What is watery discharge from babys eyes?

How to treat watery discharge in my childs eye?

My daughter often had water discharge from her right eyes. Initially for about three months I wasn’t worried but when it didn’t stop, I consulted my doctor who recommended me to massage her eyes tear ducts and I started doing that. It used to stop and start again. He also prescribed an antibiotic drop to avoid infection. It continued till one year and suddenly disappeared.

Hence wanted to share this with new mommy’s who have such worries.

Tears flow from the eye to the nose through narrow tubes called tear ducts.

A blocked tear duct usually happens when the membrane inside the lower end of the tear duct, near the nose, is slow to open after a baby is born. This creates a blockage. Although the blockage is usually present from birth, it might not be obvious until your baby is around one month old.

Blocked tear ducts are common.

About 1 in 20 babies are born with a blockage in one or both of their tear ducts.

If your baby has a blocked tear duct, his/her eyes will be watering constantly. You might hear these symptoms called ‘watering eyes’ and ‘sticky eyes’.

Other than the watering and sticky discharge, your baby’s eye is perfectly normal.

Rarely, the tissues around the tear duct get infected. If this happens, you might see redness spreading around your baby’s eyelid or green discharge from the eye.

You should though take your child to your Doctor if:

• your baby’s eye or eyes look red
• your baby has a hard lump on the inner side of her eyelids or her eyelids are red and swollen
• you notice other symptoms like sensitivity to light or your baby constantly squeezing her eyes shut
• there’s a greenish discharge from your baby’s eye
• the tear duct is still blocked after your child has turned one year old.

A blocked tear duct usually gets better by itself, when the membrane inside the tear duct opens up. This usually happens by the time your baby turns one year old.

Your Doctor might show you how to massage the inside of your baby’s eye to help empty the tear duct of the sticky discharge.

If your baby has an infection, your Doctor might prescribe a course of antibiotics.

If the tear duct is still blocked after your child turns one year old, your Doctor might refer you to an eye specialist. The specialist might recommend a procedure using a fine probe under general anaesthetic to open up the duct. Attached image is the reference for the point for massage. You need to massage the corner of both the eyes. Hope this helps.