I remember the day we were going to take Logan home from the hospital the Kaiser nurse came in for one last check. She noticed that Logan had tears running down his face and commented on how most babies this young didn't have tears yet. At the time I thought that maybe Logan was just different but I didn't think it was a bad thing. Later I learned that he had clogged tear ducts and that the tears we were seeing shouldn't be there. The doctors assured us though that in 90% of all babies it goes away on it's own. Well Mike-e and I watched and waited for them to go away but they seemed to get worse not better. Soon he was oozing white goopy stuff out of his eyes that would get all over his face and hair as he rubbed his eyes. The combination of the ooze and the tears started to dry out his eyes and make them red and puffy. The doctor told us to try massaging the tear ducts which both of us worked on each day. I started given Logan baths and showers almost everyday to make it easier to clean his eyes but still they were not getting better. So yesterday we took Logan to the eye doctor. The eye doctor Dr. Steele is part of the Children's Eye physicians group and is located right by our house. The office was really nice and the staff was amazing with Logan. They checked not only his clogged tear ducts but his vision as well. He is slightly far-sighted which is exactly where he should be for his age and everything (other than the tear ducts) looked good. They put this ultra-violet dye in his eyes to see how clogged the ducts were and none of it went away so they were really clogged. They told us we could wait until he was a year old for them to go in and clean it out in case it went away on it's own but we really didn't want to wait, neither one of believe it was going to clear up on it's own. So they strapped him down in this stiff board harness, same one they use in hospital for kids who need stitches in there head. And then they cleaned out his ducts. It didn't look very fun at all and Logan cried the whole time but it was fast and only took maybe 5 minutes. They didn't have to put him under which Mike-e and I thought they were going to have to and were very relieved that they weren't. Afterwards they gave him to me and he feel right asleep. SInce the procedure his eyes have been so much better. Normally in the mornings when we get him up his eyes are so goopy that he can't open one or both and we call him "Baby one eyed" or "Baby no eyes". Today he woke up and there was no ooze. His eyes weren't red at all and they looked great. It is throwing me off though because I'm kind of used to him having the red lines around his eyes. Now we don't have to edit all his pictures before we print or post them. The picture above is of Logan before the procedure. You can see how his eyelashes are stuck together and there is dryness and gunk around his eyes.
