How do we do newborn eye care?
It is very normal that your newborn’s eye sometimes may have some eye gunk around their eyes, or muta in Tagalog. This is caused by the tear ducts working a little over time. But it is nothing to worry about. You should be able to clean this with a gentle clean, damp cloth and just gently wipe it away.
When the baby is born, doctors usually put an eye ointment on their eyes, like Terramycin or Erythromycin. Dr. Gellina Maala says that this is done to avoid conjunctivitis, more commonly known as ‘pink eye’, which which is a form of infection to the eye. It is part of the care that is given to newborns in most hospitals and clinics.
Sometimes your newborn may still have discharge around the eyes even if they are a healthy baby, and there does not seem to be anything physically wrong with them. There may be a nasolacrimal duct obstruction in the eye, which means, simply put, that there is some sort of obstruction in the tear ducts and they just tear up and produce fluids to help wash it away.
Give it a little massage
Massaging gently in this area will help unblock this area. So when you see this happening, this may be a good time to just gently massage the eyes at the bridge of the nose, going downward to help the obstruction come loose. Just make sure the pressure is not too hard, and the one thing we don’t want to happen is to irritate the area even more. So when redness appears, do stop. This could lead to dacryocystitis. This happens when the area around the eye is completely inflamed and red.
All of this should and will usually go away by the third month. If it doesn’t, we urge you to consult your pediatrician, and then maybe a pediatrician ophthalmologist. It’s always a good idea to do quick and gentle wipe down of your baby’s face when they’ve just woken up and help them start their day fresh!
So with this is mind, keep an eye out (see what we did there?) for your little one’s eyes. Always be alert, but keep calm.