Blocked tear duct

[Yael]

Yes, my DD was born with both eyes blocked from birth, and weeping yellow gunk when infected,or otherwise constantly streaming tears.

They try not to probe before 12 months in Australia, as most of the time (90%ish) grow out of it when the tubes grow bigger as the face grow bigger, and the blockage naturally passes through into the nasal cavity. They probe earlier than that in 3rd world countries as you can pick up nasty infections through your eyes. There is no risk to the eyesight.

If it is yellow gunk, you should be cleaning it every 4 hours or so with saline solution and cotton wool. Use a NEW ball for each swipe (otherwise you reinfect), and clean from the inside corner to the outside. If it is a blockage massaging tear ducts sometimes works, but mostly doesn't. On top of that you should be seeing your GP for antibiotic eye drops, as you need to get rid of the infection (only for the yellowy gunk, not the clear tears, they are fine).

The actually operation is very simple. They will put them under a general (but not tube them, so it is a very very light general), which is really to stop them moving. The will insert the probe down, until they can see/feel that metal probe touching the metal probe going up the nose. Sometimes they have a few bloody tears. My DD had the op at 11 months, and was awake from her light general before i had time to make it to recovery. The post op is just like any kid waking up from an operation.

90% of those that have the probing done once finds it fixes the problem, the other 10% have to try a 2nd probing.

For those in Melb, I can recommend a fantastic paediatric opthamologist & surgeon, who works out of the RCH.

My DD has deformed tear ducts, so we tried a 2nd plastic surgery by 2 ENT surgeons who deal with all the difficult tear duct cases (both paed's and adults) in Vic once she was just under 1.5 years. It has improved it, but hasn't fixed it, so we are going back for our 3rd eye surgery in November if she hasn't outgrown it by then (doubting it). This time we are giving up on her dud ducts and creating new ones for her.

I wouldn't hesitate to go the same route again, it is very minor surgery, it has very very minimal risks, and it has a great chance of fixing the problems. It is uncomfortable for them to always have weeping eyes, and my DD got constant infections. If it isn't fixed by 12 months then it probably won't resolve itself anyway, and you can't exactly send them to school like that. Also, our paed thinks that the constant low grade infections DD had through her eyes contributed (not caused) to her failure to thrive and real issue putting on weight based on the fact that her body had a greater basal metabolic rate due to all the infections she was fighting

P.S. If you do a search you can find other post i have written about us going through this