Conjunctivitis In Babies

Question by Stevie:
What’s up with my 5 week old?
Now before you say that I should just take her to the doctor, I am. I have an appointment tomorrow morning for her, but was wondering if I could get some input from others.

My daughter was born at almost 10 lbs and she’s almost 12 now. Up until a couple of days ago, she was eating about 4.5-5 ounces every 3-4 hours. The physician believes her to have acid reflux as when she feeds, she gets hysterical, arches her back and even wails when we stop to try and burp her (it’s awful). She also has a blocked tear duct that has developed into conjunctivitis once. My poor girl.

She recently developed really bad acne even around her eyes. Her eyes got really red and swollen and I was not sure if they were infected or if it was due to the conjunctivitis or the acne. I took her to the local ER and they said to just stop the conjunctivitis meds to see if she’s allergic. We did and it did go away, but then it came back in the same eye that still has a blocked tear duct. I reluctantly put some of the gel on her one eye again because it was getting fairly crusty and it took care of the crust, but now her eye is red again (on the lid). Her other one is red on the lid as well, but not anything like the other one. Oddly enough, she keeps rubbing the one that doesn’t appear to be giving her a problem.

Anyway, the main problem is she’s EXTREMELY fussy all day. Basically if she’s awake, she’s crying/screaming/wailing hysterically just like she does when she feeds due to the alleged reflux. I am constantly hugging her, rocking her, walking her around and she’ll stop for maybe a minute or so, but start up again. Normally if she has a dry diaper and is not hungry, she’s fine but now it doesn’t seem to matter. She is not sleeping as well and rather than eating every 3-4 hours, she’s been hungry just about every 2 and wanting to drink anywhere from 1-3 ounces then passing out for anywhere from 10 minutes to maybe an hour if I am lucky. I have checked her temperature periodically and it’s normal.

Has anyone else experienced this with their newborn? Is it possibly a growth spurt or something else normal? Could it be her eye is bothering her even though she’s not acting like it? Any other insight or possibilities are welcomed as I want to bring them all up to the pediatrician tomorrow because I want to get to the bottom of this ASAP. It’s so hard to see my girl so upset all the time.

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