Massaging Blocked Tear Duct Info

The gummy eye. It’s a phrase that strikes fear into the heart of new parents. You wake up, lean over the crib to greet your sleeping angel, and find one eye crusted shut with yellow-green discharge. Before you panic about pink eye or an infection, take a deep breath. Chances are, your baby is dealing with a very common condition: a blocked tear duct (nasolacrimal duct obstruction).

For most infants, this condition resolves on its own within the first year. But there is a simple, drug-free technique that can help speed up the process, avoid infections, and bring relief to your little one: Why Do Ducts Get Blocked? Imagine a drainpipe smaller than a grain of rice. That is your baby’s tear duct. It runs from the inner corner of the eye down into the nose. In up to 20% of newborns, the valve at the bottom of that pipe (the Hasner valve) doesn’t open properly at birth. Tears have nowhere to go, so they pool in the eye, overflow down the cheek, and stagnate, leading to that sticky, white-to-yellow discharge. massaging blocked tear duct

Keeping that pressure, roll your finger downward along the side of the nose, about half an inch toward the nostril. Imagine you are squeezing toothpaste through a tube from the top to the bottom. The gummy eye