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Blocked tear duct at 5 months



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 11th 03, 02:17 PM
Laurie
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Default Blocked tear duct at 5 months

Christopher's left tear duct is still blocked. They were both blocked until
about 8 weeks, when the right one just magically got better. IT's still
pretty bad, he wakes up with his eye crusted shut all the time and it drains
all day long. His ped says she will send him to an eye doctor at 6 months
for treatment, if it hasn't cleared. I'm not sure why she doesn't take care
of it herself, but she doesn't. Anyway, it shows no signs of clearing up,
he'll be 5 months in a few days. Anyone have a blocked tear duct open up on
it's own at this point? If not, how was the procedure to open the
duct.....it sounds awful, but was it easy?

laurie
mommy to Jessica, 29 months
and Christopher, 4 months

*This email address is now valid*


  #2  
Old September 11th 03, 02:51 PM
Kari
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Default Blocked tear duct at 5 months


"Laurie" wrote in message
. ..
Christopher's left tear duct is still blocked. They were both blocked

until
about 8 weeks, when the right one just magically got better. IT's still
pretty bad, he wakes up with his eye crusted shut all the time and it

drains
all day long. His ped says she will send him to an eye doctor at 6 months
for treatment, if it hasn't cleared. I'm not sure why she doesn't take

care
of it herself, but she doesn't. Anyway, it shows no signs of clearing up,
he'll be 5 months in a few days. Anyone have a blocked tear duct open up

on
it's own at this point? If not, how was the procedure to open the
duct.....it sounds awful, but was it easy?

laurie
mommy to Jessica, 29 months
and Christopher, 4 months



Both of mine had this, Kaylie's cleared up around 4 or 5 mos and Noah's not
until he was over a year old. Our ped said at his 15 month well baby check
up if it had not cleared she would refer us to an eye dr but it got better
between the 12 and 15 month check up. I did massage it and used breast milk
drops in his eye and it seemed to help. His was a lot worse than Kaylie's
too, it drained all the time and he'd wake up with it sealed shut.

My cousin's son had it until he was 4! I can't believe they left it that
long but he had the surgery at that point and he's 5 now and fine. It was a
pretty minor procedure I guess.

Kari
mom to Kaylie (7) Noah (4) and #3 due in 3 weeks!


  #3  
Old September 11th 03, 03:06 PM
Karen
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Posts: n/a
Default Blocked tear duct at 5 months

Laurie wrote:

Christopher's left tear duct is still blocked. They were both blocked until
about 8 weeks, when the right one just magically got better. IT's still
pretty bad, he wakes up with his eye crusted shut all the time and it drains
all day long. His ped says she will send him to an eye doctor at 6 months
for treatment, if it hasn't cleared. I'm not sure why she doesn't take care
of it herself, but she doesn't. Anyway, it shows no signs of clearing up,
he'll be 5 months in a few days. Anyone have a blocked tear duct open up on
it's own at this point? If not, how was the procedure to open the
duct.....it sounds awful, but was it easy?

laurie
mommy to Jessica, 29 months
and Christopher, 4 months

*This email address is now valid*


My understanding is that it usually works itself our on it's own by 12 months
and many/most pede's don't
send a child for evaluation by an opthamologist until then. That said, my
nephew's pediatrician followed this standard
and now the poor child (will be 3 in February) has already had 3 surgeries and
will be facing more. The eye doc said that
if he had seen him when he was 6 or 8 months old instead of after he was 1 it
probably could have been fixed in one surgery.
He doesn't blame the pede as usually waiting until after 1 is fine, in Chris'
case it wasn't but no one knew that until it was too late.
The surgery itself isn't a big deal-same day procedure but it is a general
anesthetic.
I hope your Chris' resolves on it's own.

K-


  #4  
Old September 11th 03, 03:15 PM
Ilse Witch
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Default Blocked tear duct at 5 months

Laurie wrote:
Christopher's left tear duct is still blocked. They were both blocked until
about 8 weeks, when the right one just magically got better.


IIRC DS had one of his ducts blocked up to 6 or 7 months, when
it unblocked by itself. That coincided with him leaving daycare
for our move abroad, so it may have been a combination of things
in our case.

--
-- I
mommy to DS (14m)
guardian of DH
EDD 05-17-2004
War doesn't decide who's right - only who's left

  #5  
Old September 11th 03, 03:52 PM
laurie
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Posts: n/a
Default Blocked tear duct at 5 months

my son had this same problem when he was born..he was seen by his ped at
about 2 months who prescribed an ointment that was messaged along his duct
2x a day and within 2 months he was fine...please don't wait to start
treatment ,i was very addement that my son not have surgery at such a young
age and this worked for us...good luck
"Ilse Witch" wrote in message
...
Laurie wrote:
Christopher's left tear duct is still blocked. They were both blocked

until
about 8 weeks, when the right one just magically got better.


IIRC DS had one of his ducts blocked up to 6 or 7 months, when
it unblocked by itself. That coincided with him leaving daycare
for our move abroad, so it may have been a combination of things
in our case.

--
-- I
mommy to DS (14m)
guardian of DH
EDD 05-17-2004
War doesn't decide who's right - only who's left



  #6  
Old September 11th 03, 07:11 PM
Ilse Witch
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Posts: n/a
Default Blocked tear duct at 5 months

laurie wrote:
my son had this same problem when he was born..he was seen by his ped at
about 2 months who prescribed an ointment that was messaged along his duct
2x a day and within 2 months he was fine...


Totally forgot about that: massaging is an excellent way of helping
the duct unblock! And if you are still breastfeeding, drop a few drops
of breastmilk in each eye to clear out and prevent infections.

--
-- I
mommy to DS (14m)
guardian of DH
EDD 05-17-2004
War doesn't decide who's right - only who's left

  #7  
Old September 12th 03, 04:33 AM
Laurie
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Posts: n/a
Default Blocked tear duct at 5 months


Kari wrote in message ...

Both of mine had this, Kaylie's cleared up around 4 or 5 mos and Noah's not
until he was over a year old. Our ped said at his 15 month well baby check
up if it had not cleared she would refer us to an eye dr but it got better
between the 12 and 15 month check up. I did massage it and used breast milk
drops in his eye and it seemed to help. His was a lot worse than Kaylie's
too, it drained all the time and he'd wake up with it sealed shut.


That's how Christopher's is too. It's awful, poor little bugger!


My cousin's son had it until he was 4! I can't believe they left it that
long but he had the surgery at that point and he's 5 now and fine. It was a
pretty minor procedure I guess.

Kari
mom to Kaylie (7) Noah (4) and #3 due in 3 weeks!


Thanks Kari!

laurie
mommy to Jessica, 29 months
and Christopher, 4 months

*This email address is now valid*




  #8  
Old September 12th 03, 09:54 PM
Irene
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Posts: n/a
Default Blocked tear duct at 5 months

"Laurie" wrote in message ...
Christopher's left tear duct is still blocked. They were both blocked until
about 8 weeks, when the right one just magically got better. IT's still
pretty bad, he wakes up with his eye crusted shut all the time and it drains
all day long. His ped says she will send him to an eye doctor at 6 months
for treatment, if it hasn't cleared. I'm not sure why she doesn't take care
of it herself, but she doesn't. Anyway, it shows no signs of clearing up,
he'll be 5 months in a few days. Anyone have a blocked tear duct open up on
it's own at this point? If not, how was the procedure to open the
duct.....it sounds awful, but was it easy?

IIRC, it was at ds' 4 month checkup when the ped gave me a card for a
pediatric ophthomologist (or at least, someone who did the surgery),
so I could call and ask about options, etc. I'm lazy, and remembered
some posts about blocked ducts clearing out on their own, so I didn't
do anything. By his 6 month checkup, it had cleared up, and I never
had to do anything. I hope you get that lucky!

Irene

laurie
mommy to Jessica, 29 months
and Christopher, 4 months

*This email address is now valid*

  #9  
Old September 15th 03, 05:29 PM
Catherine Woodgold
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Posts: n/a
Default Blocked tear duct at 5 months


One of my kids had a (partially?) blocked tear duct.
It got better on its own, I think around 5 or 6 months
of age.

General anesthetic is dangerous. I would suggest
finding out what the death rate is before considering
it. I'm not sure it's worth it for a blocked
tear duct. I wonder whether the death rate would
be lower if you wait until an older age to do
the procedure.

The main problem I think is infection. If you
wipe the eye several times a day with things like
breastmilk and lukewarm chamomile tea, this can
treat the infection; when there's no infection,
I think the blocked duct isn't really that much
of a problem.

I would suggest wiping the eye frequently,
even when it doesn't look dirty. Just gently
wiping the outside, in such a way that a
little fluid gets in.

For my own eye infections, I use cranberry juice:
both drinking it, and putting it directly in my
eye. Warning: it stings badly, and I'm not
sure it's safe. I use pure cranberry juice;
for drinking I mix it with water. I wouldn't
use it on a child's eye without diluting it
a lot. The stuff with sugar added would not
be as good, since the sugar would make the
infection worse, I guess.

My reasoning is this:
drinking cranberry juice is said to be good against
bladder infections because it prevents the
bacteria from succeeding in sticking to the
sides of the bladder. So I figure, if one
has a bacterial eye infection, I suppose it
would help there too. If it's a viral infection
I suppose it won't help. I just assume it's
bacterial and use it anyway.

Here's an idea -- I don't know whether
this is a bad idea. If there's a possibility
that the duct is blocked by an object,
then how about massaging it backwards
(in an upwards direction) to push the
thing out?

Or maybe just massaging briefly in
a downwards direction whenever you
wipe the eye.
I suppose you could also massage
with a pulling, stretching, widening
motion (gently). Just ideas. I didn't
know about the idea of massaging when
my kid had it.

One of my kids had an eyelash
that would always be lying on the surface
of the eye. It didn't seem to bother
hir. I would pull it out, with
great difficulty, and a few minutes
later it would be in again. The doctor
said not to worry if it didn't bother hir.
Se grew out of it.
--
Cathy
  #10  
Old September 15th 03, 06:19 PM
David&Wendy
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Blocked tear duct at 5 months

A close friend of mine her son is 8 months old now and has both tear ducks
blocked all the time. The doc gave meds for this but doesn't always help him
out if it does persist he will at age of 1 year old need an operation to get
this corrected..
A few thing that do work for blocked tear duck are
-breast milk
-tea bag cold over eye infected for a minute or les depends on child
-drops of cold tea in eye
-massaging near the eye is a very good way also 3 times a day will help
clear it up ( my son has it on one eye )
hope this helps you

"Catherine Woodgold" wrote in message
...

One of my kids had a (partially?) blocked tear duct.
It got better on its own, I think around 5 or 6 months
of age.

General anesthetic is dangerous. I would suggest
finding out what the death rate is before considering
it. I'm not sure it's worth it for a blocked
tear duct. I wonder whether the death rate would
be lower if you wait until an older age to do
the procedure.

The main problem I think is infection. If you
wipe the eye several times a day with things like
breastmilk and lukewarm chamomile tea, this can
treat the infection; when there's no infection,
I think the blocked duct isn't really that much
of a problem.

I would suggest wiping the eye frequently,
even when it doesn't look dirty. Just gently
wiping the outside, in such a way that a
little fluid gets in.

For my own eye infections, I use cranberry juice:
both drinking it, and putting it directly in my
eye. Warning: it stings badly, and I'm not
sure it's safe. I use pure cranberry juice;
for drinking I mix it with water. I wouldn't
use it on a child's eye without diluting it
a lot. The stuff with sugar added would not
be as good, since the sugar would make the
infection worse, I guess.

My reasoning is this:
drinking cranberry juice is said to be good against
bladder infections because it prevents the
bacteria from succeeding in sticking to the
sides of the bladder. So I figure, if one
has a bacterial eye infection, I suppose it
would help there too. If it's a viral infection
I suppose it won't help. I just assume it's
bacterial and use it anyway.

Here's an idea -- I don't know whether
this is a bad idea. If there's a possibility
that the duct is blocked by an object,
then how about massaging it backwards
(in an upwards direction) to push the
thing out?

Or maybe just massaging briefly in
a downwards direction whenever you
wipe the eye.
I suppose you could also massage
with a pulling, stretching, widening
motion (gently). Just ideas. I didn't
know about the idea of massaging when
my kid had it.

One of my kids had an eyelash
that would always be lying on the surface
of the eye. It didn't seem to bother
hir. I would pull it out, with
great difficulty, and a few minutes
later it would be in again. The doctor
said not to worry if it didn't bother hir.
Se grew out of it.
--
Cathy



 




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