Anyone still awake? How does an eye infection start?

[milkmommy]

DD been up multiple times tonight and each time screaming and rubbing her eyes saying owe owe and this is the second time today shes done it.. There is no redness buts she has had some extra discharge. What can I do?

Deanna

[lumpofclay]

warm compresses and rest are the two best things.

eye infections stink. we all had one over Christmas! while we were in Florida! visiting famiy and going to Disney World! :sick

If it gets too bad, you can call the eye dr. and get eye drops, but hopefully you can stop it before that.

oh, and squirt some breastmilk in there.

:hug2

[Jemma2]

We've dealt with this several times. At the first sign of a goopy eye I start cleaning both eyes throughout the day with a warm salt water solution. I use a separate cotton ball for each eye and leave it there for as long as DD will let me. Since we've started this I haven't had any sort of recurrance with her (course, maybe they would've been fine anyway).

[milkmommy]

We've dealt with this several times. At the first sign of a goopy eye I start cleaning both eyes throughout the day with a warm salt water solution. I use a separate cotton ball for each eye and leave it there for as long as DD will let me. Since we've started this I haven't had any sort of recurrance with her (course, maybe they would've been fine anyway).

The salt water doesn't sting? I might try this still no redness or anything but she is having extra discharge and occasionally rubs and cries.. I'm still werry that somethings about to occur.
Deanna

[Jemma2]

It doesn't seem to sting. But wherever I read about this trick said that if it does sting a little it's because it's targeting the infection. I have no idea how accurate that is. A good friend of mine who is a nurse also recommends this to me and says that salt water is very close to the way our natural tears are so all it's really doing is flushing out the goop and cleaning the eye really well.

When I do it with DD I try to squeeze as much of the water onto her closed eye (and therefore into her eye) as I can. I do it several times a day or whenever I see it getting goopy again.

[hbmamma]

I used to use tea bags over my eyes. It really helped with any itchiness. Just brew a cup of tea (regular tea/unflavored - green or black) and take the tea bag out and allow to cool to room temperature. Then you can place over the eye. I've found it to be very soothing.

[ThirstyTurtle]

People put saline solution in their eyes, which is a salty solution. Tears are salty. So I guess the eyes like salt. :-)
You could just buy saline solution so you know it has the right balance of salt. You can also buy a little special eye cup to wash the eye out with. I think maybe they might even sell "eye wash" kits with saline and an eye cup, although it could be cheaper to buy them seperately. Fill the eye cup with some saline solution and have your dd hold her head back and let the saline solution get into her eye. The saline solution itself should not sting her eye. Then rinse the eye cup out, and try it again. I do this whenever my eyes feel scratchy (like from wearing my contacts to long, from being around cats) and it makes my eyes feel so much better.

If you think it could be pink eye coming on, then this site explains how to use camomille tea to soothe it: http://www.learningherbs.com/pink_eye_remedy.html

I am a worrier about eyes, so I would probably go to the eye doc to at least to get a diagnosis to be sure it isn't something serious.

[tiglet]

I am a worrier about eyes, too, as I nearly died from an infection of the soft tissue around my eye when I was a small child.

Extra goop and pain sounds like conjuctivitis, which could be viral or bacterial. Telling the difference can be tricky, so a Dr. will probably give you antibiotic eye drops, which are very good at killing infections in the eyes, and aren't a systemic antibiotic for the rest of the body. ( :) )

Hope she feels better today!

[milkmommy]

Thanks for the replies, I spent a long night cleaning out the gunk and laying warm compresses and as much breastmilk as I could manange that seemed to sooth her. It seemed to pass on it one. No more discharge and no redness. I don't know if what I did helped to prevent further infection, but luckily it didn't progress.

Deanna

[margot]

We had viral pinkeye here- each kid on different weeks. Breastmilk twice a day for two days cleared it right up.