Answers About Eye Drops For Newborns
Posted on October 10, 2011
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Shortly after the baby is born, the nurse is likely to take your baby to a warming table where cleaning your baby a little more, weigh and measure him and take him back to you.When he returned, although it will probably be noticed that his eyes look wet or greasy.This is the result of what is given eye drops. Sometimes it’s more like a cream that is rubbed on the eye nurse. What is rarely discussed, and most people do not even know why your child is given eye drops at birth.
Eye drops at birth are given for the primary purpose is to help prevent any possible infection to your baby’s eyes from his journey down the birth canal during delivery. Eye infections used to be a major cause of blindness in children, often because of the same bacterium that causes gonorrhea or chlamydia in women. When a woman is infected with this bacterium (20 percent of women with gonorrhea and 70 percent of women with chlamydia have no symptoms identifiable), which are present in your vagina. As a baby in the birth canal, he / she can pick up bacteria from the mother’s vaginal secretions or liquids.
The eye drop is just a precaution. This practice is accepted and made much of the world, and is even a law in many states. The most common antibiotic given today is erythromycin, however, some places still administer silver nitrate which is the first antibiotic to be launched late 1800. Silver nitrate, however, was found to irritate the baby’s eyes and cause great discomfort. You can talk to your doctor about which medication to administer. The hospital should have both on hand. Just indicate your preference.
Some women wonder why their baby was given eye drops after a cesarean delivery. Due to possible infection only occurs during the journey through the birth canal, it seems that you do not need a Caesarean section. Opinions vary on this. Some people believe that if a woman’s water broke before labor naturally or by the doctor, there is the possibility that the baby could have been in contact with any infection that might be present. Moreover, when given vaginal exams, had internal monitors, etc. that the infection could have come to the child. If your doctor or nurse thinks that this is possible, which could give your baby eye drops after a caesarean section. At other times, is always done in the hospital as part of neonatal care, if you have a cesarean section or vaginal delivery, as the vaccine against hepatitis B and hearing tests are routinely done in most hospitals today.
If you have any concerns about your baby receives eye drops, or the routine methods of the child, you should be sure to talk with your doctor or midwife before delivery and place orders and plan your concerns birth so that everyone is aware of your wishes on the day of delivery. Some states have laws which state that the drops are needed.
The disadvantage of eye drops is that it makes the baby’s vision blurry for a while. If the baby is given the lowest immediately after birth can prevent the process of union with the mother and father. It’s something you might want to be postponed after the first hour of life.Most states have laws that say it is until the doctor gives the drops, no specific time indicated. Often it is not medically necessary to apply the eye drops in the first hour after birth.
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