Duct, Duct, Goose

Masen's eyes have always been watery on and off. We frequently get asked if he is crying, or if he has been crying, and Scott and I always respond with, no, he just has watery eyes. I even often find myself wiping tears from his face throughout the day, and do it now almost without thinking about it.

He has also always rubbed his eyes a lot, and we get many people telling us he must be tired. Which again, we have always responded with, no, he just rubs his eyes a lot. Babies just do that, right?

Our little guy also has chapped cheeks pretty much all of the time, which is caused from his little watery eyes tearing up, and streaming down his face. I put Aveeno baby lotion on his face continuously throughout the day, which has helped some, but the constant moisture is too much for his sensitive little cheeks. This is when I decided that his watery eyes were a bigger issue than I originally thought.

So to the Internet we went, and Scott found our answer. After spending so long blaming it on the pollen in the air, or him having a cold, or the change in the weather, we determined it was probably clogged tear ducts. Our pediatrician confirmed it, and today we took out little guy to the eye doctor to have everything assessed, so we can plan to have his tear ducts cleared.

 Before the age of nine months, it is generally possible to clear them simply through massaging the area, but after nine months of age, it is normally necessary to clear them with little wires that get poked through the duct all the way to the nasal passage, where normal tears drain. It's fairly simple, but there will be anesthesia involved, so it makes me even more nervous, but we are hoping that overall this will take away any discomfort he is feeling, and will clear up his chapped little cheeks!