Causes of lacrimation in babies and infants
It often appears along with snot during a runny nose. Parents take these signs as a manifestation of a cold and begin to treat the child for it.
But, if a child (or baby) has watery eyes and snot running, these may not only be signs of a cold. Therefore, it is not worth making an independent diagnosis.
Here's what can cause a runny nose with tears and snot:
- Sinusitis is inflammation of the sinuses, paranasal or paranasal sinuses.
When the nasal septum becomes inflamed, it swells and blocks the passage. The mucus formed in the nose, not finding a way out, puts pressure on the lacrimal canal, causing profuse lacrimation. - These same signs are characteristic of allergic rhinitis.
Until the age of three, allergies in most cases manifest themselves only as symptoms on the skin. And the symptoms we describe are typical for older children. But only a specialist can make a correct diagnosis of an allergic variant after diagnostic procedures.
Watery eyes also appear with a cold. The body rapidly multiplies pathogens with the production of toxins.
Tearing during a cold is observed in the first three to four days, after which it usually goes away or its intensity decreases.
High fever also causes children to cry . This is a common sign of ARVI, and the severity of the disease affects the intensity of lacrimation.
In this case, it is necessary to proceed to treatment immediately, since the child’s temperature can cause serious consequences.
Conjunctivitis also causes excessive tears. Its cause is most often hypothermia, colds, allergies or dirt that gets into the eye through a child’s dirty hands, things or eye injuries.
Most often, only one eye becomes inflamed, but if treated incorrectly or the disease is advanced, there is a risk that the process will spread to the second eye. Then the treatment becomes more complicated.
Obstruction of the tear duct is a very rare cause of excessive tearing. According to statistics, it occurs in only 5% of children.
It is easy to confuse it with conjunctivitis; even experienced doctors make mistakes. Therefore, treatment is prescribed similar to the treatment of conjunctivitis. If it provides temporary relief, then the possibility of tear duct obstruction is considered.
In infants, lacrimation is caused by the teething process. After all, at this time there is a decrease in immunity, viruses infect the entire body.
Causes of runny nose and watery eyes
When a child’s tears flow and a slight runny nose appears, this may indicate the onset of an illness, or such signs arise against the background of exposure to physical factors.
A newborn baby's eyes most often become watery due to hypothermia or overheating. At an older age, allergic reactions or the onset of an acute respiratory infection may occur.
Doctors note that in infants, while teething, tears also flow, the body temperature rises and a runny nose occurs.
Note! One of the most pronounced signs is the microclimate of the room and living conditions. This means that when there is high or low humidity in the room, as well as frequent temperature fluctuations, this can cause snot and tears in the child.
There are many other signs, which we will now talk about.
The main thing is to understand that if you analyze each cause separately and carry out a number of necessary preventive measures, you can prevent the occurrence of many diseases.
Allergy
Allergies are a fairly common cause of runny nose and watery eyes in childhood, especially when the child is bottle-fed. In addition, doctors note that heredity, close contact with domestic or street animals, living conditions, as well as frequent colds have a significant impact.
The first thing to note is that there are many allergens. If the allergen is of biological origin, then the child experiences lacrimation and a runny nose due to the penetration of bacteria into the body, as well as after vaccination.
Some foods cause severe allergic reactions. For example: citrus, seafood or spices. Therefore, complementary foods must be introduced gradually to a newborn baby.
As we have already said, allergies also occur against the background of household factors - house dust, low air humidity. To avoid the manifestation of allergy symptoms, it is necessary to constantly keep the house clean and monitor the air humidity.
How to monitor humidity? You can buy special air humidifiers in stores. If you don’t have the finances, you can humidify the air in the room yourself (wet a towel and hang it on a warm radiator).
Cold
The most common cause of a runny nose and watery eyes is a cold. The disease is caused by viruses that enter the child’s body by airborne droplets.
Most often, the risk of getting sick increases in cold weather. Therefore, during this period it is necessary to monitor nutrition and dress the child according to the weather.
Teething
Children during the teething period become capricious, as their eyes not only become watery, but their gums also become sore.
When teething, a runny nose often occurs, but in this case, a runny nose is accompanied by mucous discharge. If your child has a runny nose with green mucus, then there is an acute respiratory infection. Therefore, it is necessary to immediately consult a doctor and undergo treatment to avoid health complications.
It will be useful - How to treat conjunctivitis and runny nose?
Conjunctivitis
Another common problem that can cause a runny nose is watery
one eye or both - conjunctivitis. When a runny nose is bacterial in nature, the infection can spread to the mucous membrane of the eyeball. After all, the nasopharynx and the orbit are at close range. As a result of this disease, the child experiences lacrimation; in severe cases, pus is discharged from the eyes.
In this case, you should immediately consult a doctor and undergo a full diagnosis. Treatment for conjunctivitis is long-term and includes not only taking antiviral drugs, but also antibacterial eye drops.
A runny nose and festering eyes in a child - we recommend reading.
Treatment
The method of treatment depends on the cause of the watery eyes. You can use medicinal (traditional) treatment or traditional methods.
Traditional treatment:
- For conjunctivitis, it is necessary to wash the eye and instill chloramphenicol drops into the eye - they are approved for use from 4 months of age. You can put tetracycline ointment behind the lower eyelid. These drugs can be used without a doctor's prescription, but it is still better to consult with him.
- If the cause of tears is teething, drugs with an anesthetic effect are used: Kalgel, Dentinox, Metrogyl Denta gels. Don't forget to remove mucus from your nose.
- If an obstruction of the lacrimal duct is diagnosed, the doctor prescribes a massage.
If the procedure is unable to help the baby, then probing is prescribed. The procedure is unpleasant for the baby and is performed quickly. It is performed under local anesthesia. A probe is inserted into the nasolacrimal canal to penetrate the embryonic film. The channel itself is washed with a disinfectant solution. To avoid relapse, a course of massage is prescribed. - For a runny nose, you can instill the following drugs into your child’s nose: Nazivin (it is allowed to be used from 3 months), from 5 months you can use Otrivin, Vibrocil, Xylene.
- If the cause is an allergy, and you know it, then use antihistamines. It is important to stop contact with the allergen.
If a child has a high fever and watery eyes, complex treatment is used . All remedies are prescribed by a doctor; parents only need to follow his recommendations.
Before visiting a doctor, you can help your baby with folk remedies. At least it won't get any worse. We wash the child's eyes with a strong infusion of tea, a decoction of chamomile or calendula.
What is myopia (nearsightedness)? You will find all the details about eye disease in children in these articles:
- What types of myopia are there?
- Causes and treatment in children of preschool and school age.
- Treatment methods and methods of vision correction.
- Manifestations in children under one year of age and older.
Treatment measures
The tactics of drug therapy depend on the cause of watery eyes and a runny nose:
- With an allergic factor, contact with the allergen is excluded. Procedures for rinsing the nasal passages using Dolphin or Aqualor are prescribed. The patient is prescribed an anti-allergenic diet and, if necessary, antihistamines such as Allergodil or Suprastin are prescribed. In advanced cases, hormonal treatment with Nasonex cannot be avoided.
- For infectious rhinitis and conjunctivitis, antiviral and antibacterial nasal drops are prescribed: Bioparox and Nazoferon. To relieve symptoms, you can use vasoconstrictors such as Vibrocil and Tizin. To treat the eyes, antibacterial drops Tetracycline and Albucid, and antiviral agents are prescribed: Actipol. The nose is washed with a solution of sea salt or the drug Humer.
When teething, no additional measures are required to correct a runny nose and watery eyes. If the symptoms are pronounced, then you can use vasoconstrictor nasal drops.
When treating lacrimation and runny nose in children, it is necessary to carry out a comprehensive diagnosis in order to correctly determine the cause of these symptoms. If uncontrolled drug therapy is carried out, there is a high risk of complications as symptoms progress. When primary signs appear, it is recommended to go to the doctor. The sooner treatment is carried out, the greater the chances of a complete recovery and eliminating the likelihood of relapses.
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Preventive measures
They will help avoid unwanted symptoms or at least reduce their manifestation.
For this:
- Strengthen your child's immunity in every possible way.
- Try to exclude the baby from contact with possible allergens.
- Avoid contact with sick people and do not visit public places during cold epidemics.
- Avoid overheating or hypothermia, especially in cold seasons.
Therapy for allergic rhinitis
If rhinitis is caused by an allergy, the most important point in its treatment is eliminating the allergen. This is not always possible, but you should try to minimize the number of contacts with the substance to which such a reaction occurs.
Antihistamines are used to treat this type of runny nose. They affect the cause of rhinitis, relieve swelling of the mucous membrane and eliminate itching. Since allergies are often accompanied by lacrimation and conjunctivitis, the doctor also prescribes antihistamine eye drops. If they do not give the desired effect, then glucocorticoids are used, including Dexamethasone, on the basis of which various ophthalmic drops (Pharmadex) are produced.
What not to do
First of all, do not self-medicate . The symptoms of many diseases are similar, the risk of error is high. Therefore, before making a diagnosis, it is recommended only to wash the eyes with decoctions.
Take all medications prescribed by your doctor strictly according to the schedule, no independent increase or decrease in dosage!
What to do if a child has watery eyes and a runny nose, what do these symptoms indicate? Let's find out from a specialist:
Most causes are easily eliminated. The main thing is to follow all the doctor’s instructions and not self-medicate.
Why does a child's eyes water and snot flow?
In childhood, a runny nose accompanied by sneezing and lacrimation is a common occurrence. This is due, first of all, to the anatomical structure of the body and the fact that the child’s immune system is not yet strong. Irritation and inflammation of the nasal mucosa occurs for various reasons. If a child has watery eyes and a runny nose, then there is a need to visit a pediatrician who, if necessary, will conduct diagnostics and prescribe drug therapy.
Why does my baby have a stuffy nose?
If a baby has a stuffy nose, this does not always indicate an inflammatory process in the body. Could the cause be physiological rhinitis? What is it? The nasal passages in children at this age are not yet fully formed and are too narrow.
In newborn babies, a large amount of mucus accumulates in the nasal sinuses. It dries out and forms crusts on the nose. This interferes with the baby's normal breathing. There should be no temperature and no other signs of a cold either.
In order to get rid of this problem, you need to regularly moisturize your baby's nose. This can be done using special solutions or sterile Vaseline.
If there is a fever, runny nose and watery eyes, then this may be the beginning of an inflammatory process in the body. In this case, it is necessary to urgently consult a doctor, since it is impossible to make a diagnosis on your own. Especially a small child.
How to treat a runny nose using traditional methods in children?
It is worth remembering that not all traditional methods are safe. Therefore, they should be used with extreme caution.
Washing
Rinsing with table or natural sea salt helps a lot for a runny nose. To prepare the solution, you need to dilute a small amount of salt in warm water and rinse the child in each nostril separately.
Herbal decoctions
Inhalations based on decoctions of medicinal plants are also often used in the treatment of snot. To prepare, you will need one part chamomile or sage and three parts water. Place the water with the herbs on the fire and bring to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and let the child breathe over the steam for 10 minutes. You can also use thyme, linden, fir or eucalyptus oil.
Kalanchoe
Kalanchoe juice can help relieve a runny nose. But before using it as a treatment, you need to make sure that the child is not allergic to it. Cut a Kalanchoe leaf, squeeze out the juice and fill a pipette with juice. Place one drop into your nose. A normal reaction to juice is frequent sneezing.
When treating any disease, you should not use untested and dubious traditional methods. You should first consult with a specialist, and only then use them to treat your child.
Prevention of runny nose in children
To prevent your child from getting sick, you need to drink them in courses in the fall and spring, when the body experiences an acute shortage of vitamins. You can find a huge amount of vitamins in the pharmacy.
You need to regularly ventilate the room where the child sleeps, especially before bedtime, and place aromatic lamps with eucalyptus oil. You also need to do wet cleaning as often as possible so that dust does not accumulate in the room.
You can avoid a runny nose with the help of vaccinations prescribed by doctors. Such procedures will prepare the child’s immunity to face viruses and infections.
To prevent allergies, it is important to monitor your child’s diet. The composition of the products must be natural. It is also worth excluding chocolate from the diet and giving citrus fruits, honey and nuts in limited quantities.
Treatment of infants
Therapy for the youngest patients should be carried out only with methods recommended by a specialist. It is very important to strictly follow the dosage, since it is designed for a certain weight of the child, and exceeding the dose can significantly increase the concentration of the medicinal substance in the tissues (or bloodstream) of the child and thereby cause toxic manifestations. Even rinsing with chamomile decoction, so often recommended by loved ones and household members, can increase unpleasant symptoms. At home, you can only clean your eyes with a sterile cotton swab moistened with warm water. This cleaning must be done several times a day. Eye drops with Albucid (sodium sulfacyl) are also considered relatively safe, and this is what many mothers use immediately when the first unpleasant signs appear in their children.
Separately, it is necessary to talk about the treatment of dacryocystitis in infants. Massage is considered the best therapeutic method. Typically, massage techniques are shown by a specialist at an appointment, and subsequently such actions must be done independently at home. The vector of movements should go from the outer corner of the eye to the inner. Usually, during the massage, pus is released through the tear ducts. It must be cleaned with a cotton swab. After a few days of regular massaging of this area, improvement will occur. If the massage does not have an effect, then a probing procedure is carried out in a medical institution. Essentially, this is mechanical cleaning of the canal by introducing a wire probe into it. The specialist first numbs the area to reduce pain in the baby.
