My 4 year old son has a stye that has been there for over 3 months. He has been to his pediatrician twice and to an opthamologist once who said that the only thing she can do is drain it and he will have to be put under to do this. Im very hesitant to do this since Im not fond of him having anesthesia at such a young age. We have tried everything from creams, drops, warm compresses, gold rings, tea bags, you name it we have dont it! Its like torture to hold the compress on so maybe we dont do it as long as necessary but if anyone can tell me if this will eventually go away or should I have the doctor drain it?
Drain it.
It'll be OK. Opthamologists do this all the time---my husband gets chalazion cysts a couple times every year.
It starts with a stye that doesn't go away. We have been told that the longer they stay around, the more hardened the fluid can get inside the little bump. That makes it a little more work to remove....sooner is better.
Have you tried putting a (clean) penny on it? I have had success with that. And it couldn't hurt to try, right?
My son had it for about a year and the only thing that worked was washing his eyelids with baby shampoo every day. It finally went away but took a super long time.
My nephew gets these and his dr told him to wash his eye out with baby shampoo. Works really well. Ask your eye doctor about using this. Good luck to you.
This happened to my daughter when she was 15 months old. The pediatrician suggested things and we tried them all for 8 months. Finally she had it removed by an opthamologist. It was hard to watch her come out from anesthia and see her eye swollen. However, by that night she was back to herself.
My daughter gets those every time she gets her hands on makeup. she's allergic to them and ends up with styes always.
We have never had to drain them. I am very consistent with warm compresses and eye cream and drops once she gets them. I heat the compress in microwave for about 15 seconds (wet it first) then put it in a ziploc bag. wait until your child is ok with the warmth and then hold it for at least 8-10 minutes. do this as many times as you can. I do them every 2 hrs. yes, it's an overkill but my daughter knows (she is 6) that we either do it often or she may have to have it drained (she does not like doctors so she opts for this). We also put the cream and/or drops that the eye doctor prescribes. To put a timeline when does it disappear? after doing this regiment constantly throughout the day, it goes away within 10 days to 2 weeks. yes they last a long time but eventually go away. the longest that stayed was the entire summer (2009). no matter how long we did the compresses, it didn't matter. we dealt with it for an entire summer.
ps i didn't use tea bags or anything of the sort. just warm compress and whatever the eye doctor prescribed.
Your son must be very uncomfortable with this stye. I think I might want to reconsider the draining. My husband used to suffer with the same problem and he was told that it was a problem with the gland. Good luck with your decision.
L.
You need to have it drained because the longer it is there the more scar tissue can build up. But after this be very diligent in cleaning his eyes with baby shampoo with a wash cloth.
My four year daughter had the same problem with both eyes. We tried everything you described. We finally found a great pediatric ophthalmologist who removed the chalazions from both eyes. Yes, it was scary because she did have to go under. But, we don’t regret the decision. She is now 7 and has been chalazion free.
