conjunctivitis (sp) - differing doctors opinions

[thedame71]

DD has been through the mill over the past week, first gastroenteritis, then Chicken pox and to cap it all horrible acute conjuntivitis. (sorry about the spelling!)

The first doctor I saw gave her antibiotic eye drops but after a couple of days we had no improvement.

Yesterday i saw another doctor, he said that eye drops are not given to children now as there is a link between them and a bone disorder

Her eyes are a disaster, she is only one and cleaning them every hour does not make a difference. I have just got home from work and they are as bad as they were on Sunday. I don't know what to do? Any advice

I have never heard of eye drops causing bone condtitions. I have heard of prolonged eye infections in adults causeing osteomylitus but that is completely different!
However, viral and bacterial conjunctivitus in wee ones tends to be self limiting, persivere with the cleaning. wo tub of cooled boiled salty water (one for each eye) wipe from inside out. use cotton wool piece only once. Wash your hands before and after. Clean towel for her every night, wash the toys she plays with and change her sheets. If they eye lid becomes puffy she may need a course of oaral anribiotics. If you are still worried tommorow, give you gp a call and see if he will chat to you.

hth

Thanks, the eyes have been really puffy. She looks like she has done 5 rounds with mike tyson!

My other kids have had this before and it has always cleared up in a couple of days - will trust my instincts and take her back for a second (third!) opinion in the morning.

Thanks as ever

thedame71, my ds had such bad conjunctivits last week (with a flu/ear infections etc) he is prone to it but this time his whole eye was swollen and closed. gp prescribed amoxycillin anyway for ears, plus Fusidic acid drops. it did clear after three days but not sure it would have done withoiut, iyswim.

My DD1 has just had same sort of thing - greeny gunk in eyes and very swollen eyelids.
The GP actually sent us to A&E to get course of oral antibiotics and we had to go back to A&E 24hours later so that docs could check that the infection was reacting to the ABs -luckily they kicked in really quickly - if eyes are really swollen I would go back to GP

Sorry, followign on from my earlier message, I should mention that my DD1 (15 months) was running a high temperature at the same time so it was the temperature coupled with the eye swelling that caused the GP to be concerned