Pinkeye And Kids: One Mom’s Story

Today’s article is from guest writer, Maria Meadowcraft. She recently went through a battle with pinkeye, and wanted to share her experience and lessons learned with you. Enjoy!

The old childhood illness of pinkeye has always scarred me. Any time I hear it mentioned it’s in a way that makes me think of contamination and exile, at least for a few days. However, I had never had any personal experience with it, until now.

Yesterday my son came home from kindergarten with a memo saying it was going around the class room, so they did a massive cleaning of their room in hopes of riding this childhood illness. Just as I put the memo down I happened to look at my son, to find he had goopy icky stuff in the corner of both of his eyes. Panic struck me initially, as he has never had these symptoms before, and as a mother I did not want my child with this infection.

What were we going to do?

Conjunctivitis or pinkeye is the most common eye problem kids usually get. It can come with redness, itching, inflammation, or swelling, and yes the goop! This goop is a greenish or yellow mucous discharge that collects in the eye or eyes. This illness is also very contagious, especially among kids, because they touch their eyes to rub or scratch them, then touch many different surfaces contaminating them in a matter of seconds and not even realizing it.

After careful consideration as to what I was going to do for my son, I decided we were not going to panic and possibly do very little. Since having kids, my husband and I decided we were not going to be like most main stream parents and give our children antibiotics with every ailment that comes around. If they were absolutely needed, we would definitely be willing to give them. But, so far I am proud to say they still have not had to give any. I believe that our bodies have the ability to heal ourselves if we immune systems healthy and strong and give it the right resources.

Antibiotics are given for many different reasons and because they are so readily given, many kids’ immune systems aren’t learning how to fight these problems on their own. This is leading to the antibiotics inability to work properly and effectively, which over time can lead to the antibiotic to stop working altogether.

So we stopped at our local health food store to consult their many books and scan the isles in hope of finding some kind of natural treatment. It didn’t take long to find a couple homeopathic treatment options, ones that are safe and work in harmony with your immune system. In the parking lot I gave my son the eye drops we found for pink eye relief as well as some of the small tablets to help from the inside. I figured since I was working in the emergency room the next morning I would probably be able to consult a physician then to determine our next course of action if these homeopathic remedies did not work.

The following morning we woke up to find our son with crusty eyes, but once they were wiped away with a warm wet wash cloth his eyes did not look so bad. We kept him home from school and I went to work hoping to discuss our situation with my co-worker, the doctor working the ER. Once I explained our pinkeye situation, this doctor went over many of the facts that I already knew about it, such as how contagious it was, and the symptoms.

He told me it was more than likely a virus, almost like a cold virus that would eventually get better. He gave me a prescription for an ointment to use on the eyes, but also mentioned it might not do any good except make the crusty gooey stuff less sticky. His advice was that it would probably go away on its own in a day or two and on to its next victim. He also stressed the importance of hand washing.

He and I were right. I did fill the antibiotic ointment just in case we might need it, but when I got home things were looking good, and the pinkeye on my son was almost completely gone. By the next morning it was completely gone and, I am glad to say I listened to myself and did not react with full force right away. We let nature take its course and within a short time this once scary childhood ailment became not so scary anymore. I think the homeopathic eye drops we found did help not only with the symptoms but with the virus as well and I am proud to say we still have not had to rely on antibiotics.