Crusty Eyes - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

hotmama08 · 11-03-2008, 10:41 PM

My son is almost 3 weeks old and so far doing fine. I only noticed few days ago since we both got home from the hospital that his left eyes was getting really crusty and I cleaned it with water and cottonballs.

But this week it is now on his right eyes and the left eye is fine. It is really crusty, yellowish stuff that sometimes sticks his upper and lower eyelashes together that it's hard to open his eyes. I keep cleaning it but after an hour, it is there again. I dont see any eye redness. Is this normal or it is considered a pink eye?

dina08 · 11-04-2008, 04:44 AM

I am so familiar with this one. I deal with this often with my daughter. I would call your doctor. It's possibly pink eye or a blocked tear duct. A blocked tear duct is quite common and usually goes away on its own by 1 year. For that, you can take a clean, warm washcloth and gently massage the inner corner of the eye. For pink eye, the baby needs antiobiotics or eye drops/ointment to clear it up.

My daughter is on antibiotics and eye ointment now for this exact thing. She has a blocked tear duct and she always gets pink eye or eye infections when she gets a cold.

WhiskersOnKittens · 11-04-2008, 10:05 PM

I agree, it's probably a blocked tear duct. They are very common in newborns. I would have the doctor take a look at it just to be certain that there's no infection, but my guess would be no, since there's no redness.
My ds had a blocked duct in both eyes when was really little, but his left eye cleared up relatively quickly (probably within a month). The left eye however, continued to be puffy, and have a ton of discharge until he was about 5 mo. It ended up clearing up on it's own, and was very off and on (some days there was NO discharge or puffiness, and some days were terrible--he wouldn't be able to open his eye without a lot of cleaning it).
Sometimes massaging the inner eye works in opening the tear duct, when you're cleaning the discharge, but other times it just has to grow open on it's own.

Whiskers

hotmama08 · 11-05-2008, 12:08 PM

Thanks for your reply. I guess it is a blocked tear duct. Yesterday his eyes was really clear and no discharges. This morning a little bit on the right eye. After cleaning it, it had stayed clean and crusty free until now. I hope it is slowly going away.