Breastmilk for conjunctivitis?

[chloechloe]

Conjunctivitis is doing the rounds at my 4yo’s kindergarten and one of her eyes is a little bit red, so maybe it’s the start of something.

Apparently breastmilk is supposed to work wonders. As I have a 5 day old baby I am wondering whether to hand express some milk to use as eye drops. Is it a good idea or totally weird!?!? Has anybody tried it?

I have heard of this too though haven't had an excuse to try it. It won't do any harm.

I've tried it direct from the breast into the eyes of the breastfed baby; seemed to work, although by all accounts conjunctivitis will have cleared up all by itself in a week in most cases. I can't picture how you'd get the milk from boob to the eye of a 4 year old though without it ceasing to be sterile. Not without a lot of faff at any rate! Is it worth it??

I'd wait and see if it actually develops into anything. I hope she is ok!

Good point roly I hadn’t considered it should be kept sterile! But I guess it should be simple enough to sterilise a cup (to express into) and a syringe with boiling water?

I won’t be trying the direct method!

cotton wool & cooled boiled water.
gently wipe
tbh I think the breastmilk thing is a myth.

My doctors recommended this for my baby's gunky eye so I would if its just a bit sore but if it gets worse you may need the antibiotic drops.
I'd use a sterilised cup and wipe it over the eye with some cotton wool.

I can recommend this, I tried it when I had a dry/sore/inflamed eye while breastfeeding dc. Very soothing and with rapid effect.

I think I’ll try it on some cotton wool - less drama that way. I’m keen to stop it in its tracks if possible as the kindergarten asks that children stay at home with a gunky eye. Am taking the baby to the Dr for his check up today so will see if he’ll prescribe some eye drops just in case.

Thanks for the replies!

Don’t do cotton wool it has fibres in it that can get in the eye use a muslin cloth.

I’ve used my breastmilk on my own red eyes & it’s cleared it up a lot faster than when I’ve left it.

Just expressed into a sterilised cup, then clean cloth on my eye.

Hi OP, I did this not just for baby's conjunctivitis but for my own ear infection. Might be weird but works!

Definitely use breast milk. I always did, it's magic stuff. Just squeeze some into a little sterilized pot, and drop into the eye with a syringe or from a spoon or something. It doesn't matter if it gets everywhere. I used for my kids, and also for me.

I did it for my boys eye. Expressed into a sterile bottle, squirt in affected area then wipe away. Never use the same bit of cotton to wipe, a fresh bit every wipe

it works!! used it many time and found it to be much more effective than cooled boiled water. go for it