Here's Milk in Your Eye

On Saturday, Katelyn's morning began by me rubbing crusty stuff out of her eye. As the day went on her eye gradually became more reddened ... I truly became concerned when Joe noticed the redness at dinner time. I had thought it could be conjunctivitis; however, I figured maybe I was being overly concerned and it would get better with time. Before bed I saw that her left eye was puffy and bloodshot, but the right one looked normal. I called the pediatrician's office just to see what the suggested method was for contacting our doctor over the weekend. Just as I figured - if I called the hospital they would page him, and he could call me back. I was not ready to bother him, and I certainly did not want to put antibiotic drops in her eye if she did not actually need them.

I remembered something I had heard about the benefits of breast milk. One possible use for this amazing fluid (other than feeding the very hungry Katerpillar) is treatment of conjunctivitis. Katie regularly causes milk to spray across her face and into her eye during meals, so I figured what could it hurt? I looked on the web for additional information and contacted my mother to make sure I wasn't completely crazy. After confirming this would definitely not hurt my baby I began the process of dropping 2-3 drops into her eye 3 times a day.

FYI it is best to use something sterile to hold the milk so that it does not pick up any bacteria from the container ... the best milk holder - well, is straight from the source. So here I am leaning over Katie trying to get my aim just right so as not to drown her in milk. She smiled as she figured it was mealtime and looked right at me. Perfectly the milk dropped into her eye - without as much as a whimper she looked right up at me again for the second drop. Of course, the promise of food was so present that I NEEDED to give her milky immediately!

We continued this process 3 times a day for the next 2 days. Her eye looked better within 24 hours, and although I felt a little crazy telling our pediatrician today (at Katelyn's already scheduled 4 month check-up)... he said "whatever it was, one way or another it looks fine now". So in conclusion - Katie's eye is just fine, she did not need antibiotics, our doctor does NOT think I'm crazy*, and I say the breast milk works! It's a beautiful thing just how God made us.

*Our pediatrician said that he had heard about people doing this before, and that "there must be a reason someone started doing it".