Bacterial or viral conjunctivitis

[givemesomewine]

Hi,

I picked my son up from nursery today and noticed he had gunk in one of his eyes.

I wiped it with a wipe when I got him in the car.. then spent the rest of the evening keep wiping them regularly as it was coming back quite often! It was a white/yellow colour on the wipe.. like little boogies.
His eyes aren't blood shot or anything.. just gunky.
He's slightly snotty. Like so minimal atm.

How do I know if this is viral, or bacterial and needs drops?

Dreading him waking up with his eyes shut together in the morning 😣 I know he will panic.. how is the best way to soak off in the morning?

He's had conjunctivitis before but his eyes have been blood shot and crusty.. this is yet to happen?
Experiences please?

It almost never needs drops and is usually viral.

However nursery may say he can't come back until he's had unnecessary drops.

As pp says, conjunctivitis rarely needs treating. It's a self limiting illness which should resolve in 7-14 days. Practise good hygiene, separate piece of cotton wool to wipe each eye and it will likely clear on its own.

Pain, worsening symptoms or failure to clear needs checking.

Might be unlikely due to the rubbish weather we're having, but I remember as a child I got this with hay fever, would get runny/gunky eyes way more often than sneezing etc. GP prescribed Piriton.

It's really odd that I can remember this stuff and not what I had for breakfast!