Babies Born January 2008 #2

[~Belinda~]

Bonham, here is an article on sticky eye (it may be a blocked tear duct):

About 25% of new babies have a persistently watery eye from birth, with or without a pussy discharge. As long as the eye itself is not inflamed, this is almost certainly due to poor drainage of normal eye secretions from the eye. This happens when the channel from the eye to the nose (naso-lacrimal duct) is blocked by a persistent membrane. You can often see the opening - a pinhole in the inside corner of the lower lid, near the lashes. In the first few weeks of life may not be fully open.

Gently massaging the duct from the inside of the lower lid to the outside rim may help.

This problem spontaneously resolves itself in 95% of babies by their first birthday but it may be necessary for most of the others to have a tiny operation by an eye surgeon where the duct can be cleared using an extremely fine surgical probe. If the eyes themselves are red, you should seek medical help immediately, as conjunctivitis (usually picked up from infection in the mother during birth) can cause serious vision threatening problems in a few cases

I massaged Madeleine's duct from the inside of the lower lid. I also put a drop of breastmilk in her eye at every feed and it cleared up! If you search for it on BB, there will be threads that come up about it. I got advice about the breastmilk on here and although I thought it was unusual, it worked for sure!

Dayl, thanks for the update on Maz, poor little guy. My thoughts are with all of their family.

Actually I didn't think to transfer her after she had been asleep in our bed. Great idea! Will try that one. She totally won't go down in her cot today, just screams every time, even after I swaddle her anyone else got any ideas?