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Home › Articles › General Health › Keep an Eye on the Eyes

Keep an Eye on the Eyes

Common Eye Problems in Babies and Toddlers

By Katherine Bontrager

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For Edie Elkinson of Venice, Calif., the first sign that something was amiss was when her daughter Siena's eyelid got all puffy. "It was literally all of a sudden, and there was also a little purplish-blue discoloration at the edge of the lid," she says.

Eighteen-month-old Jack Gorgone's troubles began with a blocked tear duct, which would occasionally lead to a goopy, irritated eye, says his mom, Kerry Gorgone.

Both Gorgone and Elkinson found themselves in two different situations, but the same end result: a little one with an eye infection. Eye infections are incredibly common among infants and toddlers and can range from the simple to the downright difficult to cure.

For Elkinson, the remedy was as simple as a trip to the doctor. "He said it could be conjunctivitis, though it's often hard to tell for certain," she says. "He prescribed an antibiotic eye drop that we used twice a day for four or five days."

Gorgone's difficulties were harder to resolve. "We tried massaging the inside corner of his eyes periodically, and his eye doctor tried to 'pop' the duct open by applying pressure, but he continued to have discharge and sometimes even woke up with his right eye gooped shut," says the Massachusetts mom and co-host of the Baby Time parenting podcast at Babytimeshow.com. "We use antibiotic eye drops after each flare up, and we're having a simple procedure done soon to open the duct with a probe. That will solve the problem, and our days of wrestling with a toddler while trying to aim a dangling eye drop will be over!"

With such different causes and varied remedies, it's important that parents understand and properly react when their little ones' eyes begin to appear infected. Things to look out for include redness or pink coloring, watery eyes, eyelids that stick together after sleep, yellow or white discharge, redness or swelling of the skin around the eyes and complaints of pain or blurred vision. And be extra vigilant when your child is a newborn, since eye infections in newborns can be much more dangerous than an infection that crops up only a few months later.


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