Pediatric eye watering likely from narrowed duct

I had a few questions about my daughter's eye.  She is 16 months old and started having symptoms about four months ago.  We notice a lot more tears when she cried on the right side as well as the occasional tear drop out of the right eye especially in the wind or cold.  It is intermittent.  The worst it was, we were at the beach and she had a cold and it just constantly ran that day.  We went and saw and ophthamologist who said it was more likely a narrowed duct and not from membrane blockage because of the way the symptoms sounded.  He recommended washing the eyelids with baby shampoo and massaging the tear duct at night.  He said it would probably completely go away by 2 years of age.  My question is, at what point would we do probing?  If we chose to do probing, since it is intermittent and mainly worse with colds and wind, would it be better to just let her decide when she is older if she wants something done.  Thanks so much.

[Houman Vosoghi, MD]

If it is not gone by the time she is two, she most likely needs a probing to prevent infections.  Some doctors would do the probind in anyone older than one who has symptoms.  If she does get an infection though, I would consider doing the probing as soon as the infection clears.  If no infections, I would give it a chance as your doctor says.  I would not just let it go untill she decides herself as that is too long to deal with this and probing is simple enough.  Be sure to discuss the risks and benefits of any procedure with the surgeon as I can not dispense medical advise without doing an examination.

HV