My Baby Has a Clogged Tear Duct

At first, I didn't realized how common it is for babies to have a clogged tear duct. When I took my baby to the doctor I was told that it is actually very common. The doctor was shocked to hear that none of my other four children ever had a clogged tear duct. Web MD says that one 6 out of every 100 newborns will have a clogged tear duct.

I freaked when I first saw my baby with icky goobers in his eyes. At first I thought it may have been pink eye, but no one else in the house had pink eye. It resembles pink eye, but wasn't quite as bad as the few cases of I have ever seen.

The doctor told me that for one it's common and two, it normally will clear up by the time they are a year old.

When a tear duct is clogged, the passage from the eyes to the nose is blocked. The first signs of clogged tear ducts are excessive tears and of course the goobers.

Sometimes an infection will occur because of the clogged duct, the signs of infection are redness and swelling. A yellowish mucus may appear in the eyes and the goobers will get worse, sometimes causing the eyelids to stick to each other.

There really isn't a whole lot you can do for a clogged tear duct. Keeping the eye clean with a warm rag and massaging around the eye several times a day is about all you can do.

If the clogged duct has not cleared up on its own by the time baby is six months to one year old, then there is a procedure to unclog the duct. The most common procedure is called "Probing." Probing is when they pass a wire through the tear duct to try and push the clog out. Babies will go under general anesthesia when this procedure is done.

There are other procedures for unclogging a tear duct in babies and children, these procedures are:

Intubation

Intubation is when a tube is inserted into the tear duct to maintain a passage for the tear duct to drain into the nostril. This is usually done if probing doesn't work.

Infracturing

Infracturing is where (this just sounds awful) a nasal bone is broken in the babies nose, this actually creates an open duct.

Balloon Dacryocystoplasty

Balloon Dacryocystoplasty is a propping procedure where they put a little balloon on a probe.

Hopefully the little guy's eye will unclog on its own before any of these procedures are necessary. But until then, keeping it clean, massaging, and lot's of love are pretty much all that can be done.
Sources Cited: Web MD.

http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/tc/blocked-tear-ducts-surgery