gunky eyes

I'm confused, Nathanael has had a gunky eye, that we had presumed not to be
infected as there is no redness on the eye, nor does the eyelid appear to be
swollen, he has slight redness at the other side of the eye from the nose,
we presume from our attempts to clean the eye. However, I ended up taking
him to the doctor and the doctor said it was infected without even looking
closely, I've looked again online for pictures of bacterial eye infection
and it just doesn't look like that at all. The other thing that makes me
think it's not an infection is that as I didn't think it was an infection, I
haven't been washing hands after cleaning his eye, but I haven't got it
myself, nor has anyone else, but if it was as infectious as the doctor says
it is, then I'm sure I would have got it!

He's had this in the past, but we've except once when he really did have the
full symptoms, we've never actually made it far as the doctor, either a
nurse or my husbands mum (who is a doctor) has confirmed it's not infected.

I will give him the antibiotic drops, but I need to know for future, the
chances are is that with preschool and what not, I'd have to go to the
doctors to get it confirmed as not an eye infection, but I need to get my
head round it and ask probing questions!

Anne

"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
...
I'm confused, Nathanael has had a gunky eye, that we had presumed not to
be infected as there is no redness on the eye, nor does the eyelid appear
to be swollen, he has slight redness at the other side of the eye from the
nose, we presume from our attempts to clean the eye. However, I ended up
taking him to the doctor and the doctor said it was infected without even
looking closely, I've looked again online for pictures of bacterial eye
infection and it just doesn't look like that at all. The other thing that
makes me think it's not an infection is that as I didn't think it was an
infection, I haven't been washing hands after cleaning his eye, but I
haven't got it myself, nor has anyone else, but if it was as infectious as
the doctor says it is, then I'm sure I would have got it!

Our ped said it's not pink eye unless the eye is pink, even if it is gunky.
A relative who is an MD says it isn't pink eye unless it's gunky (and it can
be pink eye and not be pink). So, two different POV. I defer to the
relative, because my kids get this gunky eye all the time, and if I don't
treat it like pink eye with antibiotics, the eye gets worse and worse until
the eyelids are glued together and spreads to the other eye and then I get
it, all the while never getting pink. The antibiotics clear it up right
away. So, when we get it, it is most definitely infectious.

We do see another ped in the same practice who also agrees with my relative.
He treats gunky eyes as pink eye. So, it is two to one.

"toypup" wrote in message
...

"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
...
I'm confused, Nathanael has had a gunky eye, that we had presumed not to
be infected as there is no redness on the eye, nor does the eyelid appear
to be swollen, he has slight redness at the other side of the eye from
the nose, we presume from our attempts to clean the eye. However, I ended
up taking him to the doctor and the doctor said it was infected without
even looking closely, I've looked again online for pictures of bacterial
eye infection and it just doesn't look like that at all. The other thing
that makes me think it's not an infection is that as I didn't think it
was an infection, I haven't been washing hands after cleaning his eye,
but I haven't got it myself, nor has anyone else, but if it was as
infectious as the doctor says it is, then I'm sure I would have got it!

Our ped said it's not pink eye unless the eye is pink, even if it is
gunky. A relative who is an MD says it isn't pink eye unless it's gunky
(and it can be pink eye and not be pink). So, two different POV. I defer
to the relative, because my kids get this gunky eye all the time, and if I
don't treat it like pink eye with antibiotics, the eye gets worse and
worse until the eyelids are glued together and spreads to the other eye
and then I get it, all the while never getting pink. The antibiotics
clear it up right away. So, when we get it, it is most definitely
infectious.

We do see another ped in the same practice who also agrees with my
relative. He treats gunky eyes as pink eye. So, it is two to one.

I've never heard of "pinkeye". Is it the same as conjunctivitis? I thought
conjunctivitis is usually always gunky, but not always pink.

Jen

In article ,
"Anne Rogers" wrote:

I'm confused, Nathanael has had a gunky eye, that we had presumed not to be
infected as there is no redness on the eye, nor does the eyelid appear to be
swollen, he has slight redness at the other side of the eye from the nose,
we presume from our attempts to clean the eye. However, I ended up taking
him to the doctor and the doctor said it was infected without even looking
closely, I've looked again online for pictures of bacterial eye infection
and it just doesn't look like that at all. The other thing that makes me
think it's not an infection is that as I didn't think it was an infection, I
haven't been washing hands after cleaning his eye, but I haven't got it
myself, nor has anyone else, but if it was as infectious as the doctor says
it is, then I'm sure I would have got it!

We distinguish between "sticky eye" and conjunctivitis (which is pink-eye in
the USA, I think). Sticky eye is just gunk in the eye without irritation or
distress, and is, I believe, caused by blocked tear ducts. The suggestion is
to massage the tear ducts, but nobody's clear on whether this works or not.
Bad cases can require use of a probe to clear the duct, but this is never done
on babies; you need repeated bad cases of sticky eye before any doctor would
attempt it. Children who are prone to sticky eye tend to outgrow it.

Conjunctivitis is a (usually bacterial) inflammation of the lining of the eye.
It usually occurs when children with colds wipe mucus into their eyes. To
children, it's slightly annoying, but to an adult it's quite painful. IME
there are larger quantities of mucus discharged from the eye than for sticky
eye, it soon infects the other eye, and there is noticeable redness and
swelling.

HTH.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans. You may
start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and wrinkled."
Kerry Cue

"Jen" wrote in message
...
I've never heard of "pinkeye". Is it the same as conjunctivitis? I
thought
conjunctivitis is usually always gunky, but not always pink.


Yes. They are one and the same. Although I've had it several times in
younger days I cannot speak to whether or not it must include pinkness of
the eye whites or not. Mine always did.

-Aula

"Chookie" wrote in message
...

We distinguish between "sticky eye" and conjunctivitis (which is pink-eye
in
the USA, I think). Sticky eye is just gunk in the eye without irritation
or
distress, and is, I believe, caused by blocked tear ducts. The suggestion
is
to massage the tear ducts, but nobody's clear on whether this works or
not.
Bad cases can require use of a probe to clear the duct, but this is never
done
on babies; you need repeated bad cases of sticky eye before any doctor
would
attempt it. Children who are prone to sticky eye tend to outgrow it.

Well, the sticky eye my kids get is contagious, because it spreads from eye
to eye and person to person. My eye eventually gets sticky and gunky, if
I'm not careful around my sticky and gunky-eyed kids. It also clears up
with antibiotics.

I know kids can get blocked ducts, and I'm not sure how that always
presents. One kid I knew with that was just teary-eyed.

"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
...
I'm confused, Nathanael has had a gunky eye, that we had presumed not to
be infected as there is no redness on the eye, nor does the eyelid appear
to be swollen, he has slight redness at the other side of the eye from the
nose, we presume from our attempts to clean the eye. However, I ended up
taking him to the doctor and the doctor said it was infected without even
looking closely, I've looked again online for pictures of bacterial eye
infection and it just doesn't look like that at all. The other thing that
makes me think it's not an infection is that as I didn't think it was an
infection, I haven't been washing hands after cleaning his eye, but I
haven't got it myself, nor has anyone else, but if it was as infectious as
the doctor says it is, then I'm sure I would have got it!

He's had this in the past, but we've except once when he really did have
the full symptoms, we've never actually made it far as the doctor, either
a nurse or my husbands mum (who is a doctor) has confirmed it's not
infected.

I will give him the antibiotic drops, but I need to know for future, the
chances are is that with preschool and what not, I'd have to go to the
doctors to get it confirmed as not an eye infection, but I need to get my
head round it and ask probing questions!
You can get viral conjunctivitis which is more "pink eye" than gunky I
believe. It is very contagious-worse than the bacterial form I was told.
I'm not sure what you can do with it except stop them from rubbing if
possible. Is there not an equivalent of the UK pharmacist you could ask?
Debbie

We distinguish between "sticky eye" and conjunctivitis (which is pink-eye
in
the USA, I think). Sticky eye is just gunk in the eye without irritation
or
distress, and is, I believe, caused by blocked tear ducts. The suggestion
is
to massage the tear ducts, but nobody's clear on whether this works or
not.
Bad cases can require use of a probe to clear the duct, but this is never
done
on babies; you need repeated bad cases of sticky eye before any doctor
would
attempt it. Children who are prone to sticky eye tend to outgrow it.

this sounds exactly like what DS has, it's not "infected" the other eye, it
has happened recurrently, but not often enough for us to have investigated
anything like a blocked duct, we're talking every 6mths or so.

Conjunctivitis is a (usually bacterial) inflammation of the lining of the
eye.
It usually occurs when children with colds wipe mucus into their eyes. To
children, it's slightly annoying, but to an adult it's quite painful. IME
there are larger quantities of mucus discharged from the eye than for
sticky
eye, it soon infects the other eye, and there is noticeable redness and
swelling.

I think the thing is that the about of discharge in this case is middling,
more than you might expect for sticky eye, but minimal for conjucitivitis
(which he did have once and it was an awful lot more discharge!). This still
leaves me a bit stuck, he's excluded from everything ishe has pink eye, and
if the doctor then says it's pink eye I can hardly say it isn't, but if I
don't go to the doctor to confirm it isn't pink eye, then the approach is
that it's suspected pink eye and same exclusions apply, hence I need to get
the correct information out of the doctor, but it does sound like the
medical profession isn't 100% agreed!

Anne

You can get viral conjunctivitis which is more "pink eye" than gunky I
believe. It is very contagious-worse than the bacterial form I was told.
I'm not sure what you can do with it except stop them from rubbing if
possible. Is there not an equivalent of the UK pharmacist you could ask?

I think you can ask a pharmacist just like you can in the UK, but I'm not
sure they would really be able to do a diagnosis in cases like this, am I
right in thinking that an antibiotic for eyes recently became available OTC?
I don't think that is the case here, so they'd probably send you straight to
the doctors. I rather think, that with the culture here of children having
to be 100% well for everything, that if anyone slips through the net and
passes an infection on, the doctor is likely to be criticised for not
diagnosing correctly, there is little room in US medicine for conservative
diagnosis. Thankfully our regular paediatrician is very conservative, but
this was an urgent appointment, so not with our regular doctor.

Anne

Our ped said it's not pink eye unless the eye is pink, even if it is
gunky. A relative who is an MD says it isn't pink eye unless it's gunky
(and it can be pink eye and not be pink). So, two different POV. I defer
to the relative, because my kids get this gunky eye all the time, and if I
don't treat it like pink eye with antibiotics, the eye gets worse and
worse until the eyelids are glued together and spreads to the other eye
and then I get it, all the while never getting pink. The antibiotics
clear it up right away. So, when we get it, it is most definitely
infectious.

I think what it comes down to is whether or not it's infectious, and the
evidence here is that DS is not infectious, his other eye is fine and having
not taken any precautions to prevent transmission to anyone else, we are
still fine! According to your ped, DS would not have pink eye and he's
recovered from this before without infecting anyone else, or the other eye.

Anne