Baby - blocked tear duct?

[Mary9104]

Please share your experiences of your babies blocked tear ducts, how long did it last and how did you treat it?
My10 week old constantly has a watery eye with a lot of yellow mucus and I keep wiping the eye every 5 minutes and the skin around the eye is getting so red! It’s been around 3 weeks and things are not getting better! Any advice is appreciated 🙏

DD1 had a very gunky eye. When she had a cold she would wake up with her eye glued stuck from the gunk.

From memory the dr said that the majority clear up by about 6m, then the majority of the rest by 1yo. DD1 had surgery at 15mo. That didn't work, so we repeated it when she was just over 2 and thankfully that did work.

Yes, lasted months and months for my son. Gunky eye...streaming and watery. Took him to the ophthalmologist who explained the gunk is from the oils the eye produces. Apparently it's very unusual to need any intervention (and they wait until they're about 1 or something at the earliest). Do go to the dr to make sure it's not an infection... but if it's just a blocked duct, then I hope it resolves quickly.

I wouldn't necessarily keep wiping it. We cleaned it with a warm flannel every morning and evening but as you've found the skin gets sore easily if you're constantly doing it.

Stop wiping it.

Instead, 3-4 times a day:

• boil water
• pour into sterile container and wait to cool
• take a brand new cotton pad and wipe from inner to outer edge of eye
• repeat until gunk is gone using a NEW pad for each wipe. Never use a wipe on both eyes
• keep going!

My baby was very gunky for a couple of weeks but we kept at it. It's hard when they touch their own faces but you can balance that by using this method.

We had it with DS. Did the whole cooled boiled water and cotton wool thing several times a day. Tried the massage rubbing thing. Nothing worked. He had gunky eyes for the first year. GP said that they'd put him in for surgery at 1 year old if it hadn't gone away. One week before his first birthday it disappeared overnight and never returned.

DD's cleared up spontaneously at around 8 months, we were told to keep it clean (using the exact same method described above) and not to worry unless it went beyond 18 months and then we could look at options if necessary. In the end it literally just disappeared overnight and that was that.

Thought I’d post a solution we found for anyone with this issue looking for an answer like I was! Our newborn had a gunky eye from birth, no infection was told twice blocked tear duct and it will pass, if it doesn’t clear by age 1 then surgery is required. I tried all the usual advice massage, warm water, breastmilk etc nothing worked and his eye would be glued shut from the gunk.
At 3 weeks old he was snoring more than normal so I used the Sterimar nasal rinse to unblock his nose - later that day his eye seemed to be getting better but I wasn’t sure if it was coincidence. We done the nasal spray again the next morning and his eye was completely clear by day 2 evening. Its been clear since! All the mucus seems to be in his nasal passage now as it should be and we can aspirate that out. Not a drop of gunk in the eye, it’s gone just like that!
I hope it works for everyone else☺️

my LO had a blocked tear duct from birth. It was so frustrating and I wiped it with cooled boiled water or (expensive) eye wipes when on the go. Then one day when he was 14weeks it just went away! Must have opened up and cleared.

My boy had surgery at 3 because his eyes were so bad. It took 3 surgeries in the end and he had some cartilage removed.

My DD had this and it never corrected itself, so she had to have the procedure at 12 months to rectify it. All went well and it worked. As a PP states above, i used to used the cooled boiled water method to clean the area.