Conjunctivitis: runny nose in the eyes
During the cold season, children often present to the practice with oily and reddened eyes. Conjunctivitis - the clinical picture is still often made more dramatic than it actually is.
The eye drools, is particularly sticky in the morning, red blood vessels can be seen in the conjunctiva - and antibiotic treatment is often required. However, the clinical picture is generally harmless. It can also be wonderfully described as a runny nose: just as the nose runs, so does the eye.
If the child is fit, active and has no fever, this is no reason not to go to a community facility and it is also no reason to go to the paediatrician's practice.
It may be that the runny eye is bacterially colonised, but this cannot be seen, it would have to be clarified with a swab - but this is uneconomical and ultimately without consequence. Because even in the case of bacterial colonisation, one would be very, very reluctant to administer antibiotic eye drops. And even that would still not be a reason not to go to a community centre.
Incidentally, this is not our private opinion, it is documented by the German Society for Paediatric Infectiology (link below) and also instructed by the German Paediatric Society and the Professional Association of Paediatricians.
We would therefore like to sensitise parents: There is a reason for antibiotic treatment if it does not get better over a long period of time or if the child is suffering greatly, i.e. the eye hurts or there is a strong foreign body sensation. In all other cases during the cold season, it is a completely normal story that does not require any treatment - or at most symptomatic treatment, for example with herbal eye drops such as Euphrasia, often in addition to nasal drops, so that the secretion can drain better from the eye.
Link to the standard of antibiotic therapy in outpatient paediatrics: https://dgpi.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Antibiotika-ambulante-Paediatrie-Standard-2022-03.pdf (Point 4: Eye infections)
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