Conjunctivitis or just a cold?

[gnu]

DD (11 months) has had discharge from one eye in particular ('tho both at times) for about 10 days now. This is sometimes clear and sometimes yellow and more solid. She's also had a terribly phlegmy cough for weeks and a fairly runny nose (perhaps exascerbated by a couple of teeth breaking through). Although she rubs her eyes on occasion they don't seem to be too uncomfortable for her and are not too red or bloodshot.

Does this sound like conjunctivitis? Would like to know for when we take her to nursery tomorrow.

GP saw her last week but her eyes were miraculously clear for the duration of the visit. He presribed some eye cream but this doesn't seem to make any difference. Doesn't help that its the consistency of putty and DD has the world's longest eyelashes!

go back to the docs as they will prescribe another eye ointment for your DS.

conjunctivitis is greeny/yellow make the eyes stick together. My doctor wouln't perscribe anything just said to clean each eye witha different piece of cotton wool with cooled boiled water. just keep doing it, it got rid of mine!!

We're on the second lot of ointment. The first was like butter, this one's more like margerine. Both just stick as a lump on her eyelash so we may need to get drops even though the GP says they're nowhere near as effective.

just have a go what ALoveheart advised to do - cotton wool with lukewarm warm water

aww bless him xx

sorry, HER!...

It is greeny/yellow certainly and we have been keeping her eyes clean with cotton wool and water. But after 10 days its as bad as ever (eyes stuck together this morning).

But I was wondering if it might just be general cold gunk given that she has the cough and runny nose and isn't itchy/bloodshot.

It may just be a Viral Conjunctivitis related to the Cold - rather than the Bacterial kind which is the contagious one.

Just clean her eyes with some cooled boiled water and a cotton ball (one sweep per ball) 4 times a day. If it doesn't clear up when her cold has gone, or turns green then take her back to the doctors.

if it's greeny-yellow, that means there is infection present (sorry if i'm stating obvious). dd had this about 3 weeks ago now and we ended up using eye drops and the cotton wool treatment route. you need to go back to docs and tell him it's not working. dd eyes weren't bloodshot either, but she did have a lot of sleepy -dust and then when it turned green i whipped her down to gp quick-smart. hth x

Try using saline solution to clean your D's eyes. It's mildly antiseptic and may even clear up a bout of conjunctivitis. I have done this several times when getting to a doctor was just too difficult. I just use it as necessary (several times a day) and made it up myself - dissolve salt in lukewarm boiled water.

if conjunctiva are still white i'd continue keeping clean and wait until cold settles.
I wouldn't want necessarily to have more antibiotic eye drops without a swab of the green gunky stuff being taken..

Thanks all. We've given a swab to the GP but the results aren't back after 48 hours so we're none the wiser. As I said, she's had the discharge for 10 days or so but it got a lot worse yesterday morning, and by lunchtime she's developed a fever (which she still has) so maybe there's a new infection of some kind. Its usally tonsilitis when she gets a fever a week or two after cough/cold

crikey she is going thru the mill a bit then. hope she feels loads better soon x