Pus in the eyes of a child is an alarming symptom that suggests that your child is ill with conjunctivitis. All parents face this problem at least once in their life, and besides, of the total number of cases of eye diseases in infants up to a year, conjunctivitis accounts for about 30% of visits to specialists. This disease can occur at any age, and even in babies the eyes are often inflamed. For such babies, doctors most often prescribe treatment in the form of drops from conjunctivitis.
For newborns, quite a lot of drugs are suitable, thanks to which the disease can be neutralized at the initial stage in a matter of days. However, parents themselves in no case should not select a medicine for the crumbs. This is due to the fact that the causes of pus in the eyes of a child are different. Drops should be prescribed depending on the causative agent of the disease. The article discusses several different drops from conjunctivitis for newborns and their features.
The main symptoms of conjunctivitis and its features
Children very often encounter this disease, since they tend to rub their eyes with dirty hands, which provokes inflammation of the mucous membrane. It can occur secretly for several days or immediately manifest as redness and swelling.
Usually the course of the disease is accompanied by a high degree of tearing, suppuration, gluing of the eyelids, photophobia, the appearance of yellow dots on the eyelids. In parallel, insomnia, irritability, acute pain or a feeling of "sand in the eyes" occur. An older child can describe to parents exactly what he feels, but with infants it is more complicated. If the disease is hidden, then it is almost impossible to understand what exactly worries the baby. However, parents need to know that for babies conjunctivitis is a very dangerous disease that can cause them irreparable harm, so the treatment of conjunctivitis in newborns should be taken very seriously.
Most often, in infants, the disease manifests itself already in the first day after birth. This is due to an infection of the birth canal of the mother, which was transmitted to the baby during passage through them. Conjunctivitis is quite common in strong babies born to completely healthy mothers. Similar situations are associated with the immune system, which can not cope with the abundance of bacteria and infections that enter the baby's body.
However, regardless of the symptoms, it is very easy to get rid of conjunctivitis. For newborns, drops are used for any course of the disease, older children can put ointment in their eyes. Frequent cases of the onset of the disease indicate a decrease in the protective functions of the body, therefore, to the usual treatment, you need to add funds to strengthen the immune system.
Types of the disease: bacterial
What drops from conjunctivitis can a newborn have? Parents often ask this question. However, the answer to it is only in the competence of the doctor. Indeed, depending on the type of disease, drops from conjunctivitis are also selected for newborns and older babies.
Most often, parents are faced with a bacterial type of inflammation of the mucous membrane of the eye. Bacteria enter the baby's body due to non-compliance with hygiene rules, which leads to the development of conjunctivitis in a matter of hours. The main symptoms of this type of disease are pus and any other discharge from the eyes, tearing, eyelid clumping and pain. In newborns, the symptoms are usually most pronounced.
Specialists distinguish several subspecies of bacterial conjunctivitis:
- Chlamydial. Its causative agent is chlamydia bacteria, causing purulent discharge, redness of the eyes and their swelling.
- Pneumococcal. In this case, the disease is characterized by flaking of the films. Often this process is not even accompanied by purulent discharge and swelling of the eyes.
- Blennoreal. This type of conjunctivitis is caused by gonococci. Among ophthalmologists, it is considered the most dangerous for newborns due to the abundance of purulent discharge. In addition, they can cause visual impairment, so you should be very attentive to the baby and his condition when making such a diagnosis.
Other bacteria can also provoke bacterial conjunctivitis. In such cases, the symptoms of the disease are identical to those already listed.
Treatment of bacterial conjunctivitis
If the price does not scare you when choosing a drug for treatment, Vitabact may be the best option for your crumbs. Parents and doctors recognize it as the safest for newborn babies. Drops are made in France and have a wide antimicrobial spectrum of action.
The main active ingredient of the drug is piccloxidine, which effectively and quickly copes with all the symptoms of the disease and neutralizes its pathogens. After the first application, dryness and irritation are removed, and after a full course of treatment, conjunctivitis can be forgotten for a long time.
It is necessary to drip the agent from two to six times a day for no longer than ten days. One drop of Vitabact in each eye is usually recommended. Judging by the reviews of drops from conjunctivitis for newborns, this drug still has a number of disadvantages. Among them, parents distinguish a short shelf life. After opening, the drug retains its properties for no longer than one month. And the price of Vitabakt is extremely high for many - from four hundred rubles per bottle.
The main advantage of the product is parents consider it to be well tolerated by infants. They do not act up during treatment, since the drops do not bring discomfort in the form of itching, burning and irritation. Therefore, most often with bacterial conjunctivitis, the doctor prescribes this particular drug. However, he is far from the only one.
Well and long ago, all parents have known such a tool as "Albucid." Is it possible to drip Albucid in children under one year of age? This question is quite reasonable when you consider that drops give pain, itching and severe irritation as a side effect. Despite these symptoms, the drug is widely used in the treatment of bacterial conjunctivitis in infants, children and adults.
The drug is an aqueous solution of sulfacitamide. Depending on age, its various concentrations are used. For newborns, a 10% solution is enough, which is instilled from four to six times a day, one or two drops in each eye. Often, this remedy is also prescribed to infants for the prevention of blennorrhea. In such cases, “Albucid” is instilled with crumbs immediately after birth and then every two hours. Usually, with this scheme, a dosage of two drops in each eye is provided. An opened bottle can be stored in the refrigerator for about a month, before use its contents are warmed in the hand.
Often with a bacterial infection, the doctor prescribes drops from conjunctivitis for children with an antibiotic. In this group, Futsitalmik performed well. However, for infants recently born, this remedy is prescribed with great care. It is a viscous suspension, which provides a long-term effect after one instillation. The active substance of the drug is fusidic acid (this is indicated in the instruction for eye drops for children "Futsitalmik"). Parents leave quite good reviews about the treatment with this tool. Judging by them, you can find out that the average course of treatment lasts one week. It is enough to drip the drug twice a day. At the same time, positive dynamics are observed already in the first days of the use of drops.
Moms call another effective drops from conjunctivitis for newborns - “Tobrex”. For older children, you can use it in the form of an ointment, but only drops are prescribed for infants. The active ingredient of the drug is tobramycin, which is absolutely safe for kids of any age. Usually the course of treatment does not exceed one week, you need to drip the agent every four hours. Moms consider Tobrex very effective and often acquire it, despite the price of three hundred rubles.
Description of the viral type of conjunctivitis
In this case, inflammation of the mucous membrane of the eyes provokes viral or colds. Conjunctivitis acts as a concomitant disease and brings a lot of problems to babies and their parents. Interestingly, purulent discharge is absent among the symptoms of this disease. Usually the baby experiences itching, burning and tearing. Eyes often blush and swell. It should be borne in mind that lacrimation is very strong in the presence of any viral infections. Most often, symptoms appear in one eye and do not pass to the second.
Doctors distinguish the following types of viral conjunctivitis:
- Adenovirus. The adenovirus that causes the disease appears on the mucous membrane of the eye with films and an abundance of small vesicles on the inside of the eyelids. Usually, among the main symptoms, the most disturbing are headache, chills, and fever.
- Diphtheria. It is this type of conjunctivitis that often affects infants and babies up to a year. It is provoked by diphtheria coli, and infection occurs by airborne droplets. Inflammation is characterized by symptoms such as temperature, spotting, swollen lymph nodes.
- Herpetic. Symptoms characteristic of all types of conjunctivitis in this case are supplemented by watery vesicles.
Treatment of viral inflammation of the mucous membrane of the eyes
Among the whole variety of children's eye drops from conjunctivitis for newborns, when determining the viral nature of the disease, Ophthalmoferon is most suitable. He tops the list of popular and safe drugs that parents of infants use without fear of harm. This tool belongs to the category of combined drugs that combine antiviral and immunomodulating components. Children under one year of age “Ophthalmoferon” drip up to eight times a day, the course of treatment lasts five days. It must be remembered that with an improvement in the patient's condition, the frequency of instillation should be gradually reduced.
Often, babies are prescribed such drops as Aktipol. They have a very wide spectrum of action and therefore are often used to treat newborns. In addition to relieving symptoms of conjunctivitis, according to ophthalmologists, drops contribute to the regeneration of corneal tissue, which is very important when it comes to very small patients. On average, the drug is dripped one or two drops up to eight times a day. After neutralizing all the symptoms, it is recommended that the agent be used prophylactically for another week. Usually in this case, the dosage does not exceed two drops three times a day.
Allergic conjunctivitis
This form is very difficult to diagnose in newborns. Various allergens cause diseases. Their role may be food, dust, pollen of plants or even the material from which the clothes are made. When this type of conjunctivitis occurs, drugs are prescribed to eliminate unpleasant symptoms. You can completely get rid of the disease only in the absence of contact with the allergen.
The difficulty in diagnosing the disease in infants is the inability to identify an irritating substance. Therefore, even with the appearance of allergic conjunctivitis in the crumbs, doctors can determine its cause only at an older age. This fact influenced the list of drugs for the treatment of this type of conjunctivitis, almost all of them can be used by children from two years and older.
Folk remedies
Each mother herself decides whether to trust traditional medicine in the treatment of conjunctivitis. Therefore, we will not promote these recipes, but we will talk about some of them that are well known to our grandmothers and great-grandmothers.
The most common treatment for conjunctivitis is a decoction of chamomile. This plant has anti-inflammatory and disinfecting effects, and therefore successfully relieves the symptoms of conjunctivitis. For newborns, you need to take three teaspoons of raw materials in half a glass of water. After the remedy is infused, they need to rinse the inflamed eyes.
If your baby has conjunctivitis accompanied by purulent discharge, then try to use the infusion from the marshmallow. For its preparation, the roots and flowers of a medicinal plant are used. Do not forget that before use, the infusion must be filtered. The baby’s eyes are washed with this remedy as pus appears.
Treatment features
Despite what treatment method will be prescribed for you, there are a number of rules that must be observed if you want to rid your baby of conjunctivitis.
Remember that any treatment regimen involves frequent treatment of the mucous membranes of the eyes of the child.
Any product from the refrigerator must be warmed to body temperature before instillation. When it comes to manipulating babies, it is best to use special pipettes with a rounded nose. This will protect you from accidentally damaging your baby’s eyes.
If the inflammatory process goes on in one eye, then it is necessary to treat both at once. Otherwise, the infection will spread to the other eye, and you will again have to use medicines according to the already known scheme.
For washing it is necessary to take disposable cotton pads. For each eye, its own is used, while the movement should begin at the outer corner and end at the inner.
All manipulations are carried out only with clean hands. To instill, you need to gently pull the lower eyelid and apply the drug to the mucous membrane.
Disease prevention
It is known that children are much harder to tolerate conjunctivitis in contrast to adults. Parents need to be very careful and do everything so that the child does not know about the existence of such a disease.
If your home has a baby, then do not forget about cleanliness. Every day you need to wipe the dust and carry out wet cleaning to avoid infection of the mucous membrane of the eyes. Be sure to temper the baby and strengthen his immunity. It is also important to limit contact with people with colds and viral diseases.
Expectant mothers should be cured of infectious diseases before conception. In no case should you approach the birth with a number of infections that can be transmitted to the baby.
In the future, take care of hand hygiene by every member of the family. This will protect the baby from unnecessary health problems.
Conclusion
Conjunctivitis is one of the most common diseases in children. But despite this, it can be very dangerous and cause serious harm to the health of the newborn baby, so take his treatment seriously and consult a doctor if you suspect conjunctivitis. In this case, you have every chance to cure the disease quickly and without negative consequences.