Blocked tear duct

[AmandaKDT]

As anyone dealt with a blocked tear duct in a 1 year old? I have had a 12 month old in my daycare for a month now and he has a blocked tear duct that hasn't resolved itself from when he was an infant.

Most days it is weepy, but these last couple days in has been abit swollen and has lots of yellow discharge as well. I am concerned there is infection, though the dad never comments on it unless I bring it up (never even mentioned the problem at our initial meeting when I asked about medical concerns). Apparently their doctor wants to hold off abit longer before doing surgery to fix it.

my younger daughter had a blocked tear duct, but it went away by the time she was 3 months old.

[CrazyEight]

My oldest daughter had one that had to be surgically corrected when she was 4 - and they discovered during the surgery that it was actually 2 separate ducts in the same eye!

Every single picture we have of her before the surgery, she has a tear in the inside corner of her left eye. Every single one. It was always weepy. She also got eye infections pretty much every time she got a cold, because the mucus would back up into her eye. The best defense was polysporin eye drops at the FIRST sign of a cold, from anyone in the house. If we started them right away, twice a day, until the cold was gone (which sometimes meant a long time of drops every day!) we could usually avoid an infection.

The yellow discharge though sounds like it's already turned into an infection. Hers always started that way, where it literally looked like the mucus from her nose was coming out her eye (sorry, gross!) and then progressed to green goo, waking up with her eye crusted shut, and the whole eye getting red and puffy. They will probably need an antibiotic.

You may want to mention the eye drops to the parents, or see if they'll let you do it to help prevent future infections. Our doctor at the time was an idiot, and kept insisting there was nothing wrong with her eye and she was simply "prone to infections". When we moved and found a new family doctor when she was 4, he took one look at her and said it was blocked. Apparently, in over 20 years of family practice, he had never seen another case where it needed to be surgically opened; he said they almost always clear up by themselves. My guess is the doctor will probably want to wait until the little guy is 2, in the hopes that it will open up without surgery.

[torontokids]

My daughter had one and I swear my SIL fixed it in one sec. She has these long finger nails (really just normal, mine are stubby) and was holding my daughter said "agh, your eye is all gunky and picked it with her nail." Of course I was thinking, take your nail out of my kid's eye but it cleared that day! It seems to be a problem with babies in our family and my one nephew already had the surgery scheduled (he was 18 mos old) I told them to get my SIL to "fix it" and she did,they cancelled the surgery...My brother just had twins and same thing, they got her to fix it and they're great now. heh heh, I tell her she needs to start up a side business.

Sorry, not the answer you were looking for, I just think it's funny.

[AmandaKDT]

Well I talked to the parent at pick up and asked if there was anything in particular I can do to help him during the day in terms of eye care. Right now I wash his eye ith a warm cloth to remove any excess gunk sitting there. The dad said they don't do anything and don't use an ointment either. They are just waiting for it to go away.

I feel so bad for the kid, he has two little sores under his eye from his tears constantly coming out and sitting on his skin.

This sort of stuff bugs me because it feels like there is nothing I can do to fix it since they aren't my child.

[5 Little Monkeys]

OH my goodness TOkids, can you send your SIL here??? haha

I currently have an 18 month old with this problem. She's had it for months. Just before xmas they took her in and the doctor said that they would like to see if it goes away on it's own but if it doesn't, surgery would happen. They told them to wipe her eye down to her nose as this may help clear it up. I do it here as well. Her's is also yellowish right now (but she also has a cold) and she too has a mark under her eye from all the wiping/tears (at least that's my guess for why)

She is pretty much unaffected by it from what I can see though. They have an appointment for surgery but it's not until she's 2 as apparently they won't do it under that age. I'm guessing it is common for it to go away on it's own and that is why they hold off for awhile?

[Lee-Bee]

I had an 18month old that had it, when she first started all the parents would comment on how sad she looked because she always had tears. She was the happiest kid ever lol. The parents said there was a medicated ointment by prescription but it was near impossible to get it in Canada for the longest time, they finally got their hands on it shortly before I stopped caring for her so not sure how it works. But it is common for it to extend past age 1.