Babies with Sticky or Watery Eyes: Cause and Cure

Watery or sticky eyes is one of the most common issues you may face with a newborn baby. But is it something to worry about, yes and no. Let's find out.
 

The root cause for watery discharge is blockage of babies tear duct. As an immediate remedy you might be advised to use some eye drop, but that would be a temporary solution. Whats actually needed is, slow massage of baby's nose near the affected eye. The frequency of massage should be as high as possible. In fact it may need to be done as many as 50 times a day. This would help in opening up the tear duct. The problem may continue for a couple of months before the discharge lessens or stops completely. 

My Tweety had severe case of watery and sticky eyes right from the birth. The doctor at the hospital straightaway prescribed an eye drop to be administered 3 times a day, however our Pediatrician's advise was to clean the discharge with a wet cotton swab and do massage as many times as possible. The discharge continued for around 3 months and then subsided and now its gone completely :) 

Here is a picture of where you need to place your thumb and massage gently on both sides of nose:

And yes, this is a picture of my Tweety :)

In case the discharge doesn't stop even after massage, then it would require a small procedure called probing which would clear up the tear duct however this is totally your doctor's call. Please consult your doctor for massage technique, you may also ask about massage if your doctor straight away prescribes an eye drop.

Meanwhile i will try to prepare a short video of how the massage is done and post it as soon as Tweety obliges.

Happy Parenting :)

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