oh god I have really screwed up....

[CountessDracula]

dd (just 3) is in the bathroom crying hysterically because I tried to put some eyedrops in - got in from work and she obv had conjunctivitis in one eye, stuffed her in the car and drove to the late chemist miles away, got the sodding drops and after about 10 mins of cajoling, bribery etc pinned her down to try and get them in. TOTAL screaming hysterical wobbler for the past 15 mins. I have left her now to see if she will calm down.

She will now have a phobia about eyedrops forever and will be off nursery for months, I will never be able to work again.

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH

No she will be fine and her eye will get better.

she is squealing like a hamster

Oh no. You poor things. Can you offer treats to make it all better?

Nonononononononono CD, they all do this. Do not worry. Yes, they continue to hate eye drops and shout NOOOO but it is not a lifelong trauma and you do get the drops into them (albeit with not a lot of fun each time) and in any case the conjunctivitis does in fact run its course (I had it as a teenager, did bog-all about it, it went).

have offered treats to no avail

Am feeling like a warder from Prisoner Cell block H for having pinned her down.

MI last time we left it I had to spend half an hour unsticking her eyelashes with a warm flannel one morning as they had totally stuck together. There were fountains of gunge pouring down her face

Very Shakespearean, lockets!

(Mine eyes....)

Have not managed to get them in
She is no calmer - if I try and go in she screams NO GO AWAY NO NONNONONONO and slams the door.

Oh sweetie, yes, I've been there, it is awful, I just wanted to reassure you that you will manage this.

In, vile jelly.

CD, is there any chance at all you might be able to get them in once she is asleep (hopefully not a forlorn hope...) the other alternative that has worked for us is to see if the chemist will sell/prescribe the ointment equivalent. I suppose that means another drive though
Have been there with the pig-sticking noises. And why do they always choose the bathroom, where the amplifying echo ensures the whole neighbourhood can hear the torment of your offspring.

I used to have to lie DD on floor, kneel over her pinning arms to her sides with my knees as took 2 hands to hold eye open & administer drops

However, she forgot about it.

Funniest time was when I caught it from her & she would let me put her drops in so that she could watch me do mine afterwards

phew she has calmed down and is in bed

Will go and administer them Nurse Ratched style once she is asleep

hmm no idea if they went in or not. However I did squirt some in general dir of eye corner then lift up the lids

No idea how to get them in in the am - at least dh will be here to help I suppose

Oh well done, cd. Sounds like a traumatic experience for you but she'll be just fine.
I was trying to explain about optrex to my son as his eyes look mildly sore and he looked so horrified that I'm hoping it'll all clear up on its own a la mi as a teenager.

I'm not sure if it's too late to help, but for some reason I have much more success getting the eye drops in without too much trauma if I stand behind their heads and pull eye lid up towards me than if I stand in front of them IYSWIM!

Having said that, it sounds like your DD will be doing a runner as soon as she sees you coming now - poor you!

DS (4) needed Brolene drops recently and was adamant that I was not coming next,nigh, or near him with that bottle.

Soooooooooooooooo evil Mummy that I am, I used to wait until he was strapped into his car seat, pull the restraints tight and administer, that way all I had to deal with were flailing arms. This may or may not help.

Could I jump in and offer a suggestion which may work? Your dd may be a bit young for this technique, CD, but it could help others with older, cheeky children.

My ds was 4 when he developed horrible, gunky weeping conjuncivitis whilst we were on holiday, and it took both dh and I to pin him down, accompanied by his hysterical crying and screaming. The drops had to be administered 3 times a day, and for two days, it was hellish.

On the third day, whilst I left the bedroom to wash my hands in preparation for the eye drops, unbeknownst to me, dh whispered to ds "Let's trick mummy - let me quickly put the eyedrops in, and then pretend that I haven't done it when mummy comes back" Now, ds LOVES playing tricks, and dh told me later on that ds was completely compliant. When I returned, ds put on a quite convincing act, saying "no, no, not the eyedrops!" I attempted to calm him down, whereupon he smiled cheekily and said proudly "I've already done them!"

After this, when he had to have eyedrops put in, either dh or myself would "trick" the other by putting in the eyedrops quickly while the other was out of the room. After a couple of days of the 'double act', ds realised it wasn't so bad really, and let either of us do the eyedrops with little fuss.

Don't know if that will help at all - I know it was lucky that both me and dh were there at the time to cope with it.

Thanks will defo try that, we had another total mare this morining with lots of sobbing

We've just been through this. I'm afraid I'm from the "brute force where necessary" school of thought. We tried it the nice way and the nasty way. The nice way - "I am going to put eye drops in: they will not hurt and it will take no time at all" did not work. So we just did the "pin down" method. Had to do it for DD (then 1.6) for her eyes and recently for DS (4) for a very painful mouth ulcer. I honestly think you just have to get on with it. DS would squeal like a stuck pig, cry etc but whe you asked him afterwards whether it hurt, he would always say "not, not really". I think because he knew we meant business, he just knew it was going to happen in the end. Neither seem in the remotest scarred by the experience.

Oh and by the way, I live next door to a senior colleague from work, so I'm always a bit paranoid about the muffled furious shrieking and the obvious sounds of 2 fully grown adults grappling with, manhandling and finally sitting on top of a screaming toddler!

Cool idea, hoppybird. I may try that one for other similar problems. They do love playing tricks on us, don't they.

CD, do you have any close friends who are lactating? Fresh breast milk clears up eye infections pretty well and doesn't hurt, I don't think. At least DS2 never complained about it.

It's a bit fiddly to do, but it does work ...

My only tip on this one it to get them lying down, eyes closed - drop a bit in the side corner of the eye, and let them blink it in while lying down. This way you don't need to hold the eyelid. It is kind of the same as if they were asleep, but this works for us as it really isn't traumatic.