Do eye infections clear on their own? Natural remedies?

[1love4ever]

I've never dealt with eye infections before, so sorry if this is a dumb question:)  But, 20 month old DD has had a fever the past 3 nights, and last night was coughing a little and had some drainage in her throat that she kept trying to swallow.  This morning she woke up with crusty eyes, and now one of them keeps having yellow discharge and is a little red.  So, will it clear on its own, or do I need to get drops from the Dr?  Are there natural remedies I can use instead?  I prefer not to use antibiotics in any case but I will if that is my only option, or if this will last weeks and weeks before it clears.

We eat healthy, organic food, she gets raw cows milk, she eats fresh fruit and a few veggies.  I also give her probiotics every day and vitamin D drops now that its Oct and we live in the north.

Thanks

[Adaline'sMama]

We have had two eye infections here, and we didnt use antibiotics for either, but they were both without a fever and only lasted a couple of days. Are you still nursing or do you have any friends who have breastmilk? It worked for us when DD was little, and even in my eyes. I would just make sure its room temp and squirt it in the eye, pretty generously. Its the only natural remedy I know of. Eyes typically heal very fast, so I would say that if its not pretty much cleared up by tomorrow or the next day I would go ahead with antibiotic cream. IMO, since eyes heal so fast, there would be a serious problem if it lasted for weeks and weeks.

[1love4ever]

Thanks for the response!  DD's eye infection was nearly better the next day after I posted that.  They were still a little red all day, puffy in the morning when she woke up and of course sealed shut.  She had a low fever all night that I didnt treat because it didnt seem to bother her. 

What I did for her infection was this: I put green tea bags on her eyes(the best I could, she kept pushing them away).  I put manuka honey on her eye and I imagine some got in it.  I let her low fever go, I did not give her medicine.  And it is completely gone today, her eyes look completely normal.