Newborn (1 wk old) with sticky eye and dry skin... what to do?

[fourlittlefeet]

Not really sure what to do, DS has had sticky eye for four days now (have been treating it with breast milk for 2) and it still seems really bad. Should I do any more? Can it harm his eyes? Anyone any ideas?

Also, he has really dry skin and some of the cracks have actually bled on his ankles. I haven't been bathing him or even washing him so not really sure why this is. Should I treat it?

This isn't a firstborn, but don't remember the dry skin with DD or sticky eye lasting so long or being so bad (he has problems opening his eyes on the few occasions he actually bothers)

TIA

Sticky eye - very common as you know, may last up to ten days. If it's still a problem after ten days treatment with bm - ask the doc for some antibiotic drops.

Dry skin - suggest sudocrem. Was he overdue? Quite often that can cause dryness, again it lasts a few weeks.

Congratulations btw

Sticky eye - get saline solution from chemists, cleared DS's up very quickly.

Hi FLF,

keep going with the breast milk and clean as often as you can with cool boiled water if it doesn't clear up your GP can prescribe drops.

The dry skin get your best olive oil out and smother him in it. DS 1&2 both were like this when born and it helped sort it right out.

Hope all is well.

Tis Jam btw.

Definitely the breastmilk for the eye and we used Sweet Almond Oil for the dry skin - got it at Holland and Barratt I think.

Wouldn't put sudocrem on broken skin myself.... Isn't it actually drying rather than moisturising?

Second breast milk and olive oil... although make sure milk goes in eye and oil on skin

DS2 was like this when he was born. He was (by my reckoning) more than 3 weeks overdue . He was like a little pickled pig when he was born and literaly pealed from head to toe . We slavered him with hydrobase cream (can get it from the chemist), at every nappy change but it took weeks to clear up, then switched to aveeno cream. He has patchy excema still (14 months) and has a mild steroid cream for flares which he's gradually growing out of thank goodness.

His eyes were awful too, we kept bathing with cooled boiled water and cotton wool. We found it best to dab it on his eye to soften it all up then gently stroke from nose to ear. As haggis said, if it hasn't cleared in 10 days or he's waking with his eyes proper glued together see the doc who will likely prescribe a mild antibiotic cream.

my dd had a sticky eye appear on day 10 or something - the mwife got us a prescription for some drops after the bm thing didnt work. DS came out like a lizard and peeled as a newborn having been overcooked - we larryd on the olice oil and it helped. It was lovely when we got visotors and they were all a bit urghhhhh - it soon settled though.

My DD was born with very dry skin around ankles & elbows that cracked and bled

MW said to put olive oil on gently just massage into skin with cotton wool. She said to put it anywhere needed on LO except the face. It really helped

Congratulations on new baby

lol at putting off the visitors... no bad thing imo! thanks for all the tips, will crack open the olive oil and carry on with the BM and see how it goes, just feel so sorry for the poor mite trying to open his eyes.

Pheebe lol at the pickled pig comment!

must arrange a meet up Haggis.. will be a little while before I venture very far though!

must arrange a meet up Haggis.. will be a little while before I venture very far though!

i think you need to be careful of almond oil if you have a history of allergies

olive oil might be safer

re the sticky eyes ds 2 had this and it lasted for months. We tried breast milm and saline solution but neither worked. At aged 13 weeks he had had 6/7 weeks of anti biotics as we worked our way through creams and drops. At 13 weeks dh and I had had enough and a blocked tear duct was mentioned as his eyes were very healthy looking as they weren't red. We said no more antibiotics as he's had a swab taken and no infection was found.

He's 14 months now and still gets sticky eyes when he has a cold - not often - but his eyesight is fine and his eyes are healthy.

Congrats on ds 2!

thank you MG, so nice having the second one without all the worry of the PFB!

best thing in the world for dry skin is Olive Oil

DD2 was overdue and horribly dry/cracked/wrinly and we just kept rubbing olive oil in it - gained her the nickname Kebab BUT worked wonders

congrats

Hi FLF, My DS (3 weeks old) has the sticky eye thing going on aswell. We tried Breast milk, but had to get drops from the docs. Still not cleared up, but keep bathing with cooled boiled water and putting the drops in.

Just remembered the GP said it was caused by blocked tear ducts and to gently press down on the eye bag area as that helps clear the duct. We did it to DS2 and yucky gunk appeared and a couple of days later it had all cleared up.

Would be lovely to catch up soon either your way or mine.

We had the same problems with our second,eye lasted for about 4 weeks, we used to bath it with warm water on cotton wool and used BM.

We found Almond oil was fantasic for making his skin lovely,soft and not dry

OH congratulations by the way

can I say about olive oil?

is meant to be the stuff you get from the chemist, not the bottle in the kitchen.

hi mppaw - come and join us on the jan post natal thread here. Interesting that this is such a common problem. will keep up milk for 10 days then if not clear ask gp. it is a little better this morning so fingers crossed the magic milk will do it!

BlackEyedDogstar - I used Tesco own extra virgin olive oil on DD2 - never knew chemists sold olive oil??!

well yes, weetimorousdizzybeastie , me too, sainsbos own label - until I was told otherwise

didn't seem to do DD2 a bit of harm but then she is only 2 - maybe she's grow up with an olive oil fettish

it did lend her the nickname DD2-Kebab

I've always persevered with bm and cooled boiled water for sticky eyes and supermarket own label olive oil for dry skin - really massage it into the dry bits. Both have worked fine for us!