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Watery Eyes (Children)

Congenital tear duct obstruction

New born babies often have blocked tear duct. This improves by 3 months and in majority (96%) by 12 months.

Parents are given instruction of effective sac massage which is very effective in unblocking the simpler forms of obstruction. Of those that do not resolve, the drainage system can be examined and possibly unblocked by passing a narrow instrument into the duct. This is done under general anaesthetic and there is no cutting of skin.

Success rates for probing correlates inversely with increasing age:

Possible complications include bleeding (20%), local trauma to the drainage system resulting in scarring, and the creation of additional false passages, all of which may make the watering worse. These problems can usually be rectified but may require additional procedures.

We generally advise parents to wait until the child is at least one year old. However many children will continue to improve.

Down's syndrome children with other ENT Symptoms and atopia are more likely to have watery eyes despite open tear duct and successful probing.

How will my child would feel after the operation?

Children bounce back very quickly after such short general anaesthetic. They might rarely have a nose bleed. The watery eye might actually be worse immediately after the probing for first 2-3 weeks. This will not affect the final results.

The probing is often repeated for the second time  with some modification such as a small intranasal procedure or intubation. If it is felt that further probing would not be beneficial due to location of blockage, a more invasive operation called DCR is offered. One however waits until child is t least 4-5 years old.

Occasionally this operation should be done earlier if child is getting frequent sac infections.