eye ointment for baby?

[jessaroo]

I was wondering what are people's thoughts on the routine eye ointment offered to babies after birth? I have not been able to find much info against it. I am weary about it being an anti-biotic that may be unnecessary if the child's eyes are healthy.

Please share your thoughts,
jess

[dogmom327]

I refused it for DS. Totally unnecessary unless you have an STD (I don't remember off the top of my head which one it is that's the primary problem). Also, it exposes a newborn baby to medicine unnecessarily (antibiotics no less).

[Jojo F.]

Gonorrhea and Chlamydia - This site is pretty helpful explaining it.

Although, this site says that silver nitrate is still in use I was informed to "get my facts staright"

[sjuffs]

I refused anything for my two childrens eyes. I will refuse it for the next baby and any more I should have. I don't have any std's and as far as I know (correct me if it has any other benifite) its to prevent blindess from Chlamydia and Gonorrhea which if you don't have then its not an issue and its just another unnecessary intervention on your newborn.

[GOPLawyer]

Yep...unless you have the above mentioned STDs...it's totally unnecessary.

[kangaroomum25]

I know this may be a crazy thought, but I was wondering, if even in those cases it was needed if breastmilk might be better.

[lindsayncadence]

Originally Posted by sjuffs

I refused anything for my two childrens eyes. I will refuse it for the next baby and any more I should have. I don't have any std's and as far as I know (correct me if it has any other benifite) its to prevent blindess from Chlamydia and Gonorrhea which if you don't have then its not an issue and its just another unnecessary intervention on your newborn.

Just popping in my midwives told me I can decline it and in check a box in the birth certificate packet saying I used breatmilk for it In case you run into problems wanted to throw that option out there.

[slave2myprincess]

i'm refusing it this time around. i know i don't have STD's. With my hospital birth i actually don't even remember them asking me. They just did it !

[Red Sonja]

DS had it (hpspital birth) because I hadn't researched it (or vitamin K) at all, but I declined it for both of my DDs. I just signed a waiver, it wasn't a big deal at all.

[chic2chic]

:

(if any midwives are reading this thread, i'd welcome their opinion)

[Thefrawg]

I am on the fence. If I have a homebirth I will refuse it for sure, because it is preventative antibiotics for STD infections.

However, my Pediatrician had a good point about hospital births that made me reconsider my harder stand. He pointed out that the risk of infection in a hospital is pretty high due to the amount of germs there and the number of nurses etc who will be touching your baby. Especially in my area we have had numerous MRSA outbreaks. So the eyes of a newborn are pretty vulnerable at this point, and if I have a hospital birth, I may want to keep that in mind to protect my baby from those types of infections.

Unless you plan on never setting your baby down, it can be hard to stop the constant flow of nurses in who apparently just have to touch the baby.

I had forgotten about breastmilk though. That might be a better idea too...

[dinan6]

I declined to have this put in dd eyes and I was in the hospital. I did not worry about any std's because I didn't have them and I didn't worry about the hospital setting because the only time she wasn't with me was for a little time with my husband in the nursery where we ended up declining most of what they wanted to do...

[hapersmion]

Originally Posted by Thefrawg

However, my Pediatrician had a good point about hospital births that made me reconsider my harder stand. He pointed out that the risk of infection in a hospital is pretty high due to the amount of germs there and the number of nurses etc who will be touching your baby. Especially in my area we have had numerous MRSA outbreaks. So the eyes of a newborn are pretty vulnerable at this point, and if I have a hospital birth, I may want to keep that in mind to protect my baby from those types of infections.

Would the eye ointment even stop MRSA? Just thinking... isn't the whole danger of MRSA that it's resistant to antibiotics? So, maybe if you kill off all the normal bacteria that will be in the eye, all you'll do is leave a nice free space for the MRSA to move into.

No science or facts there, I'm just pondering.

I think, if I had to have my baby in the hospital, I'd definitely put some breast milk in there.

[IowaMom]

Eye ointment wouldn't prevent MRSA infection. That's silly on your ped's part. My son had MRSA as a newborn from his hospital birth. It's not nearly a strong enough antibiotic to have any effects - although it could lower your newborn's immune system actually making MRSA more possible.

I declined the ointment for my daughter born last week. My HB MW that I was going to use (didn't end up using her though and had a hospital delivery) said she doesn't even own it and no one's ever asked for it.

[SalmonBayDoula]

A great resource explaining the eye ointment

Please check out this info sheet prepared by a friend of mine!

http://www.seattlebirthnet.com/newborneye.html

Even though it speaks to WA state, it is EXCELLENT info!

Best,
Sharon

[VeganCupcake]

Originally Posted by Thefrawg

However, my Pediatrician had a good point about hospital births that made me reconsider my harder stand. He pointed out that the risk of infection in a hospital is pretty high due to the amount of germs there and the number of nurses etc who will be touching your baby. Especially in my area we have had numerous MRSA outbreaks. So the eyes of a newborn are pretty vulnerable at this point, and if I have a hospital birth, I may want to keep that in mind to protect my baby from those types of infections.

I've been thinking about this for days--and I don't see how the erythromycin eye ointment would help prevent eye infections from something like MRSA, since by definition, MRSA is resistant to methicillin and other broad-spectrum, powerful abx, too. Erythromycin isn't going to do anything to prevent or treat MRSA infections.

ETA: just read that PPs have already addressed this.

[Pyrodjm]

We refused te eye stuff at my hb. I would have refused it in a hospital also. I don't have any STDs and I don't believe it protects from any other type of infection.