Infants and newborns commonly have matting in their eyes and they may have excess tearing. This may occur due to dacryostenosis or blocked duct tearing. If the nasolacrimal duct that drains tears gets blocked, it results in blocked duct tearing.
Symptoms
Infants who are infected with blocked tear duct will have:
- Have teary eyes, their eyes seems to produce a lot of tears or appears extra moist that drains onto the cheeks of the child.
- Their eyes appear crusted and also matted with discharge. This happens due to back entry of mucoid material in the eye, instead of going out to the nose through the nasolacrimal duct.
- Have redness around their eyes as they often rub their eyes.
Diagnosis
Children are diagnosed based on the symptoms, including the matting and excessive tearing. Remember that until the newborns are about two weeks old, they do not make tears. So even if the baby is born with blocked tear duct, you may not observe any symptoms of it.
A fluoresce-in dye test is done to diagnose this defect. In this test, a fluorescein dye is kept over the child eye. After sometime, with the use of special light see if the dye is disappeared from the tear ducts. If the dye is not disappeared and remains in the eye, then the child is said to have blocked tear duct.
Treatment
Following are some of the treatments:
- Nasolacrimal massage. It involves the massage of the inside corner of the child’s nose at least two to three times a day.
- Use of antibiotic eye drops if the eye discharge is excess.
- Cleaning any matter or discharge in the eyes using a clean warm washcloth.
- Use of oral antibiotics if the child develops dacryoytostitis symptoms.
- If it is not cleared on its own, nasolacrimal duct probing can be used for additional treatment.
