Have anyone's DCs had treatment for blocked tear ducts?

[pookamoo]

And if so, what did it involve?

DD has been suffering from recurrent conjunctivitis since Christmas, and the doctor has suggested it might be because she has a blocked tear duct / ducts.

She is 15 months old and I am a bit apprehensive of a general anaesthetic, which is what Google seems to indicate.

I have tried massaging but to no effect. It is pretty difficult anyway as she wriggles out of the way!

bump!

bump again, as I was probably posting at the wrong time of day to catch anyone!

Ds2 had a persistently weepy eye and conjunctivitis, due to blocked tear ducts. We saw the consultant at the eye hospital on his 1st birthday, he put drops in to see how well/badly it drained. Then we had to wait a year, before a repeat appointment, so that the consultant could see whether it was resolving or not. As it was a LOT better by this point we opted to leave it to naturally resolve, but we could have had them probed if we wanted (involving GA). The hospital reassured us that if it wasn't totally resolved by age 3/4 then it wasn't too late to treat.

They do like to see them though, just so they can do a comparison and see whether things are resolving themselves.

Thanks Lily. Hopefully it won't come to it then.

DS had blocked tear ducts, but were were told they should just clear up by the time he was 2 years old - and sure enough they did. Hopefully your DD's will too, but I do recall it being a nuisance.

I wouldn't bother with the massage tbh. Too fiddly, and not a lot of evidence that it does any good - the ducts just need to grow a bit!

One of ds2's symptoms was that he always had a tear on his cheek, as well as sticky eyes. His eyes often overflowed with tears as they couldn't drain properly.

My DD has had the treatment. We actually did it at 11 months old as hers were so blocked, she was having major issues. She was put under GA and they put what was basically a fine silicone thread in the ducts to clear them out. We were told hers were the worst they've ever seen, and we might have had to have a more involved operation, but we didn't, and everything has been great since then. (She's going to be 5 this summer.)

She spent very little time under, and the worst thing that happened was when she came out she didn't stop crying for awhile, but they said that was normal when they put a baby under, and by the time we got home, she had stopped.

The whole process was very scary for me before they did the surgery, because I didn't know what to expect, but it was a was a short, uncomplicated event, and we're happy we did it, because she was so miserable, and it was easy to tell that she was having a much easier time after.

DS's cleared up by itself by the time he was 2. He had just one -- that eye was constantly tear-filled.

Ds2's was awful from birth but he was definitely better by 2. The hospital said they were partially blocked and that he should grow of it, most children do.