Our Baby News

Eye Crusties

There are two kinds of eye crusties that develop soon after birth. A blocked tear duct may occur in up to 5 or 6 percent of newborns, resulting in a mucousy, sticky discharge.

This typically affects only one eye. The normal eyelid lubrication fluid (“tears” in plain English) cannot drain normally via the duct in the lower, nasal eyelid corner, They back up and become sticky. Massaging the lower eyelid, from outward in toward the nose, several times per day usually opens up the blocked duct.

Conjunctivitis is the other kind of eye discharge tends to occur in both eyes. Unlike a blocked duct, this is often associated with pinkeye and sometimes other symptoms such as fever and congestion. Most cases are viral, but often enough a bacteria is the culprit, so most doctors treat this with an antibiotic ointment.

How to Handle Eye Splashes/Sprays

What to do for an inadvertent spray or splash to the eye?

• Flush the eye with tap water for chemicals or irritants. Let the water flow from the nose to the outer eye to avoid exposing the other eye, even if both were exposed.

Don’t flush a noxious substance into a less-exposed eye. Do this for a good five to 10 minutes to fully dilute the chemical (alternate sides quickly within the first minute to treat both eyes quickly).

• Call die poison center for advice on how to proceed further.

• Beware of your child’s subsequent rubbing and scratching at the eye, which can lead to a corneal abrasion.

A fall onto a rough surface that results in a scrape or widely abraded area almost never requires medical attention. The accompanying excessive wailing is another story: That requires extensive mommying.

Once you are free to actually tend to the scrape, do not apply alcohol. Although it is a good antiseptic solution, it stings much too much. Apply a cool compress to reduce the potential swelling, apply some antibiotic ointment, and cover with a Band-Aid.

That’ s about it.

You may notice a pattern, in that most first-aid remedies generally call for a cool compress. This is because it helps to shut down blood vessels that leak blood into a wound. The less unnecessary blood flow into a wound, the less painful swelling there will be.

Panic-Busier:

A second-degree bum is a painful, red blister. A third-degree bum is white or pale and may be less painful because of damage to sensory nerve endings. A second- or third-degree bum larger than a penny or quarter should be evaluated by your doctor, especially over a joint.

Keep calm, collected, and in control: Apply a cool, not icy, compress, to limit the severity of the bum. An area of first-degree bum that surrounds a second-degree bum can progress to a second-degree bum over 24 hours. There’s less of a chance of that happening if you keep the area cool.

Apply an antibiotic ointment such as Neosporin or bacitracin (but any inexpensive store-brand triple antibiotic ointment will do), and cover with a wide Band-Aid.

Keep small, intact blisters over flat surfaces from rapturing, since this is the best “biological” bum dressing there is.

In addition to the balms and emollients already mentioned, there are medicated topicals designed for teeny tushies, and those, too, may be perplexing to a novice.

• Hydrocortisone ointment (Cort-Aid, et cetera). Topical steroids. Available without prescription in 1 /2 and 1 percent strengths.

• This is for a contact dermatitis, or itchy red rash without pink dots at the borders.

• A red, raw, sometimes peely rash in the diaper area is probably due to irritation and can benefit from the anti-inflammatory properties of steroids.

• Antifungal creams (Lotrimin, et cetera).

• These kill fungal infections, which are the pink rashes with little dots on the edges that tend to occur in deep thigh and buttock folds.

• Antibiotic ointment /cream / lotion (Neosporin, bacitracin, et cetera).

• These kill bacteria, not funguses.