Repeatedly gloopy eyes in 2 yr old.

[mimou]

Since he started nursery about a year ago DS1 seems to have had some sort of snotty bug about 3 weeks out of five. Sever snottiness almost always comes accompanied by sticky eyes gummed up with nasty greenish-yellow gloop. We wipe them with cotton wool and distilled water and after a few days they clear up and then a few days/weeks later it comes back.

When it first started we took him to the doctor and were told it was all completely to be expected because of immature tear ducts and he'd eventually grow out of it. After a while we stopped bothering to take him to the doctor for things like this as we were always made to feel we were wasting their time, though he has had antibiotics for it once or twice (the last one being a nasty episode that started the day his younger brother was born so they were worried about conjunctivitis being passed the the baby).

However, it's showing no sign of getting any better and he's over 2 now. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? If so, when is he likely to grow out of it? Or should I take him back to the doctor?

Not sure if this helps but I had this as a toddler (according to my mum). If he's getting colds and snotty noses all the time, the tubes are all linked (eyes and nose) so infection is common.

My dd is 3 and I have told her firmly not to wipe her nose up her face as it will go in her eyes and hurt (she used to do this a lot), and this stopped her getting eye problems. I would suggest bathing it with cooled boiled water and asking nursery to make sure he washes his hands really regularly.

Other than antibiotics there's not a lot the gp can do, and you don't want ds to get immune to antibiotics. It's a tricky one thought as I'm sure it's really frustrating. Good luck x

My dd was about 2.5 when her tear ducts grew enough not to block. However, when she has a cold (perhaps because the ducts swell and squeeze closed a bit) she always has gloop in her eyes. The doctor has given me a note to show at nursery, because at first I was asked to take her home at the mere sign of gloopiness, even if she was well - they thought conjuntivitis as a matter of course.

His eyes were really sore this morning, not just sticky, so we did take him to the doctor in the end and have been given drops which will hopefully clear it up for a bit. Looks like we have a while to go before he's likely to grow out of this tendency to get gummed up though. Thanks for the advice.

Dd has this once or twice and the gp told me it was retrograde catarrh - apparently it can come the tear ducts from the nose into the eyes. She always had ear infections following a cold until I found some fantastic stuff on holiday in France, and ever after bought boxes of it on holiday.

It's called nAc or n-acetyl cystein. H&B sell in it bottles of 600mg capsules under £10, although the sachets are normally 200mg. Gp's can give it on prescription, but it's not available to buy. Weird. They stopped it for years, but it was brought back a few years ago.

It works by thinning the mucus, so it can drain and not block up the tubes and get infected.

I had a sinus ventilation operation 2 years before dd was born. Since she was born I have started to suffer again from sinusitis, and take it as a precaution now and again. If I do that, I manage to avoid antibiotics.

When you bathe his eyes add a drop (and I mean a drop) of baby shampoo to the water. Must be baby shampoo as it is non sting. This was suggested to me by my optician. Obviously finish the antibiotics first.