breastmilk to treat a sticky eye?

[mamma1mia]

My DD has had a bit of a sticky eye since she was born (now 11 weeks old which I have been cleaning with cooled boiled water. At the 6 week check up doctor said continue with the cooled boiled water but I am concerned that it has still not cleared up. I mentioned the eye problem to my HV who recommended that I squirt some of my breast milk in her eye?! Has anyone heard of this? I thought maybe to see the gp first. any thoughts?

I used it for one of my 2 when they were babies.

Thanks i'll give it a go. Hope my aim is good!

Yes, my mum told me to try this with DD (albeit several years ago) and it worked a treat.

Yup, it works a treat. Often the eye is a bit more snotty after the first squirting or two but very quickly improves. I usually squirted about every 2 or 3 hours. I also used to use some ebm (squirt on cotton pad) to wipe the eyes with too, just to remove the build up of gunk. Change pads between eyes, obviously.

But, if you don't see an improvement in 24 hours it's worth a visit to the GP.

Oh, and 10 points to your HV, sounds like you've got a good one there!

breast milk is amazing stuff. i used to use it to clean eyes and anything else it made sense to.

Got to disagree with a lot of this.

Straight forward stuff first, breast milk is not sterile. It contains a broad spectrum of the microbial life the mother is carrying.

Mostly this is good, it's partly the reason that it's so good for babies immune system.

But it can be bad, lots of pathogens can be passed in breast milk.

As to whether it is an effective treatment for a sticky eye, probably not.

It's safer than dirty water or a lot of other traditional remedies but there's no reason to think it's any better than sterile water.

But all of this may be irrelevant to your case as most cases or red eye in kids is self limiting.
But on those which are more severe, breast milk just isn't appropriate.

I did it but unfortunately didn't work for us. Was 3 years before it cleared up (it was viscous yellow pus which made the area around the eye scabby) Swabs were clear, couldn't get any satisfactory help. In the end it was said it was the tear ducts blocked and they 'popped' open by themselves at the age of 3!
I did find that a tincture of the herb eyebright (from neals yard) soothed it a lot but didn't clear it.

BM also contains antibacterial and antiviral agents, the babies immune system is already being continuously exposed to any not-so-positive elements it may contain.

My experience, and that of a lot of other womenn, suggests that it is significantly more effective than sterile water or saline solution. Although I've never heard of any studies on the subject.

Have also used my own ebm on my own conjunctivitis and I can assure you that it was much more pleasant experience than water or saline which always felt gritty and unpleasant. EBM soothed my eyes immediately.

I've heard of some studies done in the late 90s but as I alluded to, BM tends to be the best of a bad bunch in societies unable to access health-care.

Now it appears more in the literature as a cautionary tale, people presenting late with infections because they were treating with BM and the like.

Watch what medium you're using to clean it - do not use cotton wool.

Well, DBennett, obviously if a baby is ill and being treated at home one should consult a medical professional if his/her symptoms don't improve significantly with a very short sort period of time . This is a universal rule?

sounds like blocked tear duct. very common and most babies grow out of it, although some Drs don't seems to know this and prescribe antibiotic eye drops or ointment which doesn't work. Pointless using breast milk, you just need something to wipe the stickiness away and water works fine.