Eye infection in newborn

[edgarcat]

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Is it bacterial conjunctivitis? It sounds like it - lots of yellowish green sticky discharge which tends to stick the lashes together so sometimes it's hard for them to open their eyes. What antibiotics have you been given?

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Fucithalmic? (these are viscous eye drops, they come in a tiny tube).

I'm no expert, but I think you should see an improvement almost immediately, and it should clear up within a week. You are supposed to keep using the drops for 2 days after the eyes are clear.

This is a subject rather close to my heart at the moment, as ds has had bacterial conjunctivitis for over 2 weeks now, treated with Fucithalmic. It looks like he may have a strain which is resitant to this antibiotic, so I am having to take a swab to be sent off for analysis so they can prescribe something that will clear it up. So I would say, if you don't see an improvement fairly soon, or if the infection seems to have cleared but returns once you finish the treatment, go back to your doctor. In our case, the discharge took a week to clear so I treated for an additional week, just to `make sure'. But it came back within 24 hours of stopping the drops .

One other thing - it is supposed to be possible to become re-infected through contact with bedding, soft toys etc. So make sure you wash these frequently and you should avoid this.

Hope your ds is better soon.

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That's OK! Oh, one more thing - it's highly contagious so be careful or you and your other children will get it too (wash hands after contact). First sign is a bit of an itchy and slightly dry eye, as if there's a bit of grit in there. If you get this, bung some of those drops in PDQ!! (I know it says `don't give your drops to anyone else' in the leaflet - blar de blar).

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We had this with DS2 almost a year ago. It was a bu**er to shift and now I know why. Gingernut, you've just given me about 5 times more information than either my GP or HV did. ARGH!
Are you any good on threadworms?

threadworms sound yuck!
my ds had infection after infection but it wasn't green but was gunky - not sure if same thing. I had f cream too and it did work wonders but what seemed to stop it eventually reoccuring was sterile eye drops(I think just boiled water really) and rubbing the insude corner of his eye and then down the side of his nose. It was to clear the eye ducts which the doc reckoned were too small and so causing lots of blockages.

No help with threadworms but EBM is good for eye infections & you can use it inbetween eyedrop applications. Only useful if you're breastfeeding, obviously, and it's a b**r to get in the eyes I did this with newborn DS2, without the eyedrops, and it cleared nicely.

1tsp of bicarbonate of soda in 1 pint of boiled water which is then cooled and used with an eyebath, or you could use an eye dropper, is good too - I've done this to myself when I couldn't have the antibiotic eye drops. This is useful for those times when you can't get to a doctor.

Droile - for me Vermox worked with worms.

For sticky eyes, breastmilk is fabulous for cleansing the eye - either squirted in directly or using some from a container with a cottton wool ball.

Thanks mears. Tried it...... tried everything the GP and pharmacy can throw at us, but they just decrease in number for a few days, then return. Sorry to be so gruesome, but they seem to becoming a permanent fixture, at least in my 11 month old.

Edgarcat - how is your ds doing? I haven't taken the swab after all because the discharge hasn't came back - yipeee!!!! No drops since Tuesday morning and all OK. So I don't know why he had a sticky eye after I initially stopped the drops. Maybe it was just `sleep' in his eye and I was being paranoid.

Droile - I've only just seen this, sorry. No personal experience of threadworms, sounds horrible. It's that faecal-oral thing again, isn't it! I found a factsheet here which may help, although it sounds like you've probably tried everything.

Thanks for this gingernut, very kind of you to go to all that trouble. Yes, the faecal-oral thing, awful isn't it. God knows what happens in our sleep, as I am Mrs crazy-woman-washing-hands-500-times-a-day when I'm awake. It's been an interesting education in the tenacity of such little critters, if nothing else. Perhaps I'll have to scrap the pants and just buy some kind of body-stocking. Pah!

Just to update this. It was a blocked tear duct which got continually infected. It went at 4 months after "massaging" the edge of the eye to squeeze the gunk out twice a day. he looks much better now.