Styes

[MarmMummy]

Hi. My DS (aged 2.4) had a stye since the end of July .... well 2 actually. Have been to docs and have used antibiotic eye drops (as they became infected) and then antibiotic eye ointment .. but he still has them now. I've also been told he has blephritis (sp?!) an inflamation of the eyelid. He looks run down and it worries me that they are taking so long to go. Anyone have any bright ideas on how to get rid of them, stop them etc? Never had one myself.

TIA

I have had them and have found taking euphrasia is the only thing that gets rid of them. I have no idea if it is suitable for children but if you check a homeopathic book it will probably tell you!

Hi, we had a problem with recurrent styes. Gave up on the eye drops as they seemed ineffective and to be building up resistance of the bugs.

Are you doing the hot flannel thing to bring them up? It can be soothing and productive.

We, like you, linked them to dd being run down. She wasn't really getting enough sleep and she still gets them at times of terrible stress, eg we just moved so one came up.

So we gave her vit c in quite a high-ish supplement but more than that made her rest and sleep as much as possible.

I'm afraid I can't give an answer like "x works" except the boring one which is: early nights and a vit c supplement. But it was more a symptom of being run down so we addressed that and the styes went away. If it's the same sort of thing with you then spot treatment might do individual ones but the underlying problem will still be there.

Can you treat it like an "illness" ie keep him at home as if sick for two or three days, early nights, as much sleep as possible, and the hot flannel things. You could find a big improvement very quickly.

end of july -- v long time to be on anti-b's if they aren't doing anything.

We had this problems with DS2. Doc kept giving him the ab ointment to no effect, eventually I insisted on being referred to the eye department at the local hosp.

It turned out he had 'chalazion' prononced kuh-la-zion and not styes at all.

some info here

These are cysts that form on the eyelid and can be accompanied by blepharitis. Apparently no-one knows why some kids seem more susceptible to them than others, but they can tend to 'crop' which means you can get lumps appearing repetitvely on one or both eyes.

DS2 has blepharitis as well and we have to clean his lash margins with cooled boiled water and a tsp of bicarb morning and night to keep this under control.

DSs chalazions have never resolved with topical treatment alone. He has to have a course of oral antibiotics every time and now his consultant has told us to call the gp for a prescription as soon as a lump starts to appear. Annoyingly I can't seem to remember what the first ab he had was called, but it works within 3-4 days. Unfortunately after several recurrent episodes over the past 12 months the first ab started to be less effective and this last time he was given penecillin which shrank the lump within 48 hrs.

If it is chalazions, its important to keep up the warm compresses and at its worst this will need done around 4 times a day. (I know, its a right old pita.)

Its really important to get the right treatment as if the lump/s get too big and inflammed they can put pressure on the eyeball. (DS2 had one the size of one of those large marbles once, before we found out what the problem was, poor little thing couldn't see out of his eye.)

Thanks so much everyone. Have been doing the hot flannel morning and night. Will certainly look into supplements of some sort, and possibly get him a referral.