At almost two weeks old, my newborn daughter, Alice, was perfect except for one small concern: The eyelashes on her right eye were covered in a yellow-ish, crusty buildup. According to the baby books I?d devoured over the past few weeks, Alice was likely suffering from a blocked tear duct, a fairly harmless condition in which the tubes responsible for draining a baby?s tears aren?t yet fully developed. Still, it was a lot of gunk on her eye. Thankfully, we had an upcoming doctor?s appointment where I was able to unload my many questions.
At the appointment, we learned that Alice was part of the six percent of infants born with nasolacrimal duct obstruction, better known as a blocked tear duct.
Stephanie Liu, an Edmonton-based family physician and co-author of Instagram blog HautHealth, explains that the inner corners of our eyes contain small tubes that drain our tears into our nose. In some babies, these tubes don?t fully develop and open up until several months after birth. ?That stops the tears from being able to drain properly,? she says. The result is persistent tearing, discharge from the eye and something called mattering, which Liu describes as ?gunk on the eye.? Made up of dried tears, it?s often crusty and comes in a range of colours including white, brown and yellow. Liu says blocked tear ducts can happen in one or both eyes. Why the tubes fail to fully develop isn?t known, nor is it known how to prevent this condition. While it is possible for adults and childre...