Baby has blocked tear ducts

[Annabellemary]

My dd aged 5.5 weeks woke up this morning with a gunky eye which I presumed was congunctivitis but the chemist informs me it is a blocked tear duct. I keep cleaning all of the green goo out of her eye but it keeps filling up and then when she is asleep it goes crusty and she can't open her eye until I bathe it clean again. Does anybody have any experience of this? The eye is also weepy/watery which we thought previously was from her crying but is consistent with symptoms for blocked tear ducts. I don't think this is painful at all for her but it is heartbreaking to see as her eye looks so poorly.

My DD had one eye which was particularly bad. After weeks of bathing it four or five times day, and her getting an infection that needed ABs, one of the HVs suggested massaging it gently.

I started massaging her gently under her eye from the outside towards her nose when she was feeding. After two or three goes at this, and getting lots of icky stuff coming out, I finally got a long green string, about half an inch long. After that it hasn't bothered her again.

hth x

Hmm.

You need to get this checked by a gp rather than a chemist.
IME only an Dr or Opthamologist can diagnose a blocked tear duct.

My dd constantly had a crusty sticky eye from the moment she was born.
To start with they told me it was because she may have scratched her eye as she was born and then after that we were back and forth to the Dr's for infections which were treated with lots of anti b's.

Eventually when she was 1 they referred her to the Opthamologist at the hospital who properly checked out her eyes.
They told us it was a blocked duct and at a young age they dont like to do anything about it because they are so young and its such a fiddly procedure and that out of most cases it clears up itself.
They told us to massage around the top of the nose gently to release any excess fluid and if it goes crusty or looks angry to see go for anti b's.

DD is 4 now and hasnt had a bad eye for 2 years now so she must have grown out of it.

HTH

my dd (now six weeks old) had a sticky eye which I cleaned with supranettes regularly. When this did not work I took her to the doctor and took a swab and she had an infection. Within 2 doses of the prescribed eye drops it had completely gone so I would go to see your gp. Sticky eyes are very common.

ds1 had this when he was tiny. We massaged the side of his nose and bathed it but it was pretty resistant until we started to bathe it LOTS - every time any sign of gunk appeared, using cooled boiled water with a tiny bit of salt in it. Change the water often, and use a fresh piece of cotton wool each time you wipe. It then cleared up pretty quickly and he hadn't had another eye infection until this week (he's now 2).

One of my ex charges had this from two weeks until nearly a year - she was about to be referred for an op but it cleared just in time.

We massaged her eyes, top of her nose regualary, made sure we had clean hads and used a finger to wipe from inside of eyes to outside/as per docs instructions.

Also used to drop breast milk in at each feed.

And would use a cotten wool with boiled water to clean throughout the day.

DS had a blocked tear duct almost from birth, was diagnosed by the GP who advised to keep bathing it with cooled boiled water with a bit of salt in it. He said if the discharge was clear or creamy that was OK but if it went green or yellowy then it might be infected so to go back and see him and he would prescribe drops. GP said the majority of blocked ducts disappear by 3-4 months and if DS still had it at 12 months then he would probably have a simple op to unblock it. It disappeared on it's own at 3 1/2 months.

Thank you so much for your responses, after the initial day of big green gunk it has seemed to get a lot better. I keep massaging the side of the nose next to the eye and bathing it with cool boiled water and it seems a lot better. This morning it was clear when I woke her up which is a great improvement from the previous two mornings. Thank you.

My DS had this from birth, and it used to get very gunky and like your DD, he would wake up and his eye would be crusted shut. We used to bathe it when we remembered, with cooled boiled water but it resisted for a long time, then at 7 months we went on holiday to the seaside and one day we noticed it had gone - must have been the salty air so I reckon bathing with very slightly salted water would be a good one to try.