clogged tear duct

my twins are 9 days old. Last night, I noticed a discharge coming out of my son's right eye. I doubt that its pink eye, and I am thinking its a clogged tear duct. After reading online about it, it seems very common in newborns.
Should I call the pedi? I was thinking about using the remedies suggested online first, but since tomorrow is Friday, I don't want to be stuck if its worse than I think.

Anyone have any experience/suggestions for this?

 

My dd had a clogged tear duct for 6 months then one day...it just went away! The dr. told us to massage it by pressing 3 times in the corner (lightly) and wiping the discharge away.

 

DS had a clogged tear duct 8 days after birth. Pedi told us to wipe very gently in the corner with a warm washcloth. 3 days later it was normal again, and no problems since!!

 

My oldest son had the same thing when he was a baby. Eventually it just went away. The doctor always told me unless the eye was really red just to gently massage it & use warm cloth as pp said. I think it always bothered me more than it did him.

 

Ours had eyes coated with "sleep" for the first month or so because of a clogged duct. My ped said as long as the discharge doesn't show signs of an infection (it would be green then), it wasn't a problem. Just massage and clear the goop gently.

 

One of mine has had a clogged tear duct since birth. We put an antibiotic ointment on it twice a day to try to keep it from being infected, and are hoping it clears up before surgery is needed. (At one year). If it's not infected, there are just tears coming out of her eyes at times, when it's infected is when it is gunky.

HTH

 

Both boys had clogged tear ducts in both eyes within the first week of life.

It was gross...and I swore it would never go away. I hated having them spew goo out of their eye all the time...it just looked yucky. Sometimes in the morning they would have so much their eyes would literally be glued shut.

A warm washcloth kept it clean. And it does eventually clear on it's own. The doctor kept telling me that; and it felt like FOREVER, but it did get better. For Joe, it took 5 months...Nick was more like 6 or 7.

 

Hey Michelle -- so nice to see you here!

Amy had a clogged tear duct from birth until almost a year (but it got stopped up more often as a newborn). Our doc gave us some antibiotic ointment to put in it when the goop started to build up, but a lot of docs just say to wipe the goop away and massage the duct. (We were supposed to massage too, but honestly were not very good at it.)

When you massage, you should press up and in towards the nose -- at least that is what our doc told us.

When you wipe, always use a clean cotton ball and sort of rotate it as you wipe, so the goop doesn't get smeared around the eye. If you have to wipe again, use another cotton ball.

It is probably worth calling your doc about next week, but nothing scary's going to happen over the weekend, so don't stress about it. At worst, the goop will build up a bit and you may have to soak it off with a warm wet washcloth.

When she was born the doc said to let him know if it didn't clear up by 6 months -- then at 6 months he said wait till 9 -- then at 9 months he said wait till 12, and then they might have to probe it. But by 12 months it was better! Actually she still does tear up sometimes, but almost never gets the goopies anymore.

Sorry so long -- just wanted to get it all in there in case something is helpful.