Blocked tear duct

What can be done about it? DD's left eye duct has been blocked since she was about a week old, and now that she is gaining better control over her hand movements I have benn noticing her rubbing at her eye frequently. It is always gookie and crusty looking, and I worry that it might interfere with her eyesight because there is always gunk in her eye which has to be causing a bit of blurry vision. I have also noticed that the outside corner of her eye stays red, probably because it is always wet, and I worry about infection. Pedi said it can take up to 10 months to mature, but I just hate for her to endure this for 4 more months. Anyone had any experience with this?

 

What can be done about it? DD's left eye duct has been blocked since she was about a week old, and now that she is gaining better control over her hand movements I have benn noticing her rubbing at her eye frequently. It is always gookie and crusty looking, and I worry that it might interfere with her eyesight because there is always gunk in her eye which has to be causing a bit of blurry vision. I have also noticed that the outside corner of her eye stays red, probably because it is always wet, and I worry about infection. Pedi said it can take up to 10 months to mature, but I just hate for her to endure this for 4 more months. Anyone had any experience with this?

 

My boys are much younger, but one has had a blocked duct for the last two weeks and it seems to be getting a little better. I researched it, and they say to massage the little bump near the inside corner of the eye, with a downward motion toward the nose. I've been taking a q-tip with warm water and massaging it while he's relaxed (usually while feeding). It hasn't cleared up completely, but seems to be a little better.

Maybe you've already tried everything, but hope that helps!

 

Trevor had that from about 2 months to about 6 months. It is really nasty but will not hurt your baby. Actually when it starts getting better you will think it is getting worse because it starts coming out like crazy but really it is just clearing up. I thought it would hurt Trevor and it looked painful where the skin was so raw like you said. But you just have to deal with it. Massaging with a warm was cloth a couple of times a day will help some. Don't worry it will be fine. i have heard of some kids having to have surgery to have the clog removed but that was after they were a year or older and had had it for a VERY long time. Trevor is fine now and has no problems since it went away almost 4 months ago. Just hang in there!

 

One of my little girls has a blocked tear duct. She is 5 months old and has had it from the start. Her eye is watery and gets "gooky" too. We just keep wiping it with a warm washcloth. Our dr. told us also to massage the duct (the inner corner of her eye) by lighting pressing 3 times. He said it could take up to a year. I feel bad for my little one too, but it doesn't seem to phase her.

 

Our ped gave us some antibiotic ointment to put in Amy's eye when the goop started to build up. He said as long as it was just tearing up, we didn't need to do anything, but we needed to keep it from getting infected. We also tried to massage it, but honestly we were never very good at it and it never seemed to make any difference. The blockage never seemed to bother her, though.

If you are BF, apparently putting a little breastmilk in the eye can help prevent infection -- you might want to check with your ped before doing this, though.

When they were born the doc said wait till 6 months and then maybe we'll do something about it. At 6 months he said 9 months ... at 9 months he said 12 months ... and by 12 months it had mostly cleared up.

 

This is going to sound weird, but I unclogged my daughter's by using an aspirator. Their sinus cavities are very close to their tear ducts at that age and she had tons of congestion in there and I never knew it, but once I cleaned her nose alll kinds of drainage poured out of her eye and it cleared up just like that.

 

my best friend's DD had this, this may sound wierd but her doctor told her to express a little bit of breastmilk into it and massage it 3x's a day. At about 3 months old it cleared up. It does look worse before it looks better but that is it clearing itself out. I personally had this when I was a baby and had to have surgery at 1 year old to fix it, my mom said it was very quick they go in and clean it out, the best way she could explain it is "roto rootering it" if that makes sense. I never had a problem after that.

 

Well I'm not BF, so that's not an option...and we have tried the massaging, but like the other poster said it doesn't seem to do much. Guess I just have to be patient and wait for it to mature like the Dr. said. I just worry about her vision and her crawling/walking development, although she is showing no interest in doing either at this point, unlike her brother!

 

my dd had that...I honestly can't remember when she grew out of it, but seems like it was pretty early!

You can use a warm soft washcloth to help a little bit!

 

both my boys got clogged tear ducts at about 3 days old. Joe's cleared up about a month ago. Nick still has occassional issues with one eye.

It drove me absolutely batty to have goo seeping out of their eyes all the time...but a warm wash cloth does the trick.

 

My daughter has a blocked tear duct too, I think she's had it since she was born. Sometimes I squeeze (hard, but not too hard) on top of her nose, on the sides, and out comes pouring a bunch of stuff. The opthomalogist said doing it will help clear it up quicker. We shall see how long it takes, though I would like it to clear up already!

So what do you ladies do with the warm washcloth?

 

My first DS had it for almost 4 months and finally my pedi gave him some eye drops to try and it cleared right up! This time around both of my boys had it til about 2 months and it kinda went away on its own so I never has to ask the pedi what to do about their problem.

 

My nephew, who is about 9 months old, just had a procedure done to unplug one of his tear ducts. The doctor takes a probe and just opens up the tear duct. I think I remember my sister-in-law saying that her doctor told her they usually clear up by themselves, but his eye was so bad they decided to unplug it for him instead of waiting.

Hope that helps