Blocked Tear Duct SURGERY

Did it when my daughter was 7 or 8 months. In & out office procedure. No "recovery" as I would call it. Maybe just a little infant tylonal...

Went to pediatric opthamologist Dr. O.B. Jackson in Austin (around 38th). I recall that afterward he said it was "really big and needed to be popped". Didn't have any eye problems after that... although we did have on-going sinus issues.

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I am supprised to hear you say surgry, but I am not a dr. But my son had blocked tear ducts and at 8 months I took him to an ped. eye specialist refered by his pediatrician and what they did was numb his eyes and then they stuck a prob thru the tear ducts to clear them. It was all done in the office in one visit and then a follow up visit to make sure they stayed cleared. We gave him tylonal for a day or two to make sure he wasn't in any pain. We haven't had a problem since. I hope this is what you are able to do, but if surgury is needed I wish you the best of luck.

V.,

Our youngest, Brycie had a levator resection (basically, they shortened his eyelid to stop it from drooping over his eye) done at 8 months and redone at 11 months. Of course, we were concerned about irritation, pain and him rubbing the eye. But as they explained, the little ones don't seem to be bothered by it, and he was not. Of course, because of the sensitive skin in the eye area, the bruising was a bit of a surprise. And some of the small people tend to be a little grumpy coming out of the anesthesia, but that passes quickly.

You didn't mention which hospital you are using, but Dr. Busse did Brycie's at Childrens' (May be Seton, but I could be remembering wrong) and their scheduling policy is to take children in age order from youngest up, as they don't understand being unable to eat or drink.

Best of luck to you!

My daughter had that done when she was about 19 months old. I really don't remember it being a big deal. The recovery was not bad, she was just a little irritable because of the anesthetics but was pretty much back to normal the next day. I think the hardest part was not letting her have anything to eat before the surgery - that's hard to explain to a 19 month old. She is now 14 and about a year ago her eye started tearing up again. It's not getting infected or anything so we haven't seen an eye doctor about it, but I'm sure if we did he would recommend getting the surgery done again. I thought it would be a permanent thing, but I guess that's not always the case.

We did this when my daughter was 8 months old. Like you, we tried everything. I was so scared about the surgery. Literally freaking out when they took my baby. But the whole thing was so quick and she slept on the way home and was totally back on her schedule the rest of the day. It was really no problem at all. I think your worst case will be just him maybe not napping or napping too long and not sleeping like he usually does, but I don't think he'll be uncomfortable. Really, it is going to be just fine and recovery is really easy. And the eye won't water any more. I will tell you that now my daughter is 5, and she had some trouble with vision in that same eye when she got older (and we didn't know it). Just follow up with full eye exams (not vision test, but eye exams at the eye doctor) about once a year to make sure that eye is getting stronger. My daughters eye was healthy, but her brain was not using it so she wears glasses to just retrain her brain. Just keep an eye on that part of the recovery, which will be a few years from now.

The surgery is no big deal, usually 10 minutes. The eyes look kinda bad afterward but it clears up quickly (usually.) I wouldn't worry too much. My sister had it done in 1984 and she has been fine since. CB

O. B. Jackson is an excellent Dr.

I do remember when my sister was small she was going to have this procedure, a friend in medical school at the time said that they had been instructed to tell parents to place a warm washcloth( baby wash cloth) on that eye duct and very gently rub. He said to do this each time you change the babies diaper. My mother did this and the next time they went to the doctor, it had opened up. I do not know if this worked or if it opened up on its own. I am sending you good thoughts.

We had same surgery for my son when he was about 18 months and I wish we had done it sooner! It went so well that after he woke up from the surgery, we never had another issue with it. I honestly hadn't believed it would make such a difference, but it was incredible. He also woke up a bit groggy and wanted to be held (wwhich the nurses let me do without a problem) and he was back to his normal self by that night. We did do a tour of children's hospital so we were comfortable with what would happen. The hardest thing was not allowing him to eat the morning of the surgery so try to get the earliest time available. Good luck!

I am so sorry. Its always scary to have your little one needing surgery. I dont have any experience with this. Our son needs tubes...were also waiting for all the paper work to schedule this... and its scary. I know he will be fine and even better after this surgery. Good luck and God bless your little one. I will say a prayer for him.

We were at the same point when our first son was 15 months old. The surgery was scheduled & we continued to massage the tear duct & sure enough it opened up! I would continue to massage the duct & schedule surgery, hopefully it will clear itself out before then. I do think it's common & you should have nothing to worry about, but if it can be avoided the better.(the docs usually want it done by 18 months)

My son had the tear duct surgery when he was 7 months. They put him under anestesia and he was a little sleepy afterward. His eye looked fine, no bruising or swelling. I'm very happy that we went ahead and got it taken care of.

My daughter had the surgery at about 18 months old for both eyes and it really worked. The recovery took about 3 days for her, I know the Doctor said that it would be more like 1-2 days. She did end up havng a slight fever on the 3rd day and then she was fine. She also had an allergic reaction to the anesthia (sp?) while we were still in the hospitol which totally freaked me out and we had to stay there longer. But all in all she was sleepy and a little whiny. After surgery her eyes were swollen and as disturbing as what I am about to say was worse to see, she had bloody tears-totally unnatural to see-yes totally freaked me out, but part of the process I guess the nurse said it was normal. She is 3 now and she had flare up about 6-9 months ago but now we know that it was becuase of an allergic reaction. Hope that helps.

I am a Grandma now but my son had both tear ducts blocked. He had surgery when he was 9 months old. We had no problem at all, Thank Goodness. As a teenager he thinks its cool he can blow air out his eyes! lol. Lots of luck Deee6

My son had it done at 18 months and it was fine. He has been a very anxious child from birth, so he screamed the entire time, the hardest part was when they took him from me, but it lasted about 10 minutes. His eye looked pretty bad the first day, it bled a bit, but the next day he was fine. good luck, it should be fine.

My response is different than everybody else. My now 23
year old had a stopped up tear duct when he was 1. We
had seen the dr. about it and watched it for a while.
Tears filled his eye but rarely did a tear fall to his
cheek. We thought we had the procedure scheduled to have it probed but it was another check up. We scheduled the probe procedure the following 2 weeks and it had cleared up by then. It was miraculous. His tear duct was stopped up for about a year and then it was gone. We were so grateful. My
husband had the same condition in his 20's and said the
probing was quite painful. He has a very strong pain
thresh hold. Good luck to you. Hope all goes really well.

My daughter had the block tear duct in both eyes. De Musgrove was who we saw. We were going to have the surgery but was very nervous about it. We had it set up and with prayers we didnt have to go through it. One thing I did was she was on antibotic about all the time because of infections or to prevent.Massage like crazy and warm compresses before massage and after.She was about 19 months before they unblocked.If you can wait I would. They told us she would have a tube to help it drain and make sure she doesnt pull it. The tube would stay in for a month.Massage Massage adn warm compresses all the time. Prayers would help too.Good luck

My son had this done a few years back and let me tell you that it made a WORLD of difference. His eye cleared up wonderfully. The recovery time was nothing, he slept most of the day bacause we had to be there really early and with the anesthesia it wore him out. He had a year and a half of constant eye infections and goop in the eye, his right eye would be "glued" shut most mornings, but after the surgery it was totally clear. There is a chance that the eye can clog back up, but my sons has not. I would sugest to have him wear a shirt that buttons up since you really don't want to pull a shirt over his face right after the surgery. Good luck!