Conjunctivitis and Breastmilk

[Fi]

Hi All,

Jenna has a touch of conjunctivitis at the mo, and of course being a new mum we took her to the dr about 3 hrs after we saw it!! On a sunday too.....
Anyway, she has drops now, but when I talked to my sister last night, she said she was told just to squirt a bit of breastmilk into their gummy eye. Apparently her girls had them quite a few times, and thats all she ever did!

Has anyone else heard of this? Has anyone practiced it? Seems nicer than using eyedrops, but I'm still not convinced.

Fi

[Kelli D]

I would use the drops.

Liam had bad conjunctivitis and breast milk did nothing to fix it. He used to regularly get conjunctivitis and was on the drops or ointment quite often.

Something to note, (not to worry about though) is she might have a bit of a blocked tear duct as a lot of babies do, and might be a little susceptible to conjunctivitis, especially if she gets a cold. The blocked ducts do tend to resolve by around 12 months. This is what caused Liam's problems and now it is largely gone (he's 16 months).

Hope she recovers quickly!

[Astrolady]

Lachlan had conjunctivitis twice and I just used breast milk on both occasions since I was still feeding him at the stage he had it.

Love

[Tanya]

Yep, another one who used EBM for such things as conjunctivitis with success.

I hope it disappears soon no matter what you use.

Tanya

[mooshie]

lani had quite a bad case of conjuntivitis twice in her early months, i swear by the breastmilk.

i also used cooled boiled water with a little salt then wiped each eye from inside to out (using new cotton wool each time) then when i fed her and the letdown happened i would take her off and squirt her in the eye - the look on her face was priceless.

it worked 24hrs and all clear - i swear breast milk is a wonder drug lol

[mumofbundlezofjoy]

Me too. My Gp recommended I do it ( I had never heard of it) and it worked, and quicker than drops do!!!

[kazz30]

Yep, I used BM with Nicholas too when he was a baby and it cleared up the conjunctivitis quickly.

Good luck I hope it clears up for Jenna soon.

[Debbie Lee]

A friend of mine told me that you can also use BM to clear out bub's nose from boogies. She reckons she would just squirt some in her bub's nose and the boogies would just slide out. Lovely, hey?
I guess Jenna must have a really clear nose, hey Fi

[christy]

Me too! I used EBM with Matilda's gummy eye & it worked a treat.

[Fi]

Thanks guys, the MCHN confirmed this was OK so I've been doing it. Its all cleared up though - probably panicked too much taking her to the dr as we only ended up having to dose the eyedrops twice, and EBM twice!! Oh well, another lesson learned huh??
Fi