1 mo has yellow sticky stuff in one eye - is this a blocked tear duct?

[MuffinMclay]

He has had it for a couple of days. At the moment I am cleaning it with cooled boiled water. Does it need GP attention?

It's probably conjunctivitis. Use cotton wool balls to bathe with cooled boiled water 4 times a day - wiping once only with each ball from the 'inside' outwards. Bathe the other eye as well as the infection will transfer easily.

You don't need to visit GP unless it hasn't started to clear in a day or two.

Goes without saying you need to wash your own hands thoroughly after bathinghis eyes.

if you're b'feeding try puting some ebm on it .

It could be his tear duct blocked up. My DD had this for three months and suddenly it disappeared.

Breastmilk will keep the area clean and sterile. It'll go.

If his eye gets red and angry, go to the GP.

my ds had this after a cold, gp said it was just all the snot coming out of everywhere, nice
if his eye is all red or itchy etc.. i might take him or if it's not better in a day or so or you could take him to chemist and get pharmacist to have a quick look?

Not bfing, so can't do that.

He could be getting a cold. Ds1 and dh have colds at the moment, and ds1 keeps kissing ds2 (transferring his snot in the process).

If it was conjunctivitis should I be keeping him away from other children? Vaguely recall a local mother keeping her dc out of pre-school with this recently.

DS had a blocked tear duct for quite a while as a small baby - the GP at his eight week check told me that as well as bathing it I could (very) gently massage just underneath with my little finger to clear the gunk out and get the duct working properly. (Obviously that won't do it if it's conjunctivitis though.)

Breast milk was brilliant at clearing this up when mine had it.

DD had this, I'm hoping now at 6 months it is finally gone. We just had to keep it clean and a close eye on it(!). In the end though it got really red, and we got the drops for it, which was in the end what ultimately cleared it up.

The eyelid is a bit red.

My DD has had 'snotty eyes' with reddened eyelids accompanying her last few colds. The red was only on the lids and just below the eyes, not on the cornea itself which was perfectly white.

Each time it disappeared when the cold did, I didn't do anything special other than try to clean them with water and cotton wool, although she objected violently to this

Not sure re conjunctivitis, if you google pics of 'conjunctivitis' the actual corneas are red, not just the skin surrounding the eye.

However it's not something I'm familiar with so couldn't say really!

Corneas are a normal colour. I think it probably isn't conjunctivitis.

Don't want to see the GP unless it is really necessary. I've been there so often lately that I'm starting to feel like part of the furniture.

Sounds like a "sticky eye", if you want to google and find out more. My lo had this when she was a month old. Paediatrician said it was nothing to worry about and quite common. It went away after a few worrisome weeks. In the meantime, I was cleaned with cool boiled water or breast milk using a clean cotton pad for every wipe.