Newborn...eye problems...

[sj257]

My son is 4 days old, he had some white gunk in his eye from birth. This then turned yellowy/green. We had it swabbed by the midwife on Sunday and should find out today if he needs antibiotics. We have been bathing it will cooled boiled water several times a day but it comes back very quickly and covers his whole eyelid.

I'm a bit worried because when he opens this eye it looks smaller than his other one. I'm not sure if it's just because it's inflamed but I'm starting to worry it will be like that forever. Has anyone else's baby had this problem?

Breastmilk. Honestly. Just squirt a bit in whenever you're feeding him. takes about 2/3 days to clear for very gunky eyes.

Yes, breastmilk. Used it for both my children when they got gunky eyes after birth. Just hand express some onto cotton wool and wipe over the eye, clearing the gunk where you can

Both of mine had this. It's very common. The baby probably has a blocked tear duct so water isnt draining away from the eye causing the gunk build up. You can massage the duct to help it open but it probably will by itself over time. Ask HV, midwife or gp about how to massage.

Mine did both get infections from it when tiny and needed antiobiotic drops to clear up but as pp said, nothing works as well as breast milk. Not an old wives tale either. It's apparently been medically proven (according to my gp). It really works.

Thanks ladies will try that then xx did your babies gunky eye appear slightly smaller than their other? Is that normal? X

sj357 yes. I have a photo of dd that shows this. I don't think you need to worry.

Hope your little one is better soon.

Yes. It was prove to puffing up a little and they rubbed the bad eye more when tired which made it worse. It can take a while for the duct to fully open - almost a year for ds1 and ds2 still has one running eye at 9 months - bit it improves a lot quite quickly.

Breast milk didn't work for us and antibiotic eye drops didn't either. We were told a blocked tear duct but it clearly wasn't - had several swabs over time as it wouldn't clear - some were positive for bacteria and others clear. The thing that cleared it for good and it's never come back was a course of oral antibiotics.

Thanks, it looked much better yesterday but it's bad again today. Have just squirted some milk in, I haven't been able to hand express until today. Still waiting for swab results