Conjunctivitis or Head Cold in Eye?

So my DS this morning woke up with a very runny crusty nose and also had some gunk in the inner corner of his eye. His eye lid wasnt stuck together or anything but it was watery.

I took him to daycare as i thought it was just sleep in his eye. They called this morning about an hour later saying they thought it was conjunctivitis and he had to be picked up. So Nanna did that.

How can i tell the difference between conjunctivitis and just a really blocked head cold that is affecting his eyes? I am getting some eye drops from my sister tonight (works at a chemist) so can use them if i need to but what I really want to know if there is anyway to tell the difference as I really would like to send him to daycare tmrw if it isnt anything contagious.

and i couldnt get into a doctor today. so cant get them to look at it.

They won't accept him at day care if he has any kind of gunk in his eyes. Conjunctivitis is highly contagious. Unless he has doctor prescribed medication, and likely a doctors certificate to clear him to go to day care, I doubt they will accept him.

Doctor told me if the white of the eye is not pink and no swelling is not conjunctivitis. It is a real pain because whenever anyone sees gunk they assume conjunctivitis though. DS had a cold and just had sleep but so many people kept saying is conjunctivitis as we are in UK on holiday so getting to doctors is not straightforward and if under 2 the pharmacist won't give you anything I just rode it out, back in Aus would have ended up at doctors though and she would have given drops just in case but always says not to give unless eye is pink - not sure how daycare would deal with it. The fact none of the rest of us got it backs up wasn't conjunctivitis because I know when DD had it despite much care I still managed to give to myself. My two if is just a cold only get it after sleep times and doesn't constantly reappear.

My DS1 constantly had gunk in his eyes when he had a cold of any sorts. I used to take him to the Dr's & treat him as if he had conjunctivitis so he could go to day-care, but I was never convinced he had it. In the end our GP sent us to an eye specialist & when I explained the situation she believed the same as I that it wasn't conjunctivitis his nasal tubes were just too small still to cope with the mucous.
For conjunctivitis his eyes will be red, itchy and crusty when left. It will take a little while to clear up with the drops. While in our case with a normal cold the mucous would clear straight away from the drops. DS1 had conjunctivitis once at about 13-14 months & I knew it was different to usual. It took until he was 18 -20 months for it not to come out of his eyes.

Sorry not much help on how to tell the difference but just wanted you to know that we have been through similar.