Hi everyone. My five year old has had a stye on the ridge of his lower lid, close to the tear duct area for over a month. Everything I've read says stye's go away in a week or two. It's not an under the eyelid chalazion, but a little red bump that you can see that almost looks warty. I don't know at what point do you go to the doctor for a stye? I'm starting to think it might be time for me to take him in. Any thoughts or suggestions would be great. Thank you! :-)

Originally posted by LindaG:
Hi everyone. My five year old has had a stye on the ridge of his lower lid, close to the tear duct area for over a month. Everything I've read says stye's go away in a week or two. It's not an under the eyelid chalazion, but a little red bump that you can see that almost looks warty. I don't know at what point do you go to the doctor for a stye? I'm starting to think it might be time for me to take him in. Any thoughts or suggestions would be great. Thank you! :-)

If it's been there for a month he needs to be examined. Sounds like a chronic chalazion, but it could be something else more serious. Bottom line is to go see an optometrist or ophthalmologist.

HTH

Hi... I also responded to your post on the children's health board. I would not waste my time with an optometrist. They are not the best ones to be treating medical conditions of the eye. Go see a pediatric ophthalmologist.

Originally posted by purple2067:
Hi... I also responded to your post on the children's health board. I would not waste my time with an optometrist. They are not the best ones to be treating medical conditions of the eye. Go see a pediatric ophthalmologist.

Many ophthalmologists are not the *best* ones to be treating eye diseases either.

Sounds like you've convinced yourself that incompetency, malpractice, and misdiagnosis hasn't penetrated the field of ophthalmology.

Incompetency exists in both fields. There are good optometrists, and there are bad optometrists. There are good ophthalmologists, and there are bad ophthalmologists.

So,... to each their own.

hi,

my friends son had a similar problem. With her son it turned out to be a small growth and had to be surgically removed. I'm not sure who is better to see I think its just important to see someone. Besides you can get a second opinion if you feel you need one.

lil red chevy

Originally posted by qwerty75:


Sounds like you've convinced yourself that incompetency, malpractice, and misdiagnosis hasn't penetrated the field of ophthalmology.

Did I say that? Of course I know that malpractice and misdiagnosis and incompetency exists in the field of ophthalmology. I have come into contact with that myself. So please do not put words in my mouth, thank you very much. You have your own opinions, as do I. I respect yours, so please respect mine.

I was not referring to malpractice at all. All I meant to say is that generally, ophthalmologists are more qualified to treat medical conditions of the eye. I am sure that there are some very good optometrists out there who know how to treat styes. But in such a young child, I would want to see an MD who could figure out why he got a stye at the age of 5, and why it has taken so long to go away. And if there are any surgical procedures that need to be done, I would not want that to be done by an optometrist. When I said "why waste your time with an optometrist", I did not mean that optometrists are not good. I just meant that if he has something that may need to be treated surgically, why spend the time to go to an optometrist, when he is eventually going to have to see an ophthalmologist anyway?

[This message has been edited by purple2067 (edited 02-05-2003).]

[This message has been edited by purple2067 (edited 02-05-2003).]