Hi everyone,

Ok, back finally (apologies about the long delay, we are dealing with a lot of other health issues with my DD at the moment, so my time is tight)

Ok, so my daughter had crusty, weeping eyes literally from day 1. The nurses said it was very early for it to be like that, but we went on doing the saline & cotton wool wipes etc, rubbing nose, b/m etc.

FF to around 4 months, by this stage she had already had antiobiotic eye drops a few times because they were getting infected. The tear constantly, not as much as she is crying but every few mins is having tears roll down her face. Around her eyes she is constantly red and blotchy looking. When they are infected it is that green/yellow goopy conjuncitivis look.

Asked Gp for a referral, and went to see an paediatric opthamologist. She was great, said they were pretty watery, but suggested that we wait until 1 year. She said the majority of cases resolve themselves by then, as most of the time it is caused by narrow tubes and when the babies face grows they widen and the blockage can drain into the nose. She did say if the constant cleaning (when they are bad it is around 3 times a day i'm holding her down washing her eyes with saline), then she would probe earlier.

We decided to wait and see what would happen, but after quite a few more infections we went back at 9 months, and they were probed at 10 months. I was just getting sick of all of the infections, and she was having bad reactions to the eyedrops (everyone (paed, gp) thought i was insane for suggesting she was allergic to the eyedrops, the opathamologist said she trusts mother instincts so was inclined to believe me, and recently when we had her allergy tested she is allergic to the eyedrops).

The first probing was pretty good. We had it done at the childrens, where they are great at anathetising children. It was a very very light GA, so much so that she was already awake by the time we walked from the waiting room into recovery. One side was probed fine. Basically there are 2 chanels running from above and below that pink corner of your eye, the botom one takes about 90% of tears, the top one 10%.. These chanels merge into one tube, which end in the nasal cavity. They stick the probe down so that they can see the probe popping out into the nasal cavity. The 2nd side they found out she had a birth defect (not very common, and we have a family history of something associated with it). It meant that she had an extra sinus just below her eye, so a hole along the chanel so not everything ran into the main drain. The surgeon couldn't get the probe past this fissure, and so couldn't do the probing on that side.

We were referred off to 2 surgerons, ENTs who do plastic surgery, and on the side run once a month a clinic where all the opthamologist send the problem tear duct cases. This was done almost 6 months later. When they stuck the cameras up the nose, they found out that my daughter didn't really have an exit hold into the nasal cavity, it just ended in a sack. They cut that open, made new holes, and drained the blockage. They said heaps of pus and gunk came out. She never had a chance of them unblocking. Even with the birth defect, this formation of the tear ducts is heard of, but pretty rare. Now we are having a lot less tearing & infections, but still some, and i think it is getting worse, so we are looking at further surgery within the next 4 months and this time they will probably put in plastic tubes to widen and create a tear duct.

Ok, so things to think about.
1) It depends where the blockage is, close to the eye or close to the nose. You can try the massage, but both surgerons have said most people don't know how to do it properally so it is generally pretty ineffective, and it might not work anyway.
2) how much tearing/infections the child has. Constantly fighting low grade infections in the eyes isn't generally good for the general health of a growing child. It is not assocaited with any long term damage to eyesite though.
3) there is a chance they can pick up a nasty infection through the eyes - in 3rd world countries they probe at birth to avoid this... rare here, but can happen (chicken pox for example can be caught through the eyes)
4) - IMPORTANT - the sucess of the surgery working is significantly higher the earlier it is done. I guess the general feeling is that if it hasn't unblocked naturally by 12 months, it is less likely to, and this has to be weighed up with waiting and then possibly needing more extensive tear duct surgery (2nd probing, tubing followed by creating entirely new ducts).

In general it has a 90% sucess rate for the first probing, followed by 80% for the 2nd.

I think it is something you have to weigh up on your own. For us, the constant infections, and obivous bad blockage outweighed the risk of a very light GA. As much as there is a risk from GA, this is still a very very small risk (they didn't tube her the first time, only the 2nd).

Ok, hope that helps, if i think of anything else or you have any more questions, please ask.