Pink Eye - Lake in the Hills,IL

So my second child got pink as a baby and then passed it on to me. We both used Vigimox and it works wonders. Although I have been told by a Dr. friend, as well as read, that drops etc. don't really work for pink eye. That there really isn't anything that gets rid of it, except waiting. But, I do have to say that the Vigimox seemed to work within a day. I was also prescribed the ointment and hated it. My eyelashes were all gunked up and I wear glasses and it got all over my glasses. I also change the sheets every day and do wash in the premium bleach, that is safe for babies. Good luck!

I have had pink eye more times than I can count. It really helps if you run a wash cloth under warm water and wring it out well and place it over his eyes for a few minutes many times a day. Keep his hands clean and out of his eyes too, no rubbing. The drops should start clearing the eyes up in two to three days. The worse the infection, the longer it takes.

Pink eye will last about 10-14 days. It is very contagous but not that big a deal.

This too shall pass.

Ughhhhhhhh, I used to get pink eye constantly as a teenager who shared makeup with everyone and their sisters! lol Not fun stuff!

Like everyone said about the warm washclothes that is a great thing, especially in the morning to get the gunk out. After the morning though I would use cold compresses because of the swelling I would get with mine. Also, the best thing was to use papertowels and throw them out right away... do not reuse or if you use a washcloth use it only once.

Also, change the bed linens everyday and if possible bleach them but atleast wash in HOT water and make sure you tell him to constantly wash his hands and to not touch his eye.

Mine used to start to clear up after about 3-4 days and be gone within a week if I had it looked at within 2 days of it starting. Also, I gave up on the drops. There is an antibiotic ointment for the eye that I think works a TON better! It stays in the eye and you actually know for sure that it is in there. It does effect driving though since your vision gets a bit blurry but with this stuff mine would be gone within 4 days rather than just clearing up. The worst part was everyone thought I was a stoner from it since my eyes would be glassy looking then! Not sure of your sons age so not sure if this would even be an issue- I know I thought it was cool going to school looking like I was trashed- Dang teens and our thinking! lol

Also, the drops can cause irritation to the eye so that may make it seem like it is lingering longer or not going away.

Another thing.... if he is outdoors have him wear sunglasses since the light definately irritates it and can make it painful. If he is younger and will not wear them then atleast a hat.

And, dont you just love how they suggest Urgent Care... like we all have tons of money to throw at them! Call her back if not better and tell her to prescribe something else! That is her job and not to pawn it off on someone else.

Good luck and I hope he feels better soon! Many blessings to you both!

My son had the goop in his eyes when he was a newborn. The doctor said it was most likely a blocked tear duct (he didn't say anything about pink eye). He said to clean the goop out of his eyes with a warm wash cloth and it would clear up on its own. he was right. it cleared up after a few days. Not sure if this will help if pink was actually diagnosed, but it might help the pink eye anyway.

Definitely a few days if it is a bad case. Warm wash cloth is nice - making sure no other family member uses his wash cloth or towel. The crusty stuff should start looking better even by tomorrow. Also, maybe make a quick call to your local Pharmacist - they can give you good advise on whether they see dr.'s regularly prescribing that particular medication for that cause - just to ease your mind. Good luck. Hope he's better soon.

My daughter just had pink eye. She is a Keshet camp counselor and those little ones hang all over her! Our eye doctor and pediatrician explained that it's usually NOT allergies and mostly bacterial or viral. They both prescribed Vigimox. 1 drop in each eye 3 times a day. Even though it was only in 1 eye they both recommend putting it in each eye. It worked great within 2 days. She was back to work in a day! Wash sheets and pillowcases too!

you can also try a chamomile tea just wash his eyes with it couple of times a day, just make sure that you are using separate cottonround or whatewer you washing with on each eye so you don't spread the germs.

Find a different dr....Vigamox as listed below by one of the posts works wonders and so does Tobradex. There is no reason that you shouldn't have seen improvement within 2 days. Generally, with my kids and both just had their boughts of eye infections showed improvement within 24 hours.

True pink eye requires antibiotic eyedrops not patanol. If he hasn't responded to the drops by now it is NOT allergies. I have used Patanol for allergy eyes and the response is usually 48 hours or less.

With the proper eye drops pink eye is not longer conagious after 24 hours and you will see a noticable difference however t he drops will need to be used for at least 5 days

DO NOT WAIT - TAKE HIM IN NOW
L. (R.N.)

24 hours you should definitely get difernt drops
J.

My son has also had pink eye this week, with the exact same symptoms. I say this because with everything I researched and already knew, If there is yellowish greenish drainage from the eye, it is a bacterial infection and can and should be treated with antibiotics. Our Dr. put my son on erythromiacine ointment. It may be a little harder to put in than the eye drops, but he felt it tends to stay better. He has been on the medicine since Mon. and his eyes are almost totally clear this morning and it only took about 24 hours for his drainage to mostly clear up. If he is old enough that he has been to an optomitrist, you can call them because they are experianced in eye infections normally. I would seriously question a Dr. that saw yellow/green drainage from anything and didn't think it was a bacterial infection. I could not believe how much puss came out of his eye in one day. HTH

My doctor gave us a different medicine. She told us to use it 3 times a day (even though the script was written for 2 times a day) until it cleared up and then an additional 2 days after there were no more stuff coming out. We had pink eye in our house for over a month because it kept coming back. What I suggest is to wash sheets (or at least pillow cases) for the next 5 days or so and then continue the medicine for a week (if the doctor says it okay). Also I would use wet paper towels to wash their eys in the morning to clean them up a bit as to not spread the infection with wash clothes.
Good luck

I always check http://www.webmd.com/. It can be a viral infection, bacterial or allergy. You can have it for 5-7 days. Medicine should help in 3-5 days. Highly contagious. My daughter had it twice. Drops are very hard. 3x a day. I thought it could cause blindness if untreated depending on what type. Check out the website. I hope it clears up.

It can take quite a few days for pink eye to start clearing up depending on the severity.

S.

My daughter gets pink eye a lot in the winter months because her tear duct isn't completely open. She gets Vigamox, and the obvious pink and crustiness really goes away within 24 hours. Obviously you have to continue the drops for a week or so, but the initial stuff clears up pretty fast!

those are the standard drops. you have to make sure you clean his eyes with a warm wash rag to get all the crust and ooze off every couple of hours for the first couple of days. and it's hard for them not to rub them because that spreads it and it can even irratate the skin under neath. it might take a few days before you see a real change. but those are the drops they use.

J.,
I am glad to hear that your child is doing better. The only thing I would suggest is to make sure that you disinfect everything in your house including door knobs and faucets. Anything that your child may be touching. My son had pink eye when he was about 2 1/2 yrs old --no idea where he got it since he was never in any daycare or around any others who had it. He then gave it to me and my stepdaugther. When we finally got his cleared up he got again and then we got it again. The only thing I could think of was that I was not totally disinfecting everything! Once I started using Lysol on anything that I possibly could and we finally stopped spreading it back and forth. I used color safe bleach and very hot water for any bedding that I could --I took it to a laundry mat and used their heavy duty machines! Good Luck.

My girls have had pink eye twice now and each time they were given drops (Gentamincin one time, another drop that started with an "O" the second..I think it was a generic of gentrminicin though)that cleared their eyes up within a day (two tops). If your son's eye haven't cleared up that quick I'd definetely take him back to the dr.

My son has gotten pink eye 3 times and each time they have given me drops and it seems to get worse. So I use Eye Wash by Bausch and Lomb. I rinse out his eyes at least 3 to 4 times a day and in 3 or so days the pink eye is gone. Hope this helps.

Silver Hydrosol works wonders! Just a few drops 2 to 3 times a day and your son will be feeling fine in a day or so! This stuff is amazing and has so many beneficial uses! You can pick up a bottle at your local health store.

Good Luck!

patanol is used for pink eye. why not ask for polytrim?? I dont understand going to urgent care for pink eye. I know with pink eye after using the meds it better with the first 3 doses. does your son have a cold as well?? have you tried benydryl at bedtime? Perhaps its allergies from something outside. good luck.

The drops usually take 24 hours so he is not contagious anymore but 3-4 days to clear up.

Sorry you are going through that. My son had pink eye and so did my neice just a few weeks a go. They both cleared up within 2 days and we only had one real day with the yucky goopy stuff. Warm wet washcloths help with the gunk, but the eye drops should be working already. Good Luck to you.

J.: I don't know if you are nursing but when my kids had pink eye, I just dropped some breastmilk in the eyes for about 3 to 4 days and then they cleared up. I would do it 5 to 6 times each day. Hope that helps.
S.

Your pediatrician recommended urgent care? She is your son's doctor. She should be able to take a phone call (or someone in her office has to be on call) and if something isn't working SHE can call in another prescription for you. I'm sure if you call your doctor's office, you will be directed to an answering service where you can leave a message and they will contact the doctor for you. You've already paid for an office visit. There is no need to pay for yet another visit (and a more expensive one at that!) to give you the same diagnosis but change the medicine. That's crazy!

I'm not sure about the medicine but I do know that pink eye is contagious. I caught it once from correcting one of my students that had pink eye. It took awhile to clear up. I had to bathe my eyes open with boric acid each morning to be able to see. I used a frech ball of cotton each time i wiped the boric acid on the eyelid. wipe from the outside in because a lot of times the mucus accumulates in the corner of the eye and you don't want to drag it out and cause more problems. Yes, my eyes were bright read too. I had to change my pillowcase daily and I slept with a towel over it to prevent the discharge from gettin all over the place. I had to wash my hands constantly to prevent others in the house from catching it. I isolated my towels and facecloths and anything I used so as not to spread the infection. I went to two doctors but the med didn't work, finally I went to an opthalmologist that gave me some drops to use and in about a week it started to clear up. It takes awhile. I lost time from work, had to wear sunglasses to hide the drainage. It will eventually clear up but being extremely sanitary is the key because it can be carried from one eye to the other. It's very uncomfortable because at times the eyes itch and scratching could cause infection which is another problem. Hang in there and use the meds and it will clear up in about 7 to 10 days. Hope this info is helpful. Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!

J.,
My son had pink eye at the beginning of 1st grade last year. Our pediatrician claims that the latest research shows that antibiotic drops don't typically shorten the length of a case of pinkeye (since it's mostly a viral infection, not bacterial) and that most often, it resolves within 3-5 days without treatment. Handwashing is extremely important and cleansing the eyes with warm water (wiping from the nose area of the eye outward) can help as far as comfort goes. He gave us a prescription for drops that he didn't strongly suggest filling. We didn't fill it and his eyes cleared up quickly. Good luck!
C.

I recently had pink eye and it started to clear up within about 24hrs of starting the drops.