Blocked tear duct in a newborn

DS will be 4 weeks tomorrow and woke up this morning with his left eye a little goopy yellowish discharge. I've been wiping it with a warm washcloth every time it comes back after a nap. Is this normal or is this a blocked tear duct? I looked up what to do for a blocked tear duct I read there isn't much to do about it except wipe it with a warm washcloth and I've been massaging it a little on his inner eye. When should I call the dr? Is there anything else I should be doing? I'm hoping this is just normal stuff that happens when his tears come in and not a blocked tear duct. I would hate for him to have this until he's 1 year old.

Re: Blocked tear duct in a newborn

the yellow discharge would make me nervous & i'd call the doc. any time there is 'color' to stuff that comes out of them (other than poopy) - i get nervous...

yellow/green snot can be a sinus infection...

i do know that it's possible to have an eyelash infection - i have had one. before i had it - i had NO IDEA it was even possible!

can't hurt to call the doc! after all - you'll feel better having someone with MD after their name tell you that it's okay!

Re: Blocked tear duct in a newborn

yeah...its mainly just a pain.

josh's went away at about 4 mos old. woke up and it was gone...never came back.

Re: Blocked tear duct in a newborn

It sounds like a clogged tear duct. DS had this probably from birth until right before his 1st birthday. I was actually really shocked that it finally cleared up on its own. There's really nothing you can do about it.

Re: Blocked tear duct in a newborn

Re: Blocked tear duct in a newborn

DD had that too. I would just massage around the corner of her eye and that would help unclog it.

Re: Blocked tear duct in a newborn

Yes! DS had this at about the same age ...I called the ped and they said just to put warm water on a clean cotton ball and massage it around the tear duct. I didn't think this would do anything, but it went away in about a day or so.

Re: Blocked tear duct in a newborn

DS had exactly that for a few days when he was around 3 months old. I just kept putting a warm washcloth on it and it was gone in two days.

Re: Blocked tear duct in a newborn

Lauren had that at 4 weeks and that massaging te tearduct is exactly what we were told and it worked great for us. Thed ped gave us a prescription for a ointment but i never used it, i could get the nerve to put a tube that close to her eye. Thank god the massaging worked.

Re: Blocked tear duct in a newborn

DS had the same thing and the ped said it was conjunctivitis. We had to put medicine in his eye and it went away in a couple of days.

Re: Blocked tear duct in a newborn

Re: Blocked tear duct in a newborn

If you are BFing...you can put breastmilk in the corner of his eye also...it acts much like an antibiotic ointment without the nasty side effects. This can prevent any infection that might develop and actually helps to open up the passage way. DS has had clogged ducts both eyes when he was a couple weeks old and then again last week. Warm compress, massage and mama's milk cleared them up in 24 hours. Here are some articles about it. Good Luck....
Uses of Breastmilk
Blocked Tear Duct and Breastmilk
From Parenting Magazine...Dr. Sears

Re: Blocked tear duct in a newborn

My DD's tear ducts have been clogged since she was born. Her eyes tear a lot. She is now 15 months. We are waiting a little bit longer to see if they unclog on their own before we have the eye doctor do it.

If would definitely call the doctor if their is a yellow discharge. My DD had a colored discharge once a few months ago and the eye doctor prescribed drops for us to use.

Re: Blocked tear duct in a newborn

totally normal & def a clogged tear duct. not much you can do besides what you are already doing - it will go away on it's own in a few weeks.

Re: Blocked tear duct in a newborn

My DD has this too - I was worried that it might be the beginning of pinkeye, but it's not. I called the ped when I saw her eye (even though we were already going to the ped the next day - I couldn't wait, the look of her eye scared me) and she said this was pretty common, warm washcloth, and massage and that they'd look at it when we came in. The next day I got the same advice - not pinkeye. It seems to be improving quite a bit so I'm just going to keep doing what we're doing.