Two-year old with a head cold - mucus coming out of one eye

[j4ino]

I just wanted to know if anyone else experienced this. My daughter frequently gets eye mucus when she is sick. The dr gave her antibiotic eye drops (diagnosing it as pink eye) when I first noticed it with her first cold as a baby. As a more experienced mom now, I have been able to follow my intuition and since her eye isn't *pink* - I don't think it is pink eye. It has gone away on its own in the past. She has had a cold for the past week and she woke up from her nap just now with a big wad of eye mucus. It isn't annoying to her. I just clean it with a tissue and it's gone. I was just wondering if anyone else's children experience this?

Thanks!

[sparklett]

Oh gosh yes, we've had that before. Last time DS was sick, he rubbed his snotty nose on my face and just a few hours later, my eyes were swollen and full of discharge. Yuck.

Whenever DS gets this, I just squirt some breastmilk in his eyes and it clears right up.

[JessieBird]

Yes - my DS often has green gunk oozing from his eyes when he gets a cold or cold-like symptoms from teething. My doctor said it was conjunctivitis but that is an umbrella term for just about anything bothering the eye so it's not necessarily bad or any more contagious than the cold itself. She did suggest some OTC cream which cleared it up but honestly I only used it to appease his day care provider at the time (she was very conventional and insisted I medicate every tiny symptom, we're not with her anymore). Like you, my instinct told me that it was no big deal. I think it probably comes from mild swelling in their face/sinuses that can come from a cold or teething. Warm water with a touch of salt in it had the same effect as the cream and DS found it far more soothing to apply.

[GretchenC]

I toss my 2 year old in a warm shower every evening to "steam out" eye and nose boogers. For entertainment I spray some shaving cream on the wall in the shower for her to paint with. Seems to help.

[Skippy918]

My son had this a few weeks ago along with a bad cold. His eye was puffy and crusted over. I thought it was pink eye, but since it happened on a Friday and really didn't want to go to urgent care, we waited out the weekend and he was fine by Sunday.

[sapphire_chan]

In addition to steam, gently massage her lower lid towards her nose, that should help things drain better so there's less goop.

[kgreenemama]

Saline solution on a cotton ball works for us! Forget pinning DS down and giving him "eye mess-i-din."

[justKate]

Hmm, I always assumed that had to do with draining sinuses. We do steamy showers and use a nosefrida snotsucker, which seems to help keep it from turning in to an ear infection. If the eyes aren't pink, I'd treat it as a sinus infection secondary to the head cold, rather than pink eye.

[blessedwithboys]

i use colloidal silver when this happens to ds2.