Clogged tear duct

Upon my son's first ped appointment, the doctor told me that he has a clogged tear duct. Ever since then, I have noticed this gook oozing out of his eyes when he wakes up from a nap or cries. Is this normal? He's not rubbing his eyes and they're not red, so I'm thinking that it's not conjunctivitis, but I have no experience with this. Any ideas?

 

One of my DD's had a clogged tear duct. It used to get goopy too. I just used a wash cloth with some water a couple of times a day. She never had an eye infection, but when in doubt call the pedi to make sure. GL!

 

Mine had this too, and Hannah's has gone away, but Evann still has it. Completely normal...any time makes any kind of a fuss or cry, and especially when he wakes up, he has all kinds of greenish crusties/gunky in the corner of his eye. I asked the pedi too, they said it's normal.

 

I have no experience with clogged tear ducts... however, any time my children have had a greenish discharge from their eyes, it has been pink eye/conjunctivitis. They can give you a gel or liquid drops to clear it up..

 

i agree normal. ds had this too pedi said to wipe downward with a warm wash cloth or cotton ball a few times a day it went away in couple weeks.

 

QUOTE(Rebecca72 @ Sep 30 2008, 10:34 AM) [snapback]1004788[/snapback]
Upon my son's first ped appointment, the doctor told me that he has a clogged tear duct. Ever since then, I have noticed this gook oozing out of his eyes when he wakes up from a nap or cries. Is this normal? He's not rubbing his eyes and they're not red, so I'm thinking that it's not conjunctivitis, but I have no experience with this. Any ideas?


That is completely normal for a clogged tear duct. Makenna had one that resolved itself. My ped told me to give it 1 year and if it didn't resolve itself he would do a procedure to open it.

Christy

 

Thanks ladies! I feel much better! Something "normal" is happening in my house...imagine that!

 

Amy had a plugged tear duct, off and on, for most of the first year. It was worst under 3 months. She would get that goop in her eyes fairly often and the ped gave us some antibiotic ointment to smear in it. It would always clear up the goop right away, but the goop would always come back. I sort of wondered if we were building antibiotic resistance by using it so often but just for a few days at a time -- but that is what he said to do, so we did it. Anyway, she never did get real conjunctivitis. But the goop would get so thick sometimes that it would practically glue her eyes shut.

Finally, at around 1 year, just when we were thinking we'd have to have the hole unplugged, it cleared up.

 

As a mom of a baby with both a clogged duct, and former pinkeye lottery winner I can say without a doubt that you can clearly tell a difference between pinkeye and just normal plugged duct goopyness.

With pinkeye the whole eye is bloodshot red after a couple of days and the bottom of their eyelids becomes very red. They also tend to rub it like crazy as it feels like sand in your eye.

With a plugged duct it isn't uncommon to have a little discharge from the eyes when they wake up from a nap, or first thing in the morning, but it generally isn't constant in our case. I wash his eyes out twice a day with a warm washcloth to get any gunk out. And we have been treated for a general eye infection once when we starting getting much more goop than normal. So, goop with a plugged duct is normal, but if it is starting to become excessive I would give the pedi a call just to be sure. I am would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to their eyes. KWIM?

 

Yep, totally normal for a clogged tear duct. You can do a warm compress over the eye a few times a day and massage it to try and keep it open. My DD had a clogged duct that had to be surgically opened after one year since it did not resolve on its own.

 

Normal! DD's eye went worse around 4 months then just cleared up one day.

 

If you are unsure I would take him in to get checked. Mine had the clogged tear ducts, so I ingored Lily's red eye until it was too late and it spread to Amelia and me. It took us a good 3 weeks to get rid of the pink eye!

 

My DS has had this problem since birth. The dr said its nothing to worry about, I just use a warm face cloth to wipe it away. His still gets it to this day, as long as it doesnt seem red or infected, I wouldnt worry to much about it

 

My dd had a clogged tear duct at two months old, well it looked like she had a black eye and it oozed stuff. We were sent to a ped. opthamalogist who then sent us to a an ENT. There was a cyst that grew from her tear duct to her nasal cavity. She then had surgery the same week. It was all very fast, but the opt. said it needed to be taken care of right away. After the surgery, she looked perfect no scars, no more black eye and no more oozing. We stayed in the hospital for 24 hours, just b/c of her age, two months.

She has had no problems since.