Children have weak immunity compared to adults, moreover, they pay less attention to the observance of simple hygiene rules, since they are very busy studying the world around them. Therefore, they have conjunctivitis much more often than adults. This eye ailment requires an immediate response from parents. Ideally, you should show your child to an ophthalmologist as soon as possible. But if help is needed urgently, and it is temporarily impossible to go to the doctor, folk remedies for conjunctivitis, tested by time and by whole generations of children, will come to the aid of parents.
Symptoms and Signs
Most often, conjunctivitis is of viral origin, inflammation of the conjunctiva occurs due to damage to the membrane by the adenovirus. However, about 20% of all cases of the disease in children are bacterial in nature. - the inflammatory process is caused by staphylococci, gonococci, pneumococci, streptococci and even Koch's bacillus.
Often, children have allergic conjunctivitis, in which the shell of the eyeball responds inadequately to a certain antigen. Sometimes inflammation is the result of mechanical damage - small debris got into the eye, the mucous membrane received microtrauma.
Symptoms in almost all types of the disease are similar: redness of the eyeball, the manifestation of a mesh of blood vessels on it, photophobia, pain in the eye, lacrimation.
With an allergic ailment, a rather severe itching is observed, the child will almost constantly scratch and rub his eyes with his fists.
With a bacterial disease, pus will accumulate in the corner of the eye.
In some cases, with any type of disease, there is a decrease in vision, there is a feeling of a cloudy "veil" in front of the affected eye.
Conjunctivitis is most dangerous for children with blue eyes, as they are more sensitive to light. They have a longer and more severe illness than those with green or brown eyes.
In almost all cases, the disease is highly contagious.
What is the danger?
Incorrectly cured, as well as untreated conjunctivitis can become chronic, and then eye inflammations will recur with enviable regularity. A frivolous attitude towards such a serious ailment can cause rather serious complications. First, the inflammation will pass from the membrane to other organs of the eye, the pupil, the optic nerve, etc., will begin to suffer. Often, such complicated conjunctivitis leads to irreparable loss of vision.
Among the most common complications of the disease are fusion of the cornea with the iris, a drop in visual acuity, the appearance of ulcers on the cornea of the eye, and dry eye syndrome.
Sometimes the inflammatory process, with incorrect or untimely therapy, can go to neighboring organs, ears or lymph nodes.
When is it impossible to do with folk methods?
With pronounced symptoms of conjunctivitis, it is better to use pharmacy medicines:
- Viral, as well as herpetic lesions of the eyeball and adenoviral eye diseases are treated drops with interferon, antiherpetic drugs.
- With bacterial (purulent) conjunctivitis, the doctor prescribes drops with antibiotics.
- Severe allergic inflammation of the conjunctiva requires antihistamine drugs, artificial tears.
If a child has a complex form of ailment, there can be no talk of any folk remedies.
Effective folk remedies
Folk remedies for this eye ailment are especially effective if used in combination with medications prescribed by a doctor. Usually, all folk methods for this disease are based on three applications - eye drops, solutions for lotions and solutions for rinsing.
Washing solutions
A useful and effective eye wash solution can be prepared from ordinary pharmacy chamomile. 10 grams of dry raw materials need to be poured with a glass of boiling water and insisted for half an hour. An effective clover rinse is prepared in the same way. For the recipe, only the inflorescences of the plant are taken.
Everyone knows from childhood how to wash the affected eyes. tea leaves, it does not lose its relevance today.
Lotions
A very effective plant for lotions is considered marshmallow root. Buy it at the pharmacy, grind and brew a tablespoon with half a glass of boiled water.
Effectively help with severe inflammation and lotions with rosehip decoction. For such a solution, you will need a tablespoon of rose hips and a glass of boiling water.
You can cook infusion of cornflowers. For him, they take only the flowers themselves, without greenery. A tablespoon of chopped flowers is brewed with half a glass of boiled water and infused for about an hour.
You can give your child lotions with the juice obtained from fresh cucumber.
Have proven themselves quite well lotions with raw potato juice, for which it is enough to grate a potato, squeeze out the juice and dilute it in half with saline or cool boiled water.
Drops
Children over three years old can be dripped into the eyes honey solution. For its preparation, take a teaspoon of honey and three tablespoons of warm boiled water. Do not make drops with hot water, as honey will lose all its beneficial properties.
If aloe grows in the house, you can prepare drops from its juice. To do this, the juice obtained from the fleshy leaves must be mixed in half with boiled water (cool) or saline.
The danger of self-medication
Folk remedies are good when you need to temporarily relieve the unpleasant symptoms of an eye disease, but most of them are not intended for permanent long-term therapy.
The difficulty lies in the fact that it is quite difficult for parents at home to correctly diagnose the origin and causes of the disease, because the symptoms of different types of the disease are very similar.
And while mom and dad are diligently instilling in their eyes a child that is not at all what is required in his situation, the inflammation will progress and spread further. Therefore, all remedies, both medicines and folk recipes, should be used for eye inflammation only with the approval of an ophthalmologist.
What can’t be done?
If a child has conjunctivitis, he should not be in a dusty room with very dry air, and contact with any household chemicals should be limited, especially if it contains chlorine and its derivatives.
When treating the eyes (it is necessary to rinse and instill the preparations in both eyes - both in the patient and in the healthy one), different cotton pads should be used, the spread of infection from one eye to another should not be allowed.
In no case should the affected eyes be warmed up, warm compresses should be applied, and an eye patch should be applied, especially if the child has a bacterial form of the disease, because heat for microbes is a favorable environment for reproduction.
Tips
- Flush your eyes properly. In this case, movements should be in the direction from the temple to the nose, and not vice versa.
- Filter solutions thoroughly for washing and lotions. Since most folk recipes are prepared from crushed plant materials, one should very responsibly approach the issues of filtering solutions in order to exclude even the smallest particles of plants from getting into the sore eye.
- Do not drop treatment abruptly. If you notice improvements and the redness is almost gone, you should not quit the treatment right away. The symptoms of conjunctivitis disappear gradually, and therefore it is recommended to continue therapy for another 2-3 days after cure.
- Give your child a separate towel and utensils. Remember that in 90% of cases, conjunctivitis is very contagious, in order to protect other family members, provide the sick person with individual things to avoid infection through the household route of others.
Watch the following video about popular folk remedies for conjunctivitis.
