Re: preemie-l Tear ducts and who does better?

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Doug,

Thanks for the info. on the clogged tear ducts...that makes it much more clear 
to me.  We have been using the drops for 5 days now and it is not helping very 
much, Nicholas still has yellow stuff coming out of his eyes.  But, we have to 
go see the opthalmologist anyway, so, we won't worry about it.

thanks Again!

Stephanie, mom to Nicholas, 31 weeker, now 12 weeks

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Subject: preemie-l Tear ducts and who does better?
Author:  DDerleth@aol.com at vhsunix
Date:    6/15/96 07:07 AM


To answer a couple of recent questions:
     
It's no tale:  premie girls do better, in general, than premie boys.  This 
has been well documented in many large studies.
     
There is a tear duct (the nasolacrimal duct) that runs from the inside corner 
of each eye down to the nose.  (That is why crying causes a runny nose.)  In 
many babies the duct does not open for some time after birth.  The symptoms 
are a crusty "mattery" eye, (especially after sleeping, when the eyes are 
closed for quite awhile), and, sometimes, an infection of the upper part of 
the duct.  This is a common issue in term babies, too.
     
These clogged ducts usually open on their own before the age of 8 months, so 
they are left alone until then, unless there is an infection.  There is a 
very simple surgery that can open the duct after that if it doesn't open on 
its own.  A certain type of massage can sometimes pop the occluding membrane 
in the duct.  Some doctors recommend eye drops for this problem until the 
duct is open, but it isn't clear if this really helps.
     
If the upper part of the duct gets infected, which shows up as an obvious red 
lump under the inside corner of the eye, the surgery is done to unclog the 
duct and both help clear the infection and prevent future infections.
     
Lack of tears is not a symptom of this problem.  In fact, since some of the 
tears can't get down to the inside of the nose through the duct, there tend 
to be more tears visible from the eye, not less.  It has no relationship to 
ROP, which is a disease that is confined to the inside of the eyeball.
     
Doug

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