Remind me - what do I need to do about poss conjunctivitis?

[PeggySioux]

Dd has a pink gungy eye. It might be conjunctivitis. I can't remember if that's one of the things that goes away by itself or if I need to get drops. Can anyone remind me?

I know it's very easy to pass on if it is conjunctivitis.

Think you might need a cream.

When my dd had conjunctivitis, I was told to wait 5 days w no treatment as it generally clears up, I let all our friends know so they could decide whether they wanted us around. If it hadn't cleared up by itself, we were told to go back after 5 days for drops. Does that help?

Keep bathing it - you can get drops for it but equally it will probably clear on its own even if you don't. I've never given mine antibiotic drops for conjunctivitis and neither is blind yet .

Oh hurray. I'm all in favour of childhood afflictions that don't require me to actually do anything. I'll just keep unsticking her with damp cotton wool when she gets gunged up and hope it goes away soon.

PS it cleared up by itself after three days.....

Oh, hang on - can I take her to my midwife appt tomorrow or would that pee off mw?

I'm sure your mw is used to being asked all kinds of childhood affliction q's - although she might just say 'see your GP'!

I didn't mean to ask mw about it. I meant would mw be irked that I'd put her at risk of getting it as she works with tiny babies.

Only if she pokes her finger in your dd's eye and then doesn't wash her finger! it's contagious, not infectious. The problem is w lo's who have no boundaries or handwashing regimes

boiled salted water wipe when gunky with cotton wool

DD last night started to come down with it but I have to admit I got dh to get some stuff on way home (not over the counter so I assume not antibiotic ?). Anyway, by this morning it seemed to have cleared up.

Is it wrong to give drops oh wise Liath one (or anyone else I woudl gratefully receive advice from)? Am I right in thinking that I would have had to have kept dd off nursery tomorrow if she'd still had it (i.e. not treated with drops) ?

Because, if there's nothing really wrong with giving drops and the alternative means keeping her away from something she loves (of course, not remotely selfishly motivated) then I'd say give drops. But would interested in knowing if there was reason NOT to give drops....

Hi Wheelybug!

The thing about drops is........most cases of conjunctivitis are viral so the drops don't work for them anyway and there have been a few studies showing that overall antibiotics don't make a huge difference to how long it lasts for. However most nurseries have this stupid non-evidence-based policy of not letting kids back until they've had drops for 24 hours. Considering must cases are viral that it just nonsensical but I've tried arguing with my nursery and they just go all blank and say "Oh, that's the policy". So I lie and say mine are being treated .

Having said that sometimes it is bacterial and that is more likely if it affects one eye initially and is more severe - puffy red eye, pouring pus etc etc.

Giving the drops isn't likely to cause much harm in the great scheme of things TBH but I just tend to try and avoid antibiotics if at all possible for the kids.

How was ski-ing? I think we might brave it next year, the memories of our last attempt may have faded at last....

ooh thanks Liath - that makes sense. Will make note to steer away from drops and lie in future .

Skiing was great - dd even had a little go, just with us for the odd half hour here and there and she seemed to like it. Would recommend skibeat who've we've now been with twice with dd. Not La Plagne just because the creche is tiny and not very accessible but we were in La Rosiere this year and their chalets are all purpose built and new (but nicely done !) so the creche was huge, had its own outsidey bit and the resort was v. child friendly. Don't know if you've been there but its not a very difficult resort so if you're an expert it may not be your thing (I think La Rosiere itself only has 3 blacks, of which I managed 1 which was quite an achievement) but you can ski over into Italy (La Thuile) which is a bit trickier I understand.

Hope DD and DS are doing well (DS must be almost 1 ).

Need to look into skibeat, thanks! Don't want to chance Epsrit again.

Kids are fine, ds walking now - scary stuff! Hope things are OK your end .