Watery eyes??

[floiejo2]

My 2.5 yr old has constant watery eyes. That's it. No other symptoms at all. I have very mild seasonal allergies, mostly in the spring/fall and have watery eyes, runny nose. Hers is just whenever we're outside or in certain stores, her eyes are watering like crazy. It looks like she is crying. Year round. We recently got her some sunglasses and if she keeps them on they seem to help a little bit when outside. Her eyes are also always gunky in the corners especially when first waking up in the morning. Now, does this sound like an allergy too you guys? Or I was wondering if she may be having trouble with her vision? But it's interesting to me that's it's only when we're outside or in certain store air (which bother's my eyes too). Maybe just super sensitive to air? Any advice or suggestions you can give me would be great. Should I take her somewhere? Doctor or eye doctor? Thank you!

[Happiestever]

I have had watery eyes since I was a child. I thought I was going blind in the middle of a soccer game, it was crazy. I went to the eye doctor and they told me I had astigmatism as well as being near sighted. THe allergist thought I might be allergic to tree pollen and rec'd rx eye drops which didn't really help.

Now that I am older I find that when I wear my glasses I don't have this problem even a fraction of without. The dr told me that it was probably my eyes having to strain that caused the watering. It may be allergies, but some people just have overactive tear ducts, just as others don't make enough. Going for a run on a cold windy day is definitely not fun for my eyes. I used to tear so much the skin around my eye would chaffe. Not pretty. Good Luck.

[kjbrown92]

It seems like if there's a lot of gunk in her eyes, then it seems like it's filtering like an allergy, as opposed to a vision thing from squinting or eyestrain. My BIL has water eyes and tons of gunk in the morning and he's got seasonal allergies (it's most of the year for him though).

[floiejo2]

Thanks for the replies. That's kind of why I was thinking allergies since they're always goopy. So um....where do I even begin? I don't really do anything for mine, taking alfalfa when they are really bad. I guess I can try to get alfalfa into her, not sure how that'll go. I don't want to have tons of testing done on her and of course no mainstream meds. What do you knowledgeable momma's do for mild seasonal (well I guess year round) allergies?

[kjbrown92]

local honey is supposed to be good, taken once a day I think, but I don't really know the dose. though it might be good to find out what she's allergic to so that you can take proper measures. For instance if it's seasonal + dust, and you mitigate the dust stuff (with mattress/pillow encasers, washing bedding in hot water, removing stuffed animals from the rooms, etc.) then the seasonal stuff might be less because her allergy load will be less. What kind of detergent do you use? That could make a difference if she's reacting to scents. And when my kids got off their food triggers (food intolerances) their seasonal allergies went away (again, I think it's due to overall load).

I went to the mall this morning for an hour, and my eyes are still watering!

[floiejo2]

Good information. We are already super careful with a lot of that stuff. We use only organic non chemical/non scent detergent, body care items, cleaning items. I wash the bedding/towels in hot, dry on high, have the encasers, air out our house all the time (which i guess could let in seasonal stuff more), have a special vacuum to get rid of dust on floors/furniture...

Did your kids have other symptoms that told you they had food intolerances/sensitivities? How do I go about seeing. Did you have allergy testing done? Where, a medical doctor? A Naturopathic doctor? I really don't want to do a lot of invasive things since it doesn't seem to be a huge thing. And again, it only happens outside or sometimes in places like the mall, walmart...Does that indicate anything like that it's only outside things? She's completely fine at home.

[kjbrown92]

My watery itchy eyes are places like that too. I know that I'm sensitive to perfumes, but I don't know what it is about places like that which makes my eyes water.

Waking up during the night, constipation, diarrhea, stomach pains, eczema, rashes of unknown origins, takes hours to fall asleep, allergic shiners (bruising under the eyes), neediness/clinginess, excessive tantrums, bedwetting, all sorts of things come under the heading of food intolerances. My regular doctor wrote out a prescription for the ALCAT test to help it be covered by insurance, but for us it wasn't.