Goopy baby eyes

1788 Views 10 Replies 10 Participants Last post by smeta, Oct 2, 2003

Yooper

Discussion Starter · Oct 1, 2003

About a week ago 8 week old dd started getting pus in one eye. It cemented her poor eye closed in the morning. A few days later, the other eye started too. The pus is thick dark yellow stuff. I called the doc office and the nurse said that it was probably a plugged duct and to call again if it got worse. Well they never got worse but they are not getting better either and it has been a week now. Her eyes are not swollen or red in any way. The discharge is far worse at night. During the day, I have only had to wipe them off once or twice a day. SHe seems happy and in no pain other than a slightly stuffy nose. She had a cold two weeks ago.

My question for anyone out there with experience is, am I doing her any harm by continuing to wait this out? Will it damage her eyes? If it is plugged ducts, will it clear up by themselves eventually? Or is this a symptom of some potentially serious problem elsewhere in her body. I really do not want to take her to the doc for many reasons. And I suspect they will give her antibiotics which I really would not be happy with. Anybody btdt?

Yooper

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Mallory

· #2 · Oct 1, 2003

Have you put breastmilk in her eyes? It is great stuff!

I can't really tell if anything is wrong from here, and if your gut is telling you something is really wrong I would trust it first--But I don't think this is going to hurt her. I think she is okay. Most of the time plugged ducts do clear up on thier own, occasionally they do have to surgically open them. But I don't think they would even do that until she is older.

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Yooper

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 1, 2003

Ha ha, I had to laugh because I have put breastmilk in her eyes but not on purpose. I spray everywhere and poor dd gets a shower at every feeding. The breastmilk has to be fresh sqeezed, right? Like I cannot use stuff I expressed that is in the fridge? My gut is telling me nothing is wrong, but my gut has been wrong before so back-up opinions would be good. I know goopy eyes are common in infants and I am just so sure that the doc will take a 5 second look and write a script for antibiotics.

Has anyone had a baby with goopy eyes for more than a week with no ill effects?

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Liz

· #4 · Oct 1, 2003

I had a baby with goopy eyes (funny because that is exactly what we called it!) for over a year. I sprayed them with breastmilk, I massaged them (can't remember the exact procedure but it's in The Baby Book), I used saline, I tried everything. My doctor said from the beginning that we shouldn't worry about it until he was over a year old. So when he still had it in one eye at a year old she got us an appointment with an opthamologist. Before the appointment ds got a cold and the goopiness got worse so for some reason I tried polysporin drops. I don't remember why I decided to do this after a year of not doing it. Anyway, it cleared it up permanently so I cancelled the appointment.

So my advice would be to wait. Try all the non-invasive measures, keep them clean, really try to resist the urge to wipe them with your fingers (I know this is really hard especially when everyone you meet says, "Oh, he's got pink eye......") and wait. I really don't know why polysporin worked for us because I'm sure he did not have an eye infection for over a year but you could try it. I am pretty sure that if it is a blocked tear duct polysporin will not clear it up.

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chellemarie

· #5 · Oct 1, 2003

DS had this problem. I thought it'd never go away. But it did.

I squirted breastmilk into his eye and then massaged with a clean finger. (do a net search for the technique...I don't remember which way I massaged) I also put warm wet cottonballs on his eyes a couple times a day and whenever they were super goopey to loosen things up.

Blocked tear ducts aren't uncommon. Any doc who will do surgery before baby hits the 12month mark ...well, they shouldn't. It's quite likely the ducts will just block up again, anyway.

I really thought we'd be dealing with eye goo forever, but one day they just weren't gooey anymore. Amazing.

Oh, I remember one mama here said her baby's ducts opened after an plane trip somewhere. She suspected the change in air pressure popped them open. Makes sense to me!

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chrfath

· #6 · Oct 1, 2003

Have you tried massaging her tear duct? That works for our DD. The Dr said as long as her eye wasn't read or pussy green not to worry...just a blocked tear duct. I just gently rub between her nose and eye to sort of express the duct. Dr Sears also recommends this in his Baby book.

Good luck.

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Cassafrass

· #7 · Oct 2, 2003

My ped showed me how to massage the tear duct. Just apply pressure on side of nose and press up expelling the goop into the eye., then wipe. Also this combined w artificial tears drops did the trick in about 5 days and baby had the problem for 3 months before I tried this. Hoipe it works for you too, (nak, sorry!)

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flitters

· #8 · Oct 2, 2003

i can't speak from baby experience, but if you decide to try rinsing it with eye drops, i'd recommend the kind that come in boxes of individual packets that do not contain preservatives. i had lasik surgery and afterwards this is what they recommended for my use and i have never gone back to other eyedrops or saline. i forget which brand i use, but it's something like nature-eyes...

on a sort of related note, my puppy had a goopy eye for about 3 months that i just kept hoping would go away and it didn't. finally i decided to rinse it with these eye drops for 2 days (obviously being super careful not to poke him) and it cleared up completely.

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SaraC

· #9 · Oct 2, 2003

My oldest DD had the "goopy eyes" as well and we did it all to try to clear it up. Massage, eye drops, breastmilk in the eye, etc. We waited until she was a year old and they still were clogged and goopy. We were a referred to an opthamologist who decided she needed surgery since the opening was not even open to drain her eye into her nose. They came and got her, sedated her, did the surgery and brought her right back. She was gone less than 10 minutes. We went home about 15 minutes later. It made a huge difference and we haven't had any problems since. I would do what everyone else has suggested and then just wait it out. If it hasn't cleared up by age 1 then see the doctor.

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Peppamint

· #10 · Oct 2, 2003

My ds had a goopy eye until 4mo and then suddenly it was gone. I'm a totally low or no maintenance kinda girl and I just wiped the goo away. Mind you, it wasn't a lot of it and the ped. said not to worry. Once in awhile a bunch would come out at once and cover his entire eyeball. Ewww! I did squirt bm in it a few times when he was a week or two old but then just quit.

Anyway, I was starting to think it would take forever to clear up but one day someone posted here about goopy eyes and I realized that ds' eye had cleared up- I hadn't had to wipe in a few days! :LOL

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smeta

· #11 · Oct 2, 2003

Ds is 7 weeks and has had the goop too. I've been massaging the tear ducts and one of them opened up. The ped. said it will NOT damage their eyes. She also said that some babies tear ducts never open and the have to do it w/ a probe. She also thought it was ridiculous to put breastmilk in their eyes - that it's an old wives tale! I was suprised by that b/c they prescribe antibiotic eye drops and our milk has antibodies in them. BTW, she is a ped. into homeopathy and is ok w/ not vaxing, so I usually trust what she thinks.

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