Only one swollen eye - any ideas?

[jennymac]

Nursery phoned yesterday to say that ds (22mths) had one swollen eye and they thought it was an allergic reaction to something (he has a nut allergy) so they gave him piriton. It went down a bit then but was swollen again this morning. Find it strange that it is only one eye if it is an allergic reaction. Does anyone have any other thoughts on what it could be?

Stye?

could be injury, allergy or infection - get your GP to have a look - some eye infections can be quite nasty

my son gets this - we got referred to an opthalmologist who says it is hayfever / allergy. I'm not convinced as hs gets it even in Winter but hasn't happened in ages so I'd pretty much forgotten about it until I saw the thread.

It's always the same eye, not weepy, but the eyelid is quite discoloured and always goes down after a dose of Loratadine. He doesn't have any other allergies.

Thanks everyone. It's odd because apart from being swollen the eye itself looks fine. Not weepy or red - just looks a bit like he's been punched but without the bruising! If it hasn't changed by this evening I'll make a docs appointment for tomrorow.

I get a swollen eye if I get a cat hair in my eye, it could be that he got something in his eye he had a reaction to. With me it only affects the eye with the hair in, the other is fine. But worth getting checked out.

Strange - my daughter (6 months) had exactly the same appear today. Red, swollen and watery left eye that seems to be irritating her as she keeps rubbing it. Also has a cold at the moment. Did you see the doctor about your sons eye? What was the outcome? Think I will take her tomorrow if not better in the morning.

If it's red, swollen and hot then you need to take your child to A&E, tonight if you can. It's possibly periorbital cellulitis and needs looking at ASAP as it's an infection of the skin around the eye, it can get really nasty so please don't leave this.

Thanks for this, the redness and swelling had reduced a bit and she had no fever so I kept an eye on it overnight. Seemed a bit better in the morning but called NHS Direct who advised to see pharmasist and they would assess initially and recommend next step. Pharmasist took one look and said mild infection probably where she had been wiping her snotty nose with her hand then rubbing it across her eye (and as if she heard she demonstrated exactly that for us - nice!) Gave us some Brolene eyedrops and advised to see out of hours doctor if suddenly got worse and see GP if not better by Monday. Thankfully looks tons better today and a much happier baby

We had a similar situation where our son had a swollen eye - he was well, playing, eating, drinking, sleeping and no fever - the other eye was fine. No redness or anything. When we did take him to A&E it was because his eye ball had actually stopped moving. In our case, it was extremely serious so yes, if weepy, red etc, probably an infection - if it's just a swelling and the eye itself is fine, I would urge anyone to take their DC to A&E immediately.

Don't wish to worry anyone but eyes are funny old things and if it's the eye itself or periorbital cellulitis as discussed, your child will be bothered by the infection. If the child is absolutely fine in every way, but has a swollen eye, please do get them checked out for peace of mind.

I could not read this and not comment - and it's also the first time I've mentioned to my husband about a post on here and even he said we could leave a post. Hope all works out with your child and their eye is better today.

probably blepharitis or conjunctivitis. Use cooled boiled water to clean and see doc for some anti biotic drops.