Is this conjunctivitus?

[JulieF]

Does anyone know the symptoms? Over the past few days I have noticed dd rubbing her eyes and there has been the occasional gunk in the corner of one eye but I put this down to tiredness/a cold.

I have also had a cold but this morning woke to find that my eye was very tender, and dried up gunk had virtually stuck my eyelashes together. My eye has been sore in the corner.

I guess I should try and get a Dr's appointment. Should I not go to NCT coffee tomorrow to avoid spreading it. I really want to go as it is the only activity running through half term andI hate being stuck in the house.

Does sound like conjuctivitus, JulieF. IME people differ hugely on whether they think it's ok to risk spreading it, so it might be wise to give the meeting a miss in case you offend someone. I know that feeling of not wanting to be stuck indoors though- sympathies.

Sounds like conjunctivitis to me too. Ds has just had a bout of it which has just cleared up (only today he's now got a raging temperature - some other run-on from his cold no doubt, but that's another story... sigh)

Sounds like it....There's 2 kinds of conjunctivitus (CJ): viral & bacterial. Lots of gunk is usually only associated with bacterial, but a little gunk may appear with viral. Viral cj is very red eyes, more contagious, & I suspect more painful. If you are only getting a little gunk, I suspect you have viral. When DD gets CJ her eyes usually gunk up after every sleep or nap.

If you have bacterial CJ it will clear using antibiotics, but I'm not sure what treatment works for viral.

16m old DD gets bacterial CJ a lot. The last 3 times I skipped antibiotics and it cleared up by itself -- 5-10 days. She looked awful at times, but was only cranky one day or so each bout (I give her CalPol & it works a treat). It seems like if I don't clean the gunk away or anything (ok, maybe splash away in the bath, but no wipes on face!) it clears up quicker and never gets as bad. Nobody in our house (including 3yo) has ever caught it off of DD, but I do wash hands a lot.

Guess what I'm saying, to summarise: Yes it sounds like conjunctivitus; the standard treatment for bacterial CJ is antibiotics, but I've found it seems to clear up by itself. (Friends have the same experience.) Getting antiB eyedrops or ointment into a baby/toddler eye is nigh impossible, anyway. Whether you want to wait it out rather than get antiBs is up to you & how much it is bothering you (or your DD). I would probably plan to go to NCT coffee. That said, the official advice would be that you "shouldn't go" because conjunctivitus is supposed to be so contagious.

Yep! Sounds like it to me. DD has had it twice in the poast few weeks. Doctor gave her drops to clear it up. They did the trick quite quickly - just a couple of days so it is worth going asap to get the treatment started. BUT it is very contagious (sp?). DD's nursery wouldn't take her until it had gone entirely.

BTW, does anyone know of an easy way to get drops into the eyes of a wriggly 10 month old?!?

I haven't used this remedy myself but friends have recommended breast milk for conjunctivitis. Presumably b-milk would contain antibodies to both types of bug. Either express a bit and drip it into eyes or just 'point and squirt'! I wonder if you could use ebm in your own eyes as well?

Getting drops into children can be awful, they learn so quickly to anticipate what's coming. You can try putting them in when the child is fast asleep or sometimes I've lain mine flat on their back and put drops in the inside corner then kept them still(ish!) until they have trickled into the eye itself. You might need to swaddle them to stop them wriggling free for a few minutes and it is a bit hit-and-miss, though.

Ihave tried the old 'breast milk in the eye trick' and it worked a treat! Cleared up my dd's eye in just a couple of days. Nice and easy too - if not a bit messy (milk all over face - I'm not a great shot )

Just resurrecting this thread to ask if anyone knows when conjunctivis stops being contagious?

DS symptoms came out on Friday and we went straight to GP for drops, have been putting them in and it is much better though not totally gone yet. Don't want to infect his friends but equally do not want to stay in all weeek - any ideas when it is safe for us to get out on the toddler scene again without passing it on???

Dd's school allow the children back in as soon as they have started antibiotic treatment. I don't know if this is universal.

If dd gets conjunctivitis she has to have 3 days off nursery no matter how bad or mild it is. They told me the rules are decided by Social Services.

interesting, Meid! DD's nursery are happy for her to attend as long as she has drops/ointment. maybe this explains why she has had several episodes!

Dr said 5 days from first application to clear.

I was told when the eyes stop being gunky (which took a couple of days from the start of the application of the ointment) although to be honest I erred on the side of caution and kept ds home until the treatment was finished.

Was just going to post about viral/bacterial conjunctivitis but see that zebra has already done it.
There is no treatment for viral conjunctivitis, which is probably the majority of cases - it clears up by itself.

My nursery has an 'on treatment for 24 hrs' policy which isn't very logical - only bacterial CJ would become less contagious as a result of antibioitic treatment. And of course CJ isn't any more harmful than a common cold and they don't exclude for that. So there is no real reason to be worried about spreading it - but because it looks horrible (and I guess is uncomfortable, though ds never seems very bothered), I think most people feel they should avoid contact. Though having said that, I was a bit p*** off when ds caught CJ from a baby attending a music group with VERY gunky eyes - mainly because it meant taking time off because of the nursery exclusion policy!! A case of the cure being worse than the disease??

ds has conjuctivitis at the mo also. our doctor said one day off nursery so after one day of antibiotic treatment.

When the eyes are plastered shut, it's almost definitely conjunctivitis.

Thanks for the info

Just wanted to update you. The next morning my eyes felt fine and dd looked a lot better but as dh had a Drs appointment the following day anyway he took her with him. Dr said she was fine but if it was a mild bout it might have cleared up on its own anyway.

Unfortunatley though we have had to miss another coffee morning this week as we both got a sickness bug!

Julie

Does anyone know how is conjunctivitis passed on ?

Hi madie - been through this so many times with my children. It is basically spread through hand contact. If a person touches their eyes and then an object and then someone else touches the same object and then their eyes they can catch it. Thats why it highly contagious. It can become a vicious cycle trying to get rid of it. Most important is to keep cleaning hands, and anything touched by the person. It's hard with children though cause they tend to rub their eyes a lot.

I once worked in a child care center where the 2 yr old room had this going around for over a month. They actually had to close down the entire room for days. They had to disinfect every single thing in the room. Including all toys, door, walls etc etc.

Would you become immune to viral CJ after infection?

I'm not sure about the viral conj. I know more about the bacterial infection. I get them confused sometimes. I think the bacterial one is worse and more contagious. My one son had the viral kind which made his eye red and watery rather then the bacterial kind which is more stickier. I beleive the viral one you just wait it out without drops but the bacterial one needs a eyedrop prescription. You can keep getting the infection over and over from what I know. It seems to start from a cold or flu.

DS has had bacterial CJ twice before - successfully treated with Chloramphenicol. Incidentally, I found that the ointment was much much easier to administer than the drops. You can squeeze a line onto your finger tip, pull down the lower lid (very easy when target is asleep) and just sort of brush it into position. My doc was very willing to prescribe the ointment instead of the drops on request . HTH.

Anyway, back to my probs... DS now seems to have the viral CJ. It's been sort of dribbling on for weeks, but never seems to clear up. I'd love reassurance that when he eventually shakes it off that we'll have seen the back of it!

does anyone know the incubation period for CJ? I had a little 1yo on wed who came down with it wed pm (bit grumpy all day!) just wanted to know how long beofre we might see any symptoms in my own dd or me for that matter! viral CJ i believe from her mum's report!

bump

my ds 2.7 had it a couple of months ago. Sunday his eye was a bit weepy and gunky in the corners but was fine by tuesday morning.

Got a call from nursery at lunch time to pick him up his eye has swollen and red and watering and he wouldn't eat or do anything but sleep. His eye got more puffy over the next few days until it was closed and only started to get better 1.5 weeks and 2 lots of antibiotics later.

He had it really bad but i didn't get it at all. and it didn;t spred to his other eye either.

he's had it mild before which lasted just a few days