Conjunctivius.....advice please.

[LadyTophamHatt]

Ds2 had it last wek and it cleared up almost instantly after we started the drops.
Ds3 has it now and the gunge is coming continuously.

Do I wash the gunk away every 5 minutes or leave it to crust up?

(BTW I know I'm not meant to do it but I have used ds2 drops for ds3 as it stated this morning and the surgery was shut. Ds3 has had it before and used these drops before)

it started this morning.

Not sure what to do about the gunk because it's never been this bad so quick.....

Come on girls....someone must know

www.eye-directory.com/eye_health/conditions/conjunctivitus.htm

Try this lovely website.

My two just got over their bad eyes. My DS had one bacterial and one viral. Weird.

excellent Cloe.....looks like DS3 has viral conjuntivius.

do you think I should I de-gunk his eyes?

yes, and if it continues and/or gets red you will want to see about some drops

Sorry, has been browsing. Don't bother with drops, just give it a wipe with some cotton wool and luke warm water every now and then. Don't get a fright if the eyes stick together over night. Just wipe water onto it until it opens. It looks really horrible though, doesn't it. Viral is not as bad a the bacterial, bacterial make the eyes very blood shot. Virusses and kids really DON'T go together!!!!

I wash the kids eyes with anti bac hand soap

I do it in the bath, get them to close their eyes tightly and wash all round the eyelashes, rubbing all the gunk away then rinse VERY thoroughly.

DS2's was definatley bacterial....his eyes were almost compleyely red whereas Ds3's are hardly red at all.

Does it still mean that he caught it from his big bruv evne though they are differnt types?

I agree its weird though

As an optometrist, I have to say that sometimes you certainly do "want to bother with drops". It is quite difficult to ascertain whether an infection is viral or bacterial and quite often a patient (particularly a child) will start off with a viral infection and get a secondary bacterial infection from touching/rubbing the eye(s). I stand by my original advice.

Remember to do lots of handwashing so as not to spread it to the whole family.

Enid!

What a fantastic idea!!

He doesn't mind me cleaning and de-gunking them but he hates the drops so might stop them.

Will look forward to the screams in the morning when his eyes are crusted shut....ewwww

Other people might think its weird but it really seems to work. I had it last week (caught from dd2 I expect) and I cleaned mine morning and night, it went in 2 days

Ohhh jabberwocky, didn't realise I had a professional here

Do you think its ok to use the drops from ds3 then? I know it's not recommended to use other people medicine but there wasn't really any choice with the doc's being shut
When DS3 has had it before it's always been quite bad and the drops have had to be upgraded to anti_b crme that I squirt in his eyes. He'll be a scraeming banchee if I have to use those agin.

Does he have redness or just the gunk? Are the drops just antibiotics or do they have a steroid?

very very minor red, but gunk appears within 10 minutes of me cleaning it.

Not sure about the steriod/anti-biotic. They are called Chloramphenicol eye drops if that's any help...

Jabberwocky, I did not totally mean "don't bother with the drops" and also did not want to step on anyones toes, obviously if it did get worse LTH will have to see the GP or someone. Your advise popped up the same time when I posted mine, so my apologies.

Chloramphenicol eye drops - Antibiotics I understand

Hmmm, things are different sometimes here in the US compared to UK. I don't tend to use chloramphenicol so would not want to say it's ok to use it. (it is just an antibiotic, btw) so I would say just try to keep it clean as much as possible. You can use water or saline. You can also use artificial tear drops just for comfort if you like - depends on how hard it is to do it, I suppose! If there is no improvement by Monday I would check with your doctor or on Sunday is it the A&E that you can call there? I think that is the counterpart to what we call the Emergency Room here, which is all that's generally open on the weekends.

That's fine cloejay, I guess I'm a little sensitive after another conjunctivitis thread recently, where someone was giving out very questionable advice.

Right, I'm off to go and rest my tired little eyes for the night. Good luck LadyTophamHatt, I'll catch up again tomorrow. :)

Ohhh, didn't realise you were over the pond jabberwocky.

Thnaks for al the advice everyone, going to get him to bed now with some calpol because he does seem a bit ill with it too.

Oh, JW I don't blame you. I do like to have something to fall back on, for instance the website I recommended. No hard feeling?

No hard fellings?! I meant. I really need to go to bed!! My day usually started at 4.15 when DD gets up, so it's almost midnight in my brain. :)

I STILL didn't get it right!!!!!! "FEELINGS!!!!!!!"

, no, not at all

Lady, how is your Ds2 today?

Oh, I meant to say Ds3.