my son is now 14 months old. i was told when he was about 9 or 10 months old that he had a slightly clogged tear duct, now the doctors gave me meds to put in his eyes to help with the issue and this morning he woke up with the problem again. ive looked up about clogged tear ducts and everything i read says that it should resolve itself by 1 year old. hes over a year old although he hasnt had an outbreak since he was 10 months old it started when he was about 8 months old on and off. im worried that it should be fixed by now and it isnt. should i get a second opion or just use the meds that i have and wait it out some more
All 5 of mine had this and I used a warm wash cloth and wiped it a couple times a day or every time it was goopy. If this doesn't resolve it, I'd get a second opinion or a referral. My kids would get it off and on the first couple of years. Good luck!!
Get a second opinion. My pediatrician told me the same thing, to wait it out. i got tired of it and took him to see my family Dr who refereed us to a pediatric ophthalmologist. My son was a year old and we had the probing procedure done. His clogged tear ducts were on both eyes and were both major. I did compresses, massage, breastmilk, meds... nothing worked, his eyes were pretty much always sealed shut. The clogged ducts were torture for my son and us. The procedure was scary to watch, but they did numb his eyes with numbing drops. It lasted less than 5 minutes and I kid you not, his eyes were perfect not even 10 minutes later. Just a very slight tinge of bloody tears that day and that was it. I wish I had done it months earlier. Also, A.Anderson's procedure is entirely different than clogged ducts. Basically, all they do is strap the child down, hold their head, add numbing drops and take a long, hooked needle and poke it through the duct, and you just watch all of this nasty gunk pour out. His Dr told us the ducts were so bad, that they never would have healed without the procedure.
I found out that your tears are mostly water with a little mucus to smooth its stick the tear to your eye and a little oil to keep the tear from evaporating too fast. Sometimes those 3 things separate and the oil ends up clogging the duct. If it is a chronic condition it is called blepharitis and then you will get meds and also a kind of sterile gauze pad with a cleanser that you can run along the inside of the lid to open up the ducts. The things that works best for me to prevent the clogging is to wash my eyes daily after I take off my make-up with baby-shampoo. I use a wash cloth with water as hot as I can stand it and hold it against my closed eyes and then wash my closed eyes with baby shampoo. However, for an infant I don't think you could do that. I would see the doctor again and ask what you can do since it seems to be persisting.
I would definitely get a second opinion. I had a pterygium on my eye that I just had removed. I wouldn't wish that surgery on anyone! The most major cause is dryness of the eye.
Both of my sons had a blocked tear duct. We didn't notice our first born's until he was one and the doctor told us to watch it until he was 2. Well at 2 years he still had it and he had surgery to put a stint in for 6 months and they just removed it. It wasn't that big of an ordeal, except for surgery day. He didn't like the weird feeling of the gas to put him under. My second son we noticed before he was a day old and just massaged the corner of his eye at the nose with every diaper change it fixed itself within a month. Hope this helps.
Take him to a pediatric opthamologist for a second opinion. One of my sons had to have his tear ducts unblocked because nothing we did was helping. They used sedation at a day surgery center and he was completely fine afterwards.
I would get a second opinion...it sure can't hurt anything! Our niece had a clogged tear duct for the first 9 months, but it resolved itself! Best of luck!
I do believe breast milk resolves a clogged tear duct as well. I would also get a second medical opinion.
