How to prevent and treat excessive eye mucus in infants and young children

For adults, excessive eye mucus is mostly caused by getting inflamed, and for a few people it is caused by some eye diseases. We will find that infants and young children are different from adults. When they wake up in the morning, there will be a small amount of eye mucus in the corners of their eyes. Sometimes we can see that there is so much eye mucus that the children cannot open their eyes. Are these situations normal? In fact, infants and young children's eye mucus can be divided into three types, and the amount of eye mucus reflects the health status of infants and young children.

The eye mucus of infants and young children can be divided into normal eye mucus, eye mucus caused by heat and pathological eye mucus.

1. Normal eye boogers: When a child is born, there is a layer of grayish-white stuff on the eyes. This is not eye boogers. This layer of grayish-white stuff is medically called "vernix caseosa". Vernix caseosa has the function of protecting the skin and preventing heat dissipation. It can be absorbed by itself, so it cannot be wiped off casually. When the baby is 2-3 months old, there may be some eye mucus on the eyes when he wakes up in the morning. This is because the eyelashes tend to grow inward during this period, and the friction and irritation of the eyeball produces eye mucus. Generally, around 1 year old, eyelashes will grow outwards naturally and eye mucus will gradually decrease, so there is no need for treatment. You can wipe it clean with a warm towel, or use a cotton swab dipped in 2% boric acid solution and gently wipe it from the inner corner of the eye to the outer corner.

2. Eye mucus caused by heat: Children’s gastrointestinal tract is still in the development stage, and their digestive functions are not yet fully developed. Excess nutrients are difficult to digest, causing food accumulation to turn into heat and “internal heat”. Excessive eye mucus is one of the typical symptoms of a baby getting angry. It is a common phenomenon for babies who eat less fruits and vegetables and drink formula milk to get angry. In addition to excessive eye mucus, babies often have other symptoms of getting angry, such as dry stools, thick tongue coating, etc.

3. Pathological eye mucus: When there is a lot of eye mucus accompanied by itchy and red eyes, you should go to the hospital for a check-up to see if you have an eye disease. If a newborn has conjunctivitis, treatment measures should be taken promptly, otherwise the inflammation will spread into the eye and may even develop into chronic conjunctivitis which is more difficult to cure.

How can we prevent and treat excessive eye mucus in infants and young children?

First, try to breastfeed:

Babies who are fed with milk are more prone to constipation, mostly because the casein content in milk is too high, which makes the stool dry and hard. You should choose to breastfeed as much as possible, because breast milk contains oligosaccharides and rich nutrients, which will not make the baby get too hot.

Secondly, use fire-clearing products

The symptoms of excessive eye mucus caused by getting angry can be relieved through scientific diet regimen that combines medicine with food. Try using some heat-clearing products made from natural plants to achieve the heat-reducing effects of "one clearing, two moisturizing, and three comforting". Products such as Meiban's "Qingqingbao" that are trusted by millions of mothers can be added to milk or liquid food to achieve the effect of balancing the calorie intake of food. It is safe, has no side effects, and can gently reduce internal heat without being too cold.

Finally, pay attention to choosing complementary foods that are not easy to get angry.

For babies who are bottle-fed, it is best to choose formula milk that is close to the composition of breast milk. After the baby is 3 months old, you can add a small amount of milk cake to the milk powder and feed the baby some fruit juice; if the baby has symptoms of constipation, the mother can dilute the milk powder, or add heat-clearing products according to the amount; that is, add 10 grams of sugar to every 100 ml of milk. After the baby is 6 months old, the mother can cook carrot porridge or vegetable porridge for the baby, because vegetables contain a lot of fiber which can promote intestinal motility. Babies over 1 year old can drink some honey water to prevent constipation and getting angry.

In fact, it can be said that too much eye mucus is caused by eye inflammation. Some functions of infants and young children’s eyes are not fully developed, so more attention should be paid. In some details of daily life, we should also be careful not to directly touch the eyes with our hands or unclean towels. If there is eye mucus around the eyes, you can also use sterilized gauze dipped in moderate warm water to clean them. Having said so much, I hope this can be helpful to you.