Thimerosal in pink eye medication

[alacrity]

My 15 month old daughter has pink eye in both eyes. I tried my breastmilk among other things but nothing worked. I run an in-home day care so this needs to go away immediately or we will not be able to pay our bills. Things are tight as it is...

So I got medication for her but it has thimerosal in it. 0.001% is the amount.

I am not sure what to do. Why on earth is this allowed?

[tanyalynn]

I haven't tried this (hope it's not among the list you've already tried!), but I've read that regular soft contact lens solution is useful for pink eye, IIRC about 4x/day, so fairly often, but it's supposed to work.

And argh on the mercury content.

[alacrity]

Yes, this is very frustrating. We just had a snow storm yesterday and I walked to the store with two kids (neither of which can walk) in the snow to get the stupid medicine which was $80. Then I get home to find out it is toxic.

I am seriously angry.

Her doctor is a holistic healer, too. I would never expect this. The dosage is four times a day for 7 days on this stuff. That seems like a lot of exposure for a 15 month old.

I guess we have to venture out in the snow again for contact solution...

[luv-my-boys]

im assuming she got drops, you can do an antibio. ointment and bypass the thimersol (which is a "perservative") it will be trickier getting it in buy if you have someone help you can gently make take the bottom of her lower lash line and form a "pouch" of sorts and lay a thin ribbon of the ointment.

on the whole contact lens solution...I see so many problems with that at the very least it could really irriatate her already irriatated eye.

Cool compresses help to sooth the area and if she has dried crusties you can try very diluted baby no tear shampoo and warm water to rinse the area. Remember to wash your hands frequently and try not to share common things like towels as you can spread it. Obviously since she is little its kinda hard to tell her "dont rub your eyes" so you'll have to be vigilant you dont touch your face to keep from spreading it around. good luck

[calebsmommy25]

I found these two websites that both have long lists of treatments. I have never used any of them, but thought it might be worth looking at.

http://www.health911.com/remedies/rem_conju.htm

http://naturalcurereviews.com/remedy29-1-pinkeye.html

Hopefully some other Mama's around here will have some tried and true methods for you. Sorry this is so rough!

Thimerosal...

[alacrity]

Yes it is eye drops her doctor prescribed.

I tried compresses. My neighbors probably thought I was waterboarding her. She screamed and screamed, "No! Nooooo! No! Not touch!" and was flailing. It's just me here with her so I have no one to hold her down.

There is some nasty crust in the morning and her eye is red but she does not seem to be bothered by it. I am more worried about the other kids catching it if they come tomorrow.

Thanks for the home remedies pages. I am reading them now!