Massaging Blocked Tear Duct Here

The gummy eye. It’s a phrase that strikes fear into the heart of new parents. You wake up, lean over the crib to greet your sleeping angel, and find one eye crusted shut with yellow-green discharge. Before you panic about pink eye or an infection, take a deep breath. Chances are, your baby is dealing with a very common condition: a blocked tear duct (nasolacrimal duct obstruction).

Place the pad of your index finger (or your pinky for better control) at the inner corner of your baby’s eye, right beside the bridge of the nose. You should feel a slight bony ridge—the sac sits just below that. massaging blocked tear duct

For most infants, this condition resolves on its own within the first year. But there is a simple, drug-free technique that can help speed up the process, avoid infections, and bring relief to your little one: Why Do Ducts Get Blocked? Imagine a drainpipe smaller than a grain of rice. That is your baby’s tear duct. It runs from the inner corner of the eye down into the nose. In up to 20% of newborns, the valve at the bottom of that pipe (the Hasner valve) doesn’t open properly at birth. Tears have nowhere to go, so they pool in the eye, overflow down the cheek, and stagnate, leading to that sticky, white-to-yellow discharge. The gummy eye