Post Punk Kitchen Forum

just wondering if anyone has ever dealt with a blocked/clogged tear duct and how long it took to clear up?

Charlotte has one goopy eye and we think it's a blocked tear duct. it has some discharge that is a bit yellowish.
the eye ball itself seems fine.
ive been taking a warm face cloth and trying to massage the duct at each feeding then dumping some breast milk in her eye and massaging it. not sure how successful i am at this but this is what we've been trying.

it kind of reminds me of when i was younger and had bad seasonal allergies and my eyes would get all crusty and gunked up.

just wondering how long it should be before it starts to get better as we've been doing this since yesterday. i just want to make sure that i dont let it go too long and it's an actual infection and i should have called the dr.

We had this with tiny wu a couple times. I'd just gently wipe away with a warm washcloth, and then massage periodically. It usually cleared up in a couple days--one kind of gross day, then we'd see it improving but still goopy the next day or two.

I never went to the doctor for it, but you could call a nurse line if you're concerned.

Zeph had this. At first we just kept it clean, because the doctors said it was normal. They forgot to mention that we could help it go away though. Oops! So then we massaged his eye with a warm damp cloth and put breast milk in it. It cleared up within a week (I think maybe just a few days, but I'm a bit foggy on that). The breast milk really helped for us.

sounds good.
if it hasnt cleared up by Monday ill call the dr.

we clean it and dump boob milk it in at each feeding so that is multiple times a day.

she's so small it's hard to get my finger in there but a couple times i got a good amount of gunk out that i think squeezed out of hte duct itself

common. if the eyeball isn't red or sore looking, it's ok. when's your next dr. visit?

C had it for about a week - went away by doing exactly what you're doing. My niece, on the other hand, had it for about 9 months. She was 6 weeks early, and my sister in law's ped said it's more common in early babies. Can't hurt to talk to ped to give you peace of mind, but I do think it's quite common and almost always goes away with time.

Next pedi appt is Friday. Ill bring it up. The eyelid had been red since birth but the eyeball is totally fine. The gunkiness seems to be improving & she doesn't seem to mind having milk dumped on her face

The red eyelid could be a separate thing-- nevus simplex. Both of my twins have it, and have a decent sized red patch on one eyelid. It's really common.