Natural Home Remedies For Eye Irritations

[Voneen Pryce]

Infants and kids eyes can become easily irritated due to environmental factors.  Factors such as changes in the weather, chemicals, allergies, injuries, bacterial or viral infections can trigger eye irritations.  The two common culprits that causes inflammation of the eyes are “pink eye” (conjunctivitis) and blocked tear ducts.

“Pink eye” is very common among toddlers and school age kids.  It is generally painless, but some children complain about burning sensation, dry eyes or irritations.  If your child has “pink eye”, it should be treated promptly.  Failure to do so can lead to severe eye injuries such as distortion in vision or blindness.  Signs and symptoms are watery eyes, crusty eyes with yellow or green discharge, itching sensation, bright pink eyes, just to name a few.  Pink eye is very contagious, so it is recommended that you consult your pediatrician promptly.

Home Remedies for Pink Eyes

If you’re a breast-feeding mom, you have the perfect natural healing remedy for pink eyes.  Breast milk has a special antibody called “immunoglobulin A”, which hinders bacteria from attaching to the mucosal surface of the eyes.  This special antibody is taken from the mother, and can be used to treat and prevent further occurrences of eye irritations.

Instructions:

• Wash hands
• Cleanse affected eye with water and pat dry with sterile gauze
• Cleanse nipple using plain water and a sterile gauze
• Lay child in the flat position, and express a few drops of breast milk into the affected eye.  Gentle open the affected eye so that the breast milk is able to enter into the eye socket.  Repeat the process after 5 minutes.

Once 10 minutes has elapsed, the child can get up and move about freely.

Breast milk should be applied to the affected eye 3-4 times a day until the eye is totally heeled.  You should start to notice some improvements within 3-4 days.  If this home remedy does not work and you notice that the eye inflammation is getting worse, please consult your child’s pediatrician.

Blocked tear ducts are fairly common among infants and toddlers.  Tear ducts can become obstructed if the passage between the eyes and nasal cavity closed off.  Signs and symptoms are swelling of the eyelids, teary eyes and yellowish mucus formation between the edges of the eyelids.  

My toddler, who is now 4 years old, had recurrent episodes of bilateral blocked tear ducts when he was two years old.  His ophthalmologist had prescribed several medications to unblock the ducts, but nothing worked.  She then concluded that the next step was for him to undergo an invasive procedure such as dilation, probing and irrigation.  This procedure is done using general anesthesia in very young babies to unblock tear ducts.  I became very frantic and concern for my little boy.  I decided to postponed the procedure and revert to trying natural products to see if they would work for his eye condition.  Unfortunately, I did not have breast milk at the time, so I had to think of another natural recipe that might work.

Products Used

• 1/2 cup lukewarm water in a sterile cup

• 1 tsp of natural sea salt

• Sterile gauzes

I cleansed my toddler’s eyes with plain water and pat dried using sterile gauzes.  I then mixed the lukewarm water and sea salt together in the sterile cup.  Sterile gauze was then saturated with the mixture.  I placed my toddler in the supine position and applied the saturated sterile gauze to his eyelids, (one gauze for each eyelid).  He screamed a bit from the burning sensation of the salt water entering his eyes.  However, that moment was short lived.  I applied this remedy two times a day for two days.  I was shocked after the second day to see that his tear ducts were unblocked; “Holy Moly”.  He had a recurrent episode of blocked tear ducts 6 months after and I applied the same remedy.  It cleared up his blocked ducts after 2 days again.  This natural remedy worked miracles on my son’s eyes.  I was very happy and my mind was put at ease knowing that he did not underwent amy form of surgery procedure to unblock his tear ducts.

The topics written above are my personal opinions and experiences and I do not claim to be an expert. Please consult your physician before starting any course of home remedies.  I will not be held liablefor any accidence, or injuries that might result from you following my recommended home remedy tutorials. 

Do you have any form of natural eye remedies that you would like to share?  I am always open to learn about natural ways of curing illnesses.  Please post your response in the box below.