I honestly don't know how this happened, but Peyton got pink eye less than a week ago.
At least, the doctor says it's pinkeye. I'm not so sure. Here are the facts:
His eyes were doing a lot of gross oozing. It looked just like pinkeye. I see where the doc would get that diagnosis.
However, here are some more facts. This kid never goes anywhere--seriously, thanks to a wicked RSV season in our neighborhood the handful of times I've had to take him out to a store, we go when it's not crowded and keep him away from people and covered in his carrier. He's only been around people at Grandma's house, and none of those people had pinkeye. Neither did his sister for that matter, which is the most likely place for him to catch it, seeing as she hangs out with other kids and everyone her age has questionable hygiene practices. None of us had it before or after he got it. Now, I'm pretty germphobic, but even I can't claim to be so awesomely on top of everything that none of us would catch it, seeing as it's so contagious and his sister loves to kiss him.
Also, and this is the point that really confuses me...Samantha also got "pinkeye" at exactly three weeks old, also without leaving the house or hanging out with people. None of us caught it from her either.
Seriously, what are the odds that my agoraphobic babies would each catch a hugely contagious eye infection from an unidentified source, at the exact same age, three years apart, without passing it to either parent or another family member? Isn't it more likely that my kids are prone to clogged tear ducts that get infected or something?
Am I the only one who thinks this is weird?
On the plus side, if you need antibiotic eye ointment put in your newborn's eyes, I'm getting to be a pro at it.
Other than the pinkeye, which for the record has set me back immeasurably in my quest to be less weird about taking him out in public, things are going great for us!
3 comments:
Some kids pick up a little bacteria as they pass through the birth canal (even the agoraphobic kids can't avoid that), or they have a hypersensitivity reaction to the eye ointment that the hospital applies to newborns (that used to be more common before they switched from silver nitrate to erythromycin ointment).
Okay, I am really glad to have a medical genius reading the blog--I totally thought it was some sort of rebound reaction to the newborn ointment or something along those lines, but I didn't know if that made me sound crazy. That makes way more sense to me, thank you Dr. Sarah! Of course you would know all about this, eyes are your thing! Glad to know there's probably not some sort of crazy pinkeye spreading fairy out to get my newborns. I should have just emailed you in the first place. :)
Another explanation, maybe the few times he has gone out, allergies have already disrupted his eyes. Just since Monday, Tyler, Logan, and Kaitlynn all the same day had one single goopy eye that lasted for two days, with no other symptoms of anything. This all came after we had worked outside in our backyard on Monday. So there you go, not really an explanation of what it actually is, but just a theory.
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