What should I do if my baby coughs and has eye mucus?

For some babies, there may be a lot of eye mucus. The eyes are a relatively important part of the body, so you must avoid rubbing your eyes, otherwise bacteria will be produced and cause infection. When washing your baby's face, you must use clean water, and it is best to use warm boiled water to wash your face to keep the water clean. There are generally many reasons why babies have eye mucus, which may be caused by getting angry, colds, coughs, or irritation of the eyelashes, etc. If your baby has eye mucus, it is best to check what caused it and then get the correct treatment in time. Let's see what to do if your baby coughs and has eye mucus.

1. Stimulation of eyelashes

When babies are young, their eyelashes tend to grow inward, and friction on the eyeballs can produce eye mucus. This can be wiped with a towel or cotton swab dipped in warm water. Gently wipe from the inner corner of the eye to the outer corner. As the baby grows, around one year old, the baby's eyelashes will naturally grow outwards and the eye mucus will become less and less.

2. The baby gets angry and causes a lot of eye mucus

There are usually other symptoms such as intolerance to heat, easy sweating, thick tongue coating, and dry stool. At this time, you should give your baby more water or go to the hospital for treatment.

3. Bacterial infection of the eyes

If there is a lot of eye mucus and your eyes are congested and red, it is possible that bacteria have invaded the lacrimal sac. This situation may be complicated by keratitis, so you must go to the hospital for treatment in time, otherwise it will affect the baby's vision development.

4. The baby's nasolacrimal duct is not yet fully developed

Tears cannot be discharged smoothly, resulting in accumulation of eye mucus.

5. Mitigation methods

1. For excessive eye mucus caused by infection, first use sterilized gauze or sterilized cotton balls, soak them with saline or warm water that has been boiled and cooled, squeeze out excess water (no dripping), and then place them on the baby's eyelashes for a while. After the eye mucus softens, use a cotton ball to gently rub it from the corner of the eye to the outside, but do not wipe it repeatedly. One cotton ball can only be used for one wipe.

2. For drug treatment, give your baby eye drops as instructed by the doctor.

3. For eye mucus caused by incomplete development of the nasolacrimal duct, parents can massage the baby's nose bridge with their hands every day to squeeze out the secretions in the lacrimal sac. But be sure to trim your nails and wash your hands before performing the above operations.