3 year old complains of eye pain, but no crusting, no redness

[alifarns]

My son is 3 years and 3 months old.  He has been complaining here and there for about 2 months about eye pain only in his left eye.  He has extremely long eyelashes, as do I, and I know that them getting into his eye can be the cause.  But his mention of the eye pain and rubbing has become more frequent, a couple of times a day, sometimes causing him to cry, but it seems to go away pretty quickly.  He complains the most when he lays down for a nap.  But there is no swelling, no conjunctivitis/crust.  Any ideas?  I am thinking a sty?  But it has been going on for so long, is it possible that he would have an infection for that long without showing more ill effects???

[JohnHaganMD]

Thanks for the follow up. Hope this just fades away.

[gregory777]

I haven't had anything new to report because thankfully my son hasn't had any more episodes and no more doctor follow-ups. But then just last week, while sick from one of the fairly bad colds going around, he developed a small rash again, and started with the eye pain again, curiously, right at the same time as all the previous times (7:30pm). But it only happened for that one night...not much to go on.

[JohnHaganMD]

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[Burcumm]

My 3 years old son complains of eye pain for 3 weeks. He is crying for 15-30 seconds then he seems fine. The pediatric eye doctor checked him and told us there is nothing wrong with his eyes. Did you find any solution for your kids?

[JohnHaganMD]

Not every treatment works every time.  After a week of therapy you would expect the eye to be more comfortable than it is now. I would suggest that you return to the pediatric ophthalmologist you feel most comfortable with for additional testing and treatment. Hopefully your daughter is cooperative so that a good exam with the biomicroscope (slit lamp) can be done.  Fluoscene drops might be used to check for small scratches. Flipping the eye lid to look under the lid for debris or lashes or other abnormalities is often very difficult at that age.  JCH MD

[Tellpriya]

My 4.5yr daughter too complained of a severe pain and we took her to a pediatric ophthalmologist who said it's an infection without red eye or crusting. When the problem did not go away with 15 days of antibiotic drops we took second opinion. This pediatric ophthalmologist prescribed an anti allergic drop once a day and lubricant drops four drops a day. Have been trying this for a week now but my daughter still keeps complaining eye pain. The eye is not red and sometimes there is a lash in the eye but most of the times its nothing. We are clueless now