- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
January 2016 Moms
littleduck730
member
Did you/are you allowing eye ointment?
littleduck730
member
The eye ointment they put on newborns after they are born---what do you think? Are you personally going to allow it or decline? I've heard mixed feelings on it. I've been more inclined to say no, but I'm not sure! I'm 1w4days out from my due date so I thought it'd be a good idea to ask all of your opinions 
Also... Does the staff ask you permission before they do something like this? Or do they just have a protocol type thing and automatically put it on your baby unless you specifically tell them ahead of time?
Also... Does the staff ask you permission before they do something like this? Or do they just have a protocol type thing and automatically put it on your baby unless you specifically tell them ahead of time?
Re: Did you/are you allowing eye ointment?
With my son, he was born and we had about 15-20 minutes of skin on skin time before the nurses did his measurements, vitamin K shot and eye ointment (all done in my room). Then they handed him back to me, he nursed, and then we both went to sleep. I plan to do the same with my daughter. My FIL who is an optometrist says preventive ointment to protect their eyes is a lot safer and easier than treating after an infection has started.
As a note towards declining this is usually do to unnecessary amounts of antibiotics and forming resistance in the future.
They placed him on my chest and applied ointment while he was on me...
What I didn't like, was when my son was trying to open his eyes the ointment seemed to bother him and he was struggling.. I asked them to please wipe some of it away so he could open his eyes and they said no
The nurse at our hospital has done it to herself. She said it doesn't hurt at all and caused no irritation other than it was a little disorienting for the first few minutes because it does make your vision a little blurry like looking through Vaseline. But other than that it wasn't an issue. She said it's normal for them to look confused. They just came out of a vagina. Lol.
I was strep b positive and although I did have like 7-8 rounds of penicillin before he was born I felt like it was another thing that protected him.
(I dunno if it does or not)
They told me the ointment needed to get in his eyes to work, but he's got these tiny tiny eye lids so I feel like they put too much on his eyes.
He'd open his eyes then close then like he was struggling to open his eyes. I'm a FTM so it kinda bothered me a bit...
I just wanted to wipe some of it off so he didn't have to struggle to open his eyes.
DD 12/20/99, DS 12/14/12, M/C 9/2014, M/C 1/2015
DS1 01/08/03 DD1 08/11/04 DD2 10/06/08 DS2 09/30/14
SURPRISE! Hannah May born 01/22/16
DS1 2010
DS2 2013
DD1 2016
DS1 01/08/03 DD1 08/11/04 DD2 10/06/08 DS2 09/30/14
SURPRISE! Hannah May born 01/22/16
How long is the ointment suppose to actually stay on your baby's eyes? I mean... It eventually gets wiped off after a certain amount of time, I would imagine.
https://childrensmd.org/browse-by-age-group/newborn-infants/do-newborns-really-need-that-eye-ointment/
I get a lot of questions about antibiotic eye ointment for newborns. Here are the most common:
“I have zero risk of having an STD. My baby doesn’t need eye antibiotics.”
Answer: The antibiotic ointment also protects against other common bacteria that can be found the vagina and rectal area.
“My baby is being born by c-section, so she doesn’t need eye antibitoics.”
Answer: As long as there was no vaginal rupture prior to c-section, risk of ophthalmia neonatorum is essentially zero. You are fine to decline eye antibiotics.
“If my baby gets an eye infection, we can treat it then.”
Answer: Ophthalmia neonaturm can be rapidly progressive and cause permanent damage to the cornea. Treatment is complicated and usually involves IV antibiotics and hospitalization. Preventative medicine is best. Risks of eye antibiotic are limited to rare eye irritation, which is much less since switching from the older treatment of silver nitrate to the ilotycin antibiotic ointment that we now use. The benefits of preventative treatment outweigh the risks.
“I want to delay eye antiobitics so that my baby can see me.”
It is absolutely fine to delay for a few hours or until mom and baby have bonded and/or breastfed for the first time. In fact, there is some evidence that giving eye antibiotics before a baby has nursed for the first time impedes the baby’s ability to see and latch onto mom’s breast. We’ve changed our procedures at Barnes Jewish Hospital so that baby and mom spend their first few minutes together and eye ointment and other newborn care comes later (as long as baby is healthy).
A growing number of parents decline antibiotic eye ointment for their newborns. You are welcome too, also. Just discuss it with your pediatrician before delivery. Babies used to go blind from eye infections. Now we almost never see it— I’ve seen one case in my career. I’ve never seen any side effect from the antibiotic eye ointment, either.
- Neonatal ocular prophylaxis with erythromycin, the only agent currently available in Canada for this purpose, may no longer be useful and, therefore, should not be routinely recommended.
https://www.cps.ca/en/documents/position/ophthalmia-neonatorumhttps://www.cps.ca/en/documents/position/ophthalmia-neonatorum
There have been no studies that show that the eye ointment effectively prevents conjunctivitis caused by bacterial infections. Studies have been almost exclusively limited to std related eye infections.