5 week old baby yellow discharge from eye

[mahwish88]

Hi, my DD is 5 weeks old. She woke up this morning with a red and swollen eye, and had yellow discharge. As it's Sunday, we called nhs 111 and after a 40 mins in the queue the call was answered . They said we will get a call back from local out of hour GP service, but it's been 5 hours and nothing yet. We checked her temperature in the morning which was 36.4, and now it's showing between 37.1 and 37.3. Having been cleaning her eye with water and cotton pad every hour or so. Just concerned if it's something serious ? Specially as the temperature reading has gone up since morning . Thanks

Conjunctivitis? Sticky eye?

@Tee20x

Conjunctivitis? Sticky eye?

Perhaps. Symptoms do look like it. Though we also have a feeling that she may have rubbed or scratched her eye. She keeps poking her fingers in her eye quite viciously . Have put mittens on her now.

I'd just keep an eye on it for a few days and keep wiping with cooled boiled water and a cotton ball. When DD was younger she had a habit of sticking fingers in her eyes too.

Good luck with the mittens I hope they stay on!!

Often little babies have immature tear ducts which get easily blocked, just boiled up some water and let it cool then use it on a cotton pad or clean muslin to clean her eye.

My son has a blocked duct which caused puss. My midwife said to dab some breast milk on it… it worked!

Blocked tear ducts are common, and will usually sort themselves out eventually if you keep it clean. One of mine had a blocked tear duct til he was around a year and then it just cleared up. But your GP needs to see it, because it could also be an infection that will need antibiotic drops. Either way though, it's unlikely to be anything serious

Most likely it's just conjunctivitis, and the best thing to do is keep wiping with cotton wool and cooled boiled water, or breastmilk if you have any.

Does the baby have any other symptoms, other than the temperature? Or is she "out of sorts" in any way? Remember you can also go to a pharmacist for advice; they should be able to reassure you.

If you are breastfeeding, express a little bit of breastmilk and put some onto a cotton bud, then dab onto eye. It's a tip my midwife gave to me and really worked!

If you're breastfeeding, then putting breastmilk in her eyes will help a lot. You're doing everything right.

(Just be aware - probably irrelevant to you, but some babies are born with eye infections if they were vaginally delivered and the mother had a sti like chlamydia. In America all newborns have antibiotic lotion put in the eyes at birth to make sure they don't get an eye infection from the mother, but Britain doesn't do this and the NHS is shockingly ignorant about the whole thing.)

My mother told me about the breast milk thing, so I just squirted a little in DD's eye 3 or 4 times a day, and it worked.

@mummyof2littleones

If you are breastfeeding, express a little bit of breastmilk and put some onto a cotton bud, then dab onto eye. It's a tip my midwife gave to me and really worked!

Sorry a cotton pad, not a cotton bud. Wouldn't recommend a cotton bud anywhere near a baby's eye! X