blocked tear duct?

Question

My poor little baby has a blocked tear duct he is only a week old. I took him to ER and his peditrician and they gave us pink eye medicine just in case bc their so much alike. I know I can massage it but is there anything else I can do for him and how long does this take to go away? I feel so bad for him :(>

Answer 1

Both my children had the same problem, the only thing I can suggest is massaging his little eye. It lasted a few months, it would come and go, it wouldn't last very long every time they had it, but after three months they never got it again.
He should be fine, I know how you feel, it's sad to see them like that and no be able to do anything for them. My doctor never gave me any type of medication, all she said was massage, and keep the eye clean with warm water and a cotton ball. Don't use same cotton ball on both eyes, one for each eye, that way you wont transfer the infection from one eye to the other.
CONGRATULATIONS!!

Answer 2

You feel horrible when anything is wrong with your baby. I felt the same. My daughter had the same thing at a couple weeks of age. The doctor said it is very common the first 2 years. I was a little horrified that it could go on that long. I was given the same medicine and did the eye massage from the outside in. It starts to clear up very quickly within a couple of days. My daughter is 13 months now and she gets the occasional eye boogers but nothing like the drippy mucous that you see when the tear duct is clogged. It really is very common and so many babies have it. But it clears up quickly. They wont be drippy after a couple days and you most likely will only have to use the medicine and do the massage for the 5 days and not again.

Answer 3

My nephew had the same thing and it never cleared up. He ended up having to get a little surgery done on it. He was about 6 months old when they decided to go in and do it. It was really quick and he looked like he was in a boxing match for about a week after the surgery. They tried the massages also and whenever the eye doctor did it it was just painful for him so they went ahead and did the surgery because it wouldn't open anyway. He's 3 now and there hasn't been any problems!!

Answer 4

Hi, my son had blocked tear ducts also. I used a warm baby wash cloth on his eyes. It's not so easy to massage an infants eyes but that is the same advise they gave me. My son is now 15 and I can reliably say he grew out of it. It's not pretty but it's not life threatening and probably bothers you more than him. I wish you lots of luck. Keep saying, "this too shall pass."

Answer 5

Don't use any drops!! just massage the area inside the nose by the duct every time you feed him, it will be fine! One of my girls had the same problem, and it went away after a month or two. Give it time, and keep massaging the area! He will be fine!!! :-) Hope this helps! If you have any other questions, email me!

Answer 6

My son has similar issue when he was a week old. My ped tried so many different eye drops (through it was virus) and nothing works. Then we stopped the eye drops but just did massage, the redness and tears were gone in few days. But it will come and go. If symptom get worse, call your ped.

Good luck!

Answer 7

apply a warm (not hot) washcloth, or maybe a cotton ball since he's a little guy, for a few minutes to help loosen the secretions. you may need to do this several times a day, especially after waking up. it's fairly commom for newborns to have blocked tear ducts. most will clear on their own, but if they persist past 6 months of age they may need surgery.

make sure you wash your hands after handling him and don't touch your own eyes just in case it is pink eye. conguntivitis is one of the most contagious bugs. wipe everything down with clorox wipes, especially your keyboard and phones, including cell phones. if you can get ahold of some industrial strength germicide, like Vindicator, i would use it on all hard surfaces but not electronics.

Answer 8

My daughter had this when she was an infant and it eventually cleared up. Sometimes it can take months, though!

About the only thing you can do, other than the medication and the massage, is to keep warm compresses over it several times a day-especially when it has drained and dried, such as overnight.

The good news is that I do not think it causes them any pain-just probably irritating when they have the goo in their eyes and when we are "bothering" them when trying to tend to it.

Answer 9

If you're breastfeeding, every time you feed, put a drop of breastmilk in the baby's eye and massage the corner of his eye right down to the bridge of his nose. I know, I know, it sounds weird, but it works! The doctors I work for tell all moms to do this!

Answer 10

both of my kids had this...in addition to massaging, use a warm wash cloth to wipe your baby's eye. That helped my kids a lot! Dont make the cloth too warm though.