teary eye

From birth or shortly thereafter, Lilly's left eye has been watery and the eyelid red. Leighton and I worry that the oxygen mask, which was put on Lilly right after birth, poked her eye and caused this redness and perhaps also did damage to the tear duct (to Leighton, who was with Lilly when she had the oxygen mask on, it did look as if the mask was poking her eye. The nurses put the mask on upside-down, to better cover her tiny face. But this way the chin part of the mask hit her eye region). Our midwife and the doctors and nurses we've seen, on the other hand, seem to think it's a "stork bite" that will go away (note here that such marks also can be caused by trauma to the skin). The local helsesøster (nurse at the health station) thinks it's a "blocked tear duct in infants" (medfødt tåreveistilstoppelse). This affects 6 - 20% babies (depending on which article you read, here's another one). It means that when the baby is born, the lower tear duct is blocked where there's supposed to be a little opening leading into the nose so that tears can drain into it. Typically this hole opens up on its own within the first year of baby's life. Our helsesøster advised us to put pressure on each side of baby's upper nose, by/on the tear sac and duct, to trigger the hole to open (in other words, you would massage downwards; some advise massage upwards to empty fluid that has gathered in the sac into the eye). Now, it's not known if this actually helps. In fact, it's a controversial practice that may even lead to infection.

The reason I'm doing all this extra research about it now, is that Lilly's eye has been seeming a little more irritated these past days. This could be for various reasons:

• After I saw the helsesøster again for Lilly's 3-month check-up, I've been massaging her tear ducts more frequently. Maybe this has indeed irritated the eyelid tissue and contributed to infection.
• During one "massage" last week, a lot of white thicker fluid came out. Maybe this caused the irritation? Or maybe this indicates infection had already developed in the sac? Did I apply too much pressure, causing this white stuff to come out? Maybe it was good, necessary, even, to empty the sac of this white goo?
  
• Maybe we've not been careful enough when keeping the eye clean, using less clean fingers and somwhat dirty burp rags sometimes?
• Maybe it's because of the cold I've been having? Maybe it's also affected her? Maybe she also has a little cold?
  

In either case, we don't know yet if it's an infection or just some irritation, and, if it is an infection, if it's viral or bacterial. For now, we're keeping it clean, and watching it. Dr. Sears recommends applying drops of breast milk in baby's eye and I might try some of that.