Why does the baby keep rubbing his eyes?

Babies are a special group in society. When external stimuli change, babies can only perceive but cannot make corresponding responses. For example, when the seasons change, your baby will especially like you to sneeze, rub his eyes, have tears in his eyes, or blink more often, which reminds us that the baby may have allergies. Next, let’s understand the causes of baby allergies.

Allergic conjunctivitis is a very common eye disease that affects both adults and children, but the incidence rate is higher in babies because their immune systems are not yet fully developed. The 4-year-old patient Doudou is a typical case. Doudou has been complaining about itchy eyes recently. He keeps rubbing them. There is sticky eye mucus in his eyes, and he likes to blink constantly. The mother had no choice but to take Doudou to the Affiliated Eye Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University for examination. The doctor, Associate Chief Physician Shao Yingfeng, gave Doudou a careful examination and told Doudou's mother that he had allergic conjunctivitis. He would recover soon with timely treatment and avoidance of allergens.

The cause of allergic conjunctivitis is allergies

Mothers who have had the above experience may be more concerned about what causes allergic conjunctivitis? Associate Chief Physician Shao Yingfeng pointed out that contact with allergens such as pollen, dust mites, seafood, animal hair and chemical gases, etc., causes the human immune system to produce an excessive abnormal reaction, the so-called allergic reaction, which is the essence of an allergic reaction.

However, everyone's allergens are different, and the specific substances an individual is allergic to often need to be observed in life. We can also go to the hospital for allergy screening, but currently there are only more than 1,000 allergens that can be detected, while there are too many allergens in nature, far more than this number. Therefore, many substances may not be within that detection range. Moreover, many people are allergic to multiple substances at the same time. Therefore, only careful observation in daily life can more comprehensively discover individual allergens.

Treating allergic conjunctivitis with antiallergic eye drops and artificial tears

How to treat a baby with allergic conjunctivitis? Associate Chief Physician Shao Yingfeng advises mothers to first avoid allergens, and secondly, from a medical point of view, mainly use anti-allergic drugs for treatment, such as mast cell stabilizers and histamine antagonists, these two types of anti-allergic eye drops. Generally, it is enough to use it until the child’s glasses no longer itch and there is not much secretion.

Babies with allergic conjunctivitis are also prone to dry eyes. Why is this? Associate Chief Physician Shao Yingfeng pointed out that when the ocular surface tissue is allergic, the inflammatory response will affect the function of the ocular surface cells, leading to abnormal tear composition and unstable tear film. On the basis of this situation, if the child also plays with electronic products, such as mobile phones, I-PADs, etc., dry eye syndrome will be aggravated, the foreign body sensation and discomfort will be more obvious, and the blinking will be very severe. Dry eyes can aggravate allergic inflammatory responses, thus entering a vicious cycle. Therefore, during treatment, in addition to anti-allergic eye drops, artificial tears should also be used to flush the ocular surface. Artificial tears flush allergens and inflammatory mediators and drain them through the tear ducts while maintaining the stability of the tear film and the smoothness of the ocular surface. The treatment effect will be better.

Experts on preventing allergic conjunctivitis: Stay away from allergens

Although allergic conjunctivitis is not a serious disease, mothers still feel distressed when their babies suffer. So how can we prevent and try to avoid baby allergies in our daily life?

Deputy Chief Physician Shao Yingfeng pointed out that there are indeed many allergens in life, and it is difficult to find them one by one. Parents can only rely on more observation and attention. However, not most people with allergies are allergic to dust mites. If you are allergic to dust mites, try not to lay carpets at home, do not buy plush toys, and regularly wash pillows, quilts, and towels and expose them to the sun. Deputy Chief Physician Shao Yingfeng also revealed a little trick to eliminate dust mites to netizens of Family Doctor Online: when drying quilts, you can put them in a large black plastic bag and put them under the sun. This way the temperature can exceed 55 degrees, which can effectively kill the mites. Otherwise, it will not be able to kill the mites.

Through the above detailed introduction and understanding, we know that when the seasons change, the series of symptoms that babies usually show are caused by allergies. At the same time, from the description above, we also know what diseases allergies can bring to babies. This is a good thing for us, so that we can take preventive measures against these diseases in time.