Mom’s Question:
My daughter has been rubbing her left eye a lot lately and now it waters and she gets clod/sleep in her eye all the time. Only that eye. She also has a runny nose and a cough to match; kinda like she has a cold.
Should I take her to the hospital or should I not worry about it? Her eye also turned red for a couple of hours but went away n shes still rubbing her eye and it has stopped watery.
Baby Helpline:
Pink Eye Or A Cold For Baby
What to do, and what may be the reason for your baby’s irritated eye really depends on how long you mean by “lately”. If it’s been only a day, the reason might be a foreign object that got into her eye. To check for that – wash your hands and gently pull her lower lid down to see if there is anything in her eye. If there is, say and eyelash, stuck in there, do not remove it with your hands but try rinsing it out with lukewarm boiled water.
If your baby’s eye has been irritated for a few days, I believe she has a cold and it is irritating her eye.
If it is a pink eye, she will have drainage coming from her eye and it would stay red. She would also be irritable when she rubbed her eye because it feels similar to having sand in your eye.
Pink eye is a viral or bacterial infection to the eye and will not typically be associated with cough and a runny nose, although of course, they can come at the same time. But since the redness comes and goes and only when she rubs her eye, I really do believe the redness is due to the cold and the rubbing rather than to a pink eye infection. If the redness doesn’t disappear or you see pus in her eye, then she might have developed conjunctivitis (pink eye) due to spreading virus to her eye.
Regarding her cold, it is not a reason to visit the doctor, unless it doesn’t go away within 7-10 days, or if she gets a very high fever, painful deep cough, breathing difficulty, or some other indication of more severe illness.
If she continues to have a runny nose, clod in her eye, and cough after 10 days then you need to see your pediatrician because she may have a sinus infection, which would require an antibiotic. If she starts to run a rectal temperature of 100.4 or higher than take her to the doctor to be checked out.
If you feel something is just not right then follow your instinct and take her to your pediatrician. I hope she starts to feel better.
Paula
(Answer approved by our Medical Doctors’ Team)
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