Plugged Tear Duct

[AnnR33]

My little one is almost a year old and facing the dreaded diagnosis for her plugged tear duct (oozy green/yellow discharge and crusty stuff in the corner of her eye for most of her life).
It's not uncommon in babies but usually goes away within a few months as my sons did.
As they hit their one year b-day and it hasn't gotten any better the drs usually recommend surgery to clear it up (involves a probe inserted to clear out the duct) I'm told it's usually successful but I don't want such an invasive thing done if I can help it.
I haven't heard of any other alternatives in the natural health and baby books I've read which are numerous.
I can always wait it out a little longer but it is really a nusance and often makes the area under her eye chapped and dry from all the moisture and people always think she's sick.
Any ideas or successes out there!?
Ann

[jaredsmom]

I understand since Jared had the same thing for that long. People either asked if he was sick or had a cold in his eye or if he was crying. We just kept gently rubbing near the tear duct to open it up. Once in a while, when it got real bad, we would put a warm tea bag of eyebright on his eye to clear up the infection. Of course this was done when he was asleep.

Warm vibes to your little one!

[Susana]

Hi Ann
My son also had a plugged tear duct when he was a little guy. My dh and I tried the gentle rubbing for a couple of months and it never cleared up the duct so we went for the probe recommended by our doctor. I wasn't too thrilled with that either, but I wanted to let you know that the procedure for my son was literally done in less than a minute, no lie, and he was fine afterwards.
Now on the other hand, my niece had a plugged duct as well and my sis just kept rubbing it and it eventually did clear up as my niece grew.
Either way, I couldn't believe how many people made commentary about my son's eye before we had the duct cleared.

[myrrhmaid]

Hi! my son too had a plugged tear duct. I used hot water & soaked a washcloth, wring & place over the eye up to several times a day.
Or brew some tea in hot water remove bags, let cool & place over closed eyes. Tea is a wonderful astringent & you can feel the results as you rest under the damp tea bags! Try it on yourself! Herb teas too! It's great! You can alternate warm cloth-wet, warm tea bags.
We did this treatment when he was young & it worked itself open in it's own time. I think just the wet rags & heat may have been enough to get the circulation going in the area & work it open. I didn't want to have any invasive procedures either so we put quite a bit of effort into this! I hope it clears soon!