his will. Nothing like starting your day by making a small child cry

Anyway they were a tiny bit better this morning. So hopefully we're on the mend.

Yesterday he did i-spy: "I is for eye drops Mummy"

Conjunctivitis itself can take 2 weeks to go. This is normal. For some children it takes only a few days but certainly it takes a few days to see some improvement for most.

ElusiveMoose, dd started preschool in January and seems to have had some sort of virus on and off ever since. But this recent snotty, gungy eyes, lethargic, coughy one is still grumbling on slightly though she's much, much better. Eyes are clear now, nose no longer running like a tap. But it's been a good 2-3 weeks since it started. Certainly the longest I've known for a virus. I did get to the point of thinking 'am I missing something?' after about a fortnight and went back to the GP. He said that 6 weeks for a bad virus is normal and he says it's the time of year plus preschool plus this particular virus being a bit of a bugger. It was v reassuring. He said he sees more children with red cheeks, conjunctivitis and bad colds atm than anything else.