Pink eye / conjunctivitis
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Topic: Pink eye / conjunctivitis
Posted By: Alanismum
Subject: Pink eye / conjunctivitis
Date Posted: 20 February 2008 at 4:51pm
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I was wonderin if anybody has experience using saline (salt dissolved in water) to treat pink eye.
My three months old girl has a weeping eye with yellow discharge for almost a week. The Plunket nurse told me it will disappear without doing much. Today we went for her 3 months jabs and I asked the nurse there. She wrote down 250ml of boiling water with one teaspoon salt, cooled and used to wash the eye. I imagine it must sting. Poor little thing, three injections and then mum rubs salt in your eye Anybody tried saline? 
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Replies:
Posted By: peanut butter
Date Posted: 20 February 2008 at 5:01pm
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I'd be reluctant to use homemade saline. I am an optometrist and we always advise against making that up as not all bugs are killed by boiling and if she has a compromised ocular surface nasties could get in.
In saying that if you were to buy eye drops such as Refresh (little single use vials) you are getting sterile saline with no preservative. I would go to your pharmacy and ask for non preserved artificial tears. Basically they work by a)flushing things out of the eye, b) keeping things lubricated so they heal and c) easing discomfort. Refrigerating them will make them more soothing (but a baby might not like that). Your nurse is right, it will probably clear up all by itself. I would make sure you wipe it clean with a fresh damp face cloth or muslin or cotton ball. One for each eye. Change her bedding regularly etc (maybe a folded up flat nappy under her head so it is easy to change. A squirt of breastmilk into the eye can help too. Goodluck and feel free to PM me if you have anymore questions. |
Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 20 February 2008 at 5:31pm
| Saline has never worked for us, we just end up getting eye drops which clears it up in a couple of days rather than letting Daniel go with it for weeks. |
Posted By: Bizzy
Date Posted: 20 February 2008 at 5:56pm
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toby had it all the time and i just used breast milk...is that an option for you? ------------- http://www.myfitnesspal.com/weight-loss-ticker"> 
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Posted By: EmDee
Date Posted: 20 February 2008 at 7:41pm
Breastmilk worked really well for us too. We used homemade saline also, but may think twice about that in the future after reading Nikki's post ...   ------------- DS 8 DD 6 DS 4 DD 2 |
Posted By: mummy_becks
Date Posted: 20 February 2008 at 8:01pm
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If you are BF then that will clear it up. Otherwise as Nikki said get the single packets they work wonders. Failing those two the only option would be to see the dr and get some drops from them. ------------- I was a puree feeder, forward facing, cot sleeping, pram pushing kind of Mum... and my kids survived! |
Posted By: 3boys
Date Posted: 20 February 2008 at 9:22pm
Second the BM - works a treat and its sterile. Our baby has had sticky eyes since he was born and is now off to a specialist as they think his ducts need unblocking - we have to clean them all the time as well as putting drops in and the BM is the easiest option. I just do it each time I feed him - thats how quickly it builds up  ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: peanut butter
Date Posted: 20 February 2008 at 9:54pm
| BM aint sterile....butit has heaps of goodies in it |
Posted By: The_Stuarts
Date Posted: 21 February 2008 at 8:23am
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We used BM too and it cleared it up really quickly ------------- http://lilypie.com">   http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: Jennz
Date Posted: 21 February 2008 at 9:31am
BM cleared it up in a day with both my girls  They both have had it several times in their first 6 months.------------- Jen, Charlotte 7 & Kate 3 
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Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 21 February 2008 at 10:07am
| You guys must have super breast milk or something, Daniel had BM squirted in his eye several times a day for weeks and it did nothing, then they finally gave me eye drops. (this was back from when he was a newborn) |
Posted By: peanut butter
Date Posted: 21 February 2008 at 1:55pm
Stacey, sometimes it is just a garden variety infection (sometimes it isnt really even an infection) so BM works (as does leaving it alone ) but sometimes it is a bigger bug...haemophilus (sp?) influenzae and that requires ABs,
In saying that often the ABs you get from the doc dont do anything if it isnt bacterial but they do lubricate so you get the same effect as using a saline drop. |