Conjunctivitis

[scarylea]

Hi, my nearly 4 year old I think has conjunctivitis. I noticed yesterday when she woke up she had ‘sleep’ in the corner of her eyes and she said they hurt. This morning and throughout the day she has producing more eye ‘gunk’ and her eye is quite red one side and keeps filming over with more ‘gunk’. Can I get something from over the counter? It’s not bad at the moment and not sure whether there is something preventative to use? Any advice welcomed. Thank you.

Both mine have it at the moment. GP confirmed that best thing is just to keep cleaning with cooled boiled water. You can buy drops over the counter but multiple studies show same rate of recovery after 7 days with children treated with drops versus just wiping.

Make sure you use a different bit of cotton wool for each eye.

Plus we've tried the drops before and getting them in a toddler's eye is near impossible anyway!

I go to the pharmacy and get eye drops. Goes in a few days

The eye drops are quite cooling and soothing as they are kept in the fridge so you need to ask

Chloramphenicol are the drops. They only work on bacterial conjunctivitis though, not viral (or something like that). I'd dispute that they are cooling - they actually sting.

Oh, and only kept in the fridge once open. But they are kept behind the counter so you won't find them on the shelf.

Thank you all very much. Am boiling the kettle to cool it down and use and will pop to the pharmacy this evening. She seems to have a cold with it too.

Hope she feels better soon. Mine both have horrible coughy viruses with it too. And DS has come out in hives too.

One more question, do you send your children to nursery still if they have conjunctivitis? Thank you.

My nursery's rule is that they can go in with it as long as it's being treated. As GP recommended treating just with water then I sent DS as normal last week but it was very mild.

DD currently has it worse and isn't due in till Wednesday so should be fine by then but I'll keep her off if she's not better as she's miserable. Hope she is better as it's meant to be my first day back after maternity leave!

First time DS got it two years ago I kept him off just because he was miserable with it too.

Thank you Dappled. Just about to wake her up for the day, in the night she was rubbing her eyes a lot. I hope your two are feeling better and good luck for your first day back. Hopefully by Wednesday she will be better for you.

My nursery will only let DS go in if it's being treated with eye drops.. otherwise it's a no no.

Thanks Minnie. I have over the counter drops that I am attempting to use, catching her to put them in is proving tricky though! Do you think those would be the same ones the doctor uses?

They are the same drops. When I saw GP last week she said if I really wanted the drops I could just get them over the counter same as with a prescription. Just don't pay for them for children if prescribed.

I couldn’t really manage to get eye drops in successfully as she put up such a fight, I used cooled boiled water and the opticians sold wipes that are sterile and are similar to the eye drops but in wipe form so they were much easier to use. It seems to have cleared itself up after a week. I hope it goes soon.