My little man at a year old, pink eye just clearing up.

The first time one of my kids got pink eye, I did what we’ve all been taught to do. I took him to the doctor for a treatment. But instead of helping my baby boy, the medicine the doctor gave him caused a very serious reaction. I wrote about the ordeal in my post, Don’t Be Afraid To Question. Here is an excerpt from that story to give you a little background as to why I turned to natural remedies to treat pink eye, among other things:

“…When Titus got pink eye, I tried using an herbal treatment at first, but I was having a hard time getting the drops into his tightly shut eyes, so the symptoms only got worse. After the third day I took him to see the doctor. My regular pediatrician was unavailable, so I had to see somebody else. I didn’t like him. I’ll call him Dr. R. He was very quick to prescribe something, even though he was unsure whether the conjunctivitis was viral or bacterial. He told me, “Just to be sure, we’ll give him this.” I did not like the idea of giving baby Titus prescription eye drops used to treat a bacterial infection, if it was merely a virus that would clear on it’s own. I was not impressed. Nevertheless, I did as I was told and later that night I gave him his first drop of the medicine before bed.

It was about 4 hours later when I heard Titus crying in his crib. I went in to check on him, and when he sat up and looked at me I was completely horrified to see that his right eye was grotesquely swollen, so much so that he could hardly even squint his eye open to see out of it. I picked him up in a panic, saying “Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! Look at your eye! What is wrong with your eye?!” As I brought him more into the light I could see that his eyelids were not only extremely puffy, but they were red as well. It looked like somebody had shoved cotton balls under his top and bottom eye lids, like a horrible infection. I waved my hand in front of his face, and his one good eye moved, but the swollen eye could not. Was he going to be blind? I woke my sleeping husband to show him the terrible sight.

I immediately got on the phone and called my Pediatrician’s office. The after-hours nurse answered. After I told her what had happened she told me that I should take him to the Emergency Room. She said it could be a secondary infection, and it might be worse in the morning if it doesn’t get treated. I hung up with her, and cried. I prayed and cried. I knew that if I took the poor, sleepy little guy to the ER at 11:30pm, it wouldn’t be until early in the morning before we’d be back home, where he could finally rest again. I agonized over the decision. Do I wait and let him rest, or do I take him because it might get worse? After a time, I decided I would let him sleep. He was exhausted. And I recalled Jada’s trauma, and didn’t want to torture him as well. I stayed awake all night long, sitting on the couch with the baby monitor by my side, listening for a whimper from him, crying and praying that it would get better by morning. He woke up again at 3am. and when I got him up I noticed that his eye was looking a little bit better. I thanked the Lord, held him in my arms until he fell back asleep, and then laid him down for more rest. By the morning his eye was considerably better, though still a little swollen. I called the doc’s office again and told them what was going on. They decided it was an allergic reaction. Dr. R wasn’t in, so they consulted another doctor, who called in an alternate prescription.

Now check this out, the first prescription eye drops that I had given Titus were called Ciprofloxacin. The second set of drops that I was prescribed were called Vigamox. When I read the warnings for the Vigamox I was dumbfounded to read, “if you have had an allergic reaction to Ciprofloxacin, do not use this product!” What?! I’m not giving him this! I was disgusted by the lack of knowledge displayed by the pediatricians. I went back to my original method of home remedy treatments, and within a couple of days his eyes were clear. What did the doctor say? “Oh, well I guess it was just viral.” Yeah, you guess, that’s the problem.”

After that, it has been natural treatments for us. So, what do I use for pink eye? I’ve successfully treated my family with these three remedies: An eyedrop tea made from Eyebright (the powdered form of the herb), Chamomile Tea Bags, and breast milk.  I always say that if the pink eye lasts more than a week I’ll go in for antibiotics, but so far all of these treatments have cured the problem within 2-3 days every single time.

If you are fortunate enough to have breast milk on hand, I’d suggest that first. It works great, and doesn’t have any grit or sting. Put a couple of drops of warm milk into the infected eye several times a day. If you’re taking the milk out of the fridge, knock the chill off by warming it just a tad bit on the stovetop. Do NOT microwave the milk, as this will kill the healing properties that you want to help fight the infection. Test the milk on the underside of your wrist to be sure it isn’t the slightest bit too hot before dropping any into your child’s eye.

Chamomile Tea bags work good for children who can sit still for 10 min. or so with the bags on their eyes. When my daughter got pinkeye I had her lay her head on my lap, put the warm tea bags over her eyes, and rubbed her hair while I made up a fantastical story about her. This helped her to be still and relax, and she actually looked forward to her treatments. I would squeeze the bags a little to get some of the tea into the corner of her eyes. Prepare the bags as if you are making tea, by soaking them in boiling hot water for a couple of minutes. Then cool to a nice warm before placing them on your child’s eyes.

Eyebright may be harder to find in a hurry. I have the powdered form. I mix about 1/4 tsp to maybe about 1/4 cup of warm water, and stir to dissolve. Then I use an eyedropper to administer a couple of drops of the tea to the corner of my child’s eye and open the eye so that some of the drops get in. It’s a little gritty, but works well.

For any of these treatments I will do them twice to three times a day.

Do you have a favorite natural way to treat pink eye?? I’d love to hear what you do!