DD’s eye - help please!

[Wouldloveanother]

A couple of weeks ago I started a thread about DD’s eye, I was worried she had periorbital cellulitis. Thank God she didn’t, they were a bit stumped at out of hours but sent us home.
Most of the redness went down, but her eye has still been quite red around the lower rim and upper inner eyelid. It’s got a little bit worse the last couple of days and she wakes up with a blob of crusty gunk in the corner of her eye. First photo is when her eye first went red; second photo is this morning.
GP has taken a swab (results tomorrow) and keeps telling us to wash it with warm water, warm compresses etc.
any guesses mumsnet? She’s not in any pain, no temperature and doesn’t seem to have noticed it. Her actual eye is fine it’s just the eyelids.
thanks xx

I am definitely not a doctor, so this is just a totally lay persons thoughts.. I wondered about infected tear ducts? Or, possibly an unusual symptom of hay fever, but that's less likely if it's just one eye.

That’s my best guess, although I was told if she can cry tears from that eye (she can) that it’s not blocked? Thanks for your response btw xx

Blepharitis?

If blepharitis, try warm compress and washing the eyelids with baby shampoo.

I would have thought that not being able to produce tears would be an issue if the actual lacrimal gland was infected, not the tear duct drainage?

Conjunctivitis ?

That’s not at all true. I replied on your first thread that I’d had periorbital cellulitis. It was caused by a blocked tear duct which then got infected, and I most certainly could cry! Do you know which local hospital has a eye a&e? I would have expected the gp to send her there tbh.

I'm a contact lens optician. It looks like a blocked meibomian gland. These produce the oily part of our tears. It may have got bunged up while everything else was going on. There is a row of them all along upper and lower lid. Use a cotton bud soaked in cooled boiled water along the waterline to clean and also a hot compress. Water must have been boiled , let it cool. Wrap a teaspoon with kitchen roll and dunk it in the hot ish water. Check on back of hand. 5 mins with of heat a few times a day and a gentle rub after (with clean fingers) and it should sort itself out

Whatever it is, salt water a few times a day is a good idea

5 mins worth not with.

Thank you all, very grateful for the suggestions 💜

Thanks we are going to try this!

My daughter had something similar. I kept thinking it was conjunctivitis but it kept coming back after drops. Eventually took to optician who checked her thoroughly and said all looked fine but agreed (by looking at my photos) that she had a problem with redness/crusty eyelids. He suggested blepharitis, for which very frequent washing (and thorough patting dry) was the remedy. He said to use a flannel as it has a bit to friction to help remove any debris from the lash line. To be honest I was sceptical but we did what he said. As soon as it flaired up again we began washing the eyelids several times a day in lightly salted, cooled, boiled water. After 24 hours her eyes were clear. We did this every time she had a flair up and we have since enjoyed several months without any problems. I hope you get sorted!!

Great thank you, I will try that as well. We did the boiled cooled water + cotton pad this morning but will try a flannel.

Back again. We’ve been bathing the eye in cooled boiled water and a flannel for a while, initially it went away but now it’s back. Some days it looks worse than others. I don’t know whether to keep chasing it up or whether I’m being a paranoid mother and to let whatever it is run it’s course?

Aw that's a shame. Did you keep bathing it even when it looked OK? And use a new flannel every time? Also, this is gross but I find it helps if my daughter picks out any sleepy crust from the corners every morning. I noticed when washing the eyes that sometimes she hadn't done this thoroughly. We have been lucky not to have had a flair up for a while. I exhausted the GP and optician and no one really suggested anything but washing them twice daily, although I was reassured that the optician found nothing obviously wrong. I must have bugged the GP enough though because they eventually wrote a referral letter. Luckily for us it cleared up before we got an appointment booked. Personally I would keep chasing. I hated seeing my daughter's eyes not looking their usual, clear and sparkly selves.

Also GP might be able to prescribe actual lid wipes if you ask them. (Vert expensive in boots).

Any chance sun cream is irritating her eyelid ?

I've had blepharitis. I was sensitive to light and eyes very red. Was prescribed antibiotic cream and advised to clean eyes with baby shampoo and warm water. Very painful, but didn't look like that.

I think you need some chorampenicol ointment on that, to rub into the lash base for 4 days. It looks like belpharitis.

You need to ask your GP to prescribe that, you can only get liquid from the chemist and that won't have a long enough action time.

My daughter needed to do the compresses and cleaning two to three times a day for a number of years age 5-10 and would have check ups at the hospital eye department. I can't remember how the referral happened. Even when her eyes appeared healthy we needed to carry on cleaning etc as a preventative measure.

It was a lot of work for DD for a few years but they did see early on it was possible it would be less of an issue as she got older and it finally is. The ophthalmologists used to be surprised she wasn't in discomfort or pain but I think she was just so used to it she didn't recognise it. She does now that her eyes are good most of the time so recognises the impact when they are not. She used to get real tired and drained.

My daughter had what looks this this for years. Heat packs daily, I bought one that was like a sleep mask.

Thanks everyone, I didn’t realise there were new replies so apology for late reply! Just revisited this thread after starting yet another one about it…! Here is her eye today. It looks particularly bad, she’s also come down with a snotty cold so not sure if the two are linked. I’m going to buy some eyelid wipes from Boots and nag the GP again tomorrow. My instinct is that she has a blocked tear duct/sinus type thing but it’s getting me down seeing her like this all the time ☹️

If she hasn't been to an optician whilst having this then they might be worth seeing. The ophthalmologist at the hospital told us to come back to the hospital if any issues which we did a couple of times and she was seen. The last time the a&e staff gave us a leaflet of ophthalmologists at opticians who could check her out. Good luck.