With the birth of a baby in the family, parents have many questions. One of them: "When do tears appear in newborns?" To answer it, it is necessary to consider the physiological norms of children and find out the opinion of the doctor.
The child cries without tears: what to do?
Young parents are increasingly asking the question: "When do tears appear in newborns?" After all, it happens that mothers are still sounding the alarm in the hospital, saying that the baby is crying without tears, is everything normal with him?
Doctors claim that this situation is the norm. Children under the age of 2 months can be capricious without tears. This happens for physiological reasons, and is considered the norm.
If the parents are very worried that the baby does not have tears, you can consult an ophthalmologist. He will conduct an inspection. Perhaps a massage will be prescribed that will help remove the film from the lacrimal canal.
Answering the question of how much tears appear in a newborn, pediatricians do not give a clear answer. It all depends on the characteristics of the child. For many babies, the lacrimal canal opens in the first minutes of life, and tears "flow in a stream." There are crumbs who begin to cry only by 2 months of life, and this is also the norm.
Dacryocystitis what is this disease
Many parents ask doctors a question: “When does a newborn have tears?”. Everything is quite individual. It often happens that the baby from the first minutes of life cries with crocodile tears. But if it is not, do not worry. There is a time to wait.
The alarm sounds when the baby is 2 months old, and the lacrimal canals have not started to work. In this case, the pediatrician will recommend contacting an ophthalmologist, a doctor who is directly involved in eye problems.
Perhaps the baby will be diagnosed with dacryocystitis. The disease can be congenital. It is treatable. But the sooner you understand and solve the problem, the better.
So, when do tears appear in newborns? Ideally, this can happen in the first seconds of life. The process is quite clear and logical. When the fetus is in the mother’s stomach, the nasolacrimal canals are closed with a special film. It prevents the entry of amniotic fluid into the baby's lungs. As soon as the baby takes the first breath after childbirth, the film should tear. But this does not always happen.
Symptoms of ailment
If after several weeks of life the crumbs of his parents still have a question about when the tears appear in the newborn baby, the patronage sister should pay attention to the baby’s eyeball. Perhaps the child needs help to get rid of dacryocystitis. The first symptoms of the disease appear as follows:
Fluid or yellow-green discharge may accumulate in the corners of the eyes. Moreover, every day its amount increases.
The baby does not have tears when crying.
Eyes are constantly in the “wet place”.
Unfortunately, many doctors confuse dacryocystitis with conjunctivitis. Parents need to know the following:
Conjunctivitis in babies in the first weeks of life can occur only if infection is introduced during delivery.
The disease affects 2 eyes at once.
The eyelids are swollen.
Eyeballs blush.
Similar symptoms with dacryocystitis are absent.
We carry out diagnostics
If parents are concerned about the time at which tears appear in newborns, an experienced doctor does not specify a specific time frame. But by the age of 2 months, the baby’s tear ducts should begin to work. If this does not happen, the ophthalmologist must conduct a thorough diagnosis. Having come to the procedure, parents should be ready for the following manipulations that will be done with the baby:
A solution of collargol is instilled into the lacrimal canal. This special fluid is colored red.
A cotton swab is inserted into the nasal cavity.
Next, the doctor records the time until the substance stains the swab. Normally, the process should not be delayed for more than 5 minutes.
If 10 minutes or more have passed, the baby has problems with patency of the lacrimal canal.
There are difficult cases, then you can’t do without an X-ray.
Proper treatment
If a baby has dacryocystitis, asking doctors a question about when a newborn will have tears appears pointless. Now everything will depend on the proper treatment of the crumbs. In fact, you won’t have to do any complicated manipulations. There will be enough massage of the lacrimal canal.
Parents do this after consulting a doctor. The procedure should be carried out at least 5-6 times a day. If a lot of liquid is released from the eye, it must be washed with tea or a special infusion of herbs. In difficult cases, doctors can prescribe drops containing an antibiotic to relieve inflammation and fight the infection.
If this treatment does not help, ophthalmologists resort to surgical intervention. A special probe is inserted into the lacrimal canal, which breaks the film. Manipulation is carried out under local anesthesia.
Parent Tips
Those parents whose children suffer from dacryocystitis need to know the following:
In 70% of cases, the disease goes away on its own by the monthly age of the baby.
Doing massage yourself and using tinctures and drops is prohibited.
In the case of surgical intervention, the baby does not feel pain, since the manipulations take place under local anesthesia.
Summarize. Many young parents at the doctor’s appointment ask the question: “When do tears appear in newborns?” This process depends only on the physiological characteristics of the baby. As a rule, in 90% of cases, the lacrimal canal begins to work correctly in the first month of life of the crumbs. If stagnation occurs, a disease of dacryocystitis occurs. In this case, the help of a doctor is needed.