Eye drops

[Linnis]

After Katelyn's thread it got me to thinking, why do they give the eye drops at birth. Before all I'd read is that you can have them wait a few hours to give it to the baby or sign a wavier to go without. Now I'm reading that blindness can be caused by an STD being passed to the baby. So why if a mother doesn't have an STD are the babies given these drops?

Are there *any* other reasons to have the eye drops? Have/will you be refusing or delaying them?

 

[Naomi4Christ]

After Katelyn's thread it got me to thinking, why do they give the eye drops at birth. Before all I'd read is that you can have them wait a few hours to give it to the baby or sign a wavier to go without. Now I'm reading that blindness can be caused by an STD being passed to the baby. So why if a mother doesn't have an STD are the babies given these drops?

Are there *any* other reasons to have the eye drops? Have/will you be refusing or delaying them?

Apparently, you can't trust your husband

 

[Linnis]

Apparently, you can't trust your husband

So they do it because they automatically assume my husband isn't being honest?

 

[Naomi4Christ]

That's what I gleaned when I was researching it.

BTW, they don't give this treatment in the UK, and I don't think there is an epidemic of blindness caused by STDs. Granted, we do have daily midwife visits for 2 weeks...

 

[Linnis]

Well that stinks. I'll have to discuss this with my DH, but I'm sure he may be insulted.

 

[Sascha Fitzpatrick]

Because people lie, Linnis, simple as that. Yes, it's not fair to people like you and me who are monogamous - but it's there because of the few bad apples that would lie about it.

Also, from what I've discovered at work, babies tear ducts (which make the fluid to clear out the eye) are not fully developed at the time of birth - yes they cry, but are predominantly tearless for the first little while - so this enables the eye to be cleaned out of gunk, and keep it clear until those normal tear systems are fully developed...

That's what I've been told at work when involved in births at least...

Sasch

 

[katelyn]

One thing that I find interesting is that the eye drops can actually cause irritation and conjunctivitis, in which case, how are you going to know if it's actually a serious infection or not? An eye infection is pretty easy to spot, especially when babies are young and not producing tears, so early treatment of a true infection would be an easy thing to do normally. But it sounds like it would be possible to be fooled into thinking that the redness/irritation is due to the drops and that because you got the drops, you're baby's not going to get an infection (which of course they aren't foolproof). So is it possible that the eye drops could actually hinder the detection of an actual infection?

 

[Cright]

my friend had them with all 4 of her kids, I think mostly because she was told they were standard and just accepted it... 2 for sure (but I'm thinking 3) all ended up with a cloged tear duct. I'm wondering if it was from the ointment (it's not drops here, it's an ointment).

I won't be getting them at all.

 

[katelyn]

my friend had them with all 4 of her kids, I think mostly because she was told they were standard and just accepted it... 2 for sure (but I'm thinking 3) all ended up with a cloged tear duct. I'm wondering if it was from the ointment (it's not drops here, it's an ointment).

I have been wondering about this too. I've been trying to find some numbers for the current incidence of blocked tear ducts (I've found numbers of anywhere from 6-33%) and past incidence (haven't found anything). Natalie had a blocked tear duct (which has only in the past few months finally started clearing up), and it seems to be a very common problem these days. We know several friends whose children had blocked tear ducts. Yet when we tell people from our parents/grandparents generation about the blocked tear duct problem, they've never heard of it.

 

[HeKnowsMyName]

DS has a blocked tear duct. I've wondered the same thing.

 

[~Mrs. A2J~]

My daughter had the eye drops and also had a blocked tear duct...

I think I saw someone here on CF post that they are going to get the eye drops as it reduces the risk of GBS transmission to the baby? Doesn't anyone know anything about this?

 

[Cright]

If your talking about Group B Strep, no it doesn't. There are antibiotics that they will give you via IV during labor if you have group b strep.

What I recently learned about Group B is that it's transient... they usually test you for it about 3 weeks prior to birth and if you have it THEN they will do antibiotics during labor. However, it comes and goes all the time, so you may not still have it once in labor, and if you didn't test positive when you had the test, you could have it by the time you are in labor!

Seman is good for clensing your vaginal canal... so I've been told if I don't want that IV, have sex the night before my strep b test and if it's not too uncomfortable, every few days in my last week or 2 of pregnancy.