Infant Has Watery Eye. What Treatment Should Be Done?

Posted on Fri, 5 Apr 2013

Question: My daughter is 7 months old and from birth she is having problem related to left eye. we call it as watering of the eyes. previously doctors were telling this problem gets okay after 1 year. but now her eyes are full of water. now one doctor suggestion for opeartion . kinldy suggests in this regards as we are layman in this field and baby age is just 7 months as per my understanding operation should be last solution.

With regards
XXXXXXX

Answered by Dr. Mihir Shah (39 minutes later)

Dear Mr XXXXXXX

Thanks for the query.

Your child is suffering from congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction.
Nasolacrimal duct is a small canal which connects the eye and inner part of the nose.
During birth this canal will open. In some babies it fails to open. As a result of that the tears will not drain into the nose and will come outside of the eyes.

Normally by massaging the upper part of the nose, this canal will open. If it does not open then it has to be opened by operation (probing). You can try massaging for one more month. If it does not open then probing has to be done.

I hope I have answered your queries.I will be available to answer any furthur queries if you have any.

Best regards,
Dr.Mihir Shah

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar