Patient Care

Stickiness of the Eye

This is an eye infection which is very mild and commonly seen in newborn babies right after birth. It is caused by blood or fluid entering the baby's eye during the birth. The eyelashes appear to be glued together after sleep and hence the name, sticky eye. There may also be a pus like discharge from the inner eye corner.

The symptoms of conjunctivitis can be confused with sticky eye so of your baby has the above symptoms of sticky eye after two days of birth, you must consult the doctor as it could be conjunctivitis.

Sticky eys clears up on its own but you may have to clean your baby's eyes regularly with moist cotton wool to keep them clean and to remove the stickiness.

Watering eye is known as epiphora. It can be due to excessive tear production or due to disturbance of the tear drainage system. Excess production occurs when the eye particularly the cornea, is irritated by a foreign body or surface abrasion.

The tears are collected in fine channels in the inner corner of the eyelids and then drain into a small sac (the lacrimal sac) from there the tears drain via a canal within bone (naso-lacrimal duct) into the nasal cavity.

Disturbance of the eyelid position causes watering because the tear ducts are turned away from the tear "lake". This is called ectropion. Turning in of the eyelid (entropion) also causes watering due to the eyelashes rubbing against the eye surface. The fine collecting channels can become narrowed or blocked by inflammation and scarring. The tear duct (nasolacrimal duct) can become blocked due to infection. This results not only in watering but also a sticky discharge. This is due to mucus becoming stagnant in the lacrimal sac. Infants may be born with a tear duct which has failed to open. This is quite common.