Does having a 'sticky eye' always mean exclusion from nursery?

10 replies

willnamechangejustforthis · 09/05/2011 07:44

Am due back to work tomorrow after having nearly a year off and DC2 has woken up this a.m with a sticky eye, a bit gunky. he came down with a cold yesterday and he always seems to get this when he has a cold (sigh). The whites of his eyes are not pink so I don't think it is conjunctivitis as such and no-one else ever seems to 'catch' the sticky eye either so i think its just something he gets IYKWIM.

Should i take him to nursery tomorrow or will they send us home lol!! he is well in himself, happy feeding well etc.

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TragicallyHip · 09/05/2011 07:51

Well I wouldn't take him in just in case it passes to another child, and if it is visible I;m sure the nursery will send you home.

Ds had this a few months ago. He wasn't that ill and it had pretty much cleared up by the time he went to nursery (only goes 2 days a week) but I kept him off.

But I guess just see how he is in the morning.

SofiaAmes · 09/05/2011 08:10

I never understood sticky eye to be contagious. In my ds' case it was a blocked tear duct that didn't let the eye drain properly. He would quite often wake up with his eye stuck shut. It cleared up eventually when he was 18 months or so. I suppose if it gets infected then the child is contagious, but otherwise isn't.

BikeRunSki · 09/05/2011 08:22

DS's nursery will take children with conjunctivitis once they are on prescribed (not over the counter) eye drops.

Imnotaslimjim · 09/05/2011 08:32

Same as BikeRun, DS's school will take the kids once they are on meds for it. I'd ring the nursery and ask

KeepCalmAndCurryOn · 09/05/2011 08:43

My dd has the blocked tear duct thing too, and even though she is now 4, her eye is still sometimes gunky when she has a cold - basically because her duct swells closed, water cannot escape from her eye, and turns to snot-alike stuff.

I had to bring a GP's letter to nursery explaining this, and now they do not worry about the gunk.

ItDoesntBodenWell · 09/05/2011 08:52

Our nursery don't mind this, if not conjunctivitis. They used to insist on having drops, but the doctors surgery would not prescribe them as they are unnecessary, so they wrote to the nursery and told them to stop being silly :)

TiggyD · 09/05/2011 14:04

The advice concerning conjunctivitis has changed at least twice! At the moment I think it's that minor infections get ignored and only serious cases get treated and get kept off nursery. Check with them.

sammich · 09/05/2011 19:02

according to the illness chart that most nurseries run by conjunctivitus is not a illness that you can be excluded from nursery for however each setting dos run different

SofiaAmes · 11/05/2011 10:37

In any case, sticky eye is NOT conjunctivitis. The former can create an environment that causes the latter, but they are not the same thing.

grubbalo · 19/05/2011 22:02

Yes my little boy had conjunctivitis recently and my GP was very keen to stress that children should not be kept out of nursery with it. The advice on the NHS website confirms this (although from memory it does have the caveat that if there is an "epidemic" or something then they should be kept off).
He said they actively encourage children to be kept in as this will make people realise it is not an illness.

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