eye goop

[Lillitu]

the last couple of days, my two month old has had yellowish-green eye goop several times a day. i wipe it out, but am afraid he has an infection of some sort. he is otherwise healthy and doesn't appear to have it bother him.

i have been told to squirt breastmilk in there, or do an eye wash with highly diluted lemon juice (a few drops in lots of water).

i don't have insurance, so calling a pediatrician is out.

[odenata]

Sounds like a blocked tear duct. Pretty common - my dd had this as a babe, and it was really goopy. Try massaging the tear duct, as described here.

[bluebunny]

My four-month old had green goopy eyes last week. Ped said it was conjunctivitis and prescribed drops.

ETA: ped ruled out blocked tear duct.

[Kuba'sMama]

My daughter had it at that age. I made a saline solution (a teaspoon of salt in a cup of cooled boiled water). It worked really well. I was worried salt would sting, so I tried it on my own eyes first, it feels very gentle and soothing.
ETA: i would dip a cotton ball in the solution and wipe each eye from inner to outer corner with a fresh cotton ball for each eye.

[Katie T]

It does sound like a blocked tear duct as long as the white of the eye isn't red/pink. You can try breast milk, just in case it is pink eye, it won't hurt anything if it isn't

I cleared up a diagnosed case of pink eye in my then 4mo with only breast milk, I would pump a tiny bit each morning because I didn't know if it would be as effective with old milk and would sterilize a med dropper in boiling water and put a drop in each eye a couple times a day. It took about 4 days to see a difference and then I kept it up for about a week past that to be sure it was gone.

Blocked tear ducts if a very common problem with babies.