Eye Discharge

WHEN TO SEE YOUR DOCTOR

* The discharge is yellowish, crusty or persistent.

* Your eyelid is swollen, red or painful.

What Your Symptom Is Telling You

The morning alarm is ringing, but your eyes refuse to rise and shine. They're so swollen shut with sticky, crusty discharge, it feels like the sandman pasted your lids with glue.

"It can be alarming to have to pry open your eyes in the morning, but eye discharge is rarely harmful and is simply part of your body's natural defense system," says Walter I. Fried, M.D., Ph.D., clinical assistant professor of ophthalmology at University of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School.

In most cases, waking up with oozy, crusty, red-rimmed eyes means your eyes have been invaded by bacteria from contaminated eye makeup, for example, or from extra-oily skin. A bacterial invasion can lead to blepharitis, an inflammation at the base of the eyelashes that produces thick, yellowish pus filled with bacteria-fighting white blood cells.

A sticky, yellowish discharge that seals your eyes shut is also your body's natural response to pinkeye, a bacteria or virus-caused infection that attacks the transparent membrane covering the eyeball.

Another type of sticky discharge—thinner, clear and noncrusty—can mean you have a cold, an allergy to pollen, dried-out eyes from gusty winds or an eyelash touching your eyeball. "This sticky, watery discharge usually goes away once the irritating factors are removed," says Dr. Fried.

Symptom Relief

Oozy eyelids that are also swollen means you have an infection that requires antibiotic eyedrops and possibly oral antibiotics, too," says Dr. Fried. Here are more ways to deal with discharge.

Come unglued. If your eyes are glued shut, loosen the crusts with a warm, wrung-out washcloth.

Wash your lids. Next, dip a cottonball in a solution made with 1/2 teaspoon of salt dissolved in a teaspoon of warm water and rub it along the lash line. You can also apply a commercial eyelid scrub.

Get the oil out. If blepharitis is a problem, it helps to remove excess oil from your eyelids, says Mitchell H. Friedlaender, M.D., director of corneal services in the Division of Ophthalmology at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, California, and coauthor of 20/20: A Total Guide to Improving Your Vision and Preventing Eye Disease. To remove excess oil from eyelids, you may cleanse the lashes and lid margins with baby shampoo or another mild detergent. Also, gently massage the lids using a downward motion as if "squeezing toothpaste out of a tube," he says. Then massage the upper lid and pat off the oil with a tissue. Do this every night for a week or two. If you have chronic blepharitis, you should make cleaning and massaging your eyelids a regular habit "like brushing your teeth," says Dr. Friedlaender.

Don't share your washcloth. Viral or bacterial discharge is loaded with germs that can be passed on to others (or back to yourself), says Dr. Fried. Nondisposable objects—including your hands—that have touched your tears should be washed in hot water.

Give your old mascara the heave-ho. Contaminated cosmetics are prime suspects in eye infections. Toss any eye cosmetics that you used while you were infected and any that are more than six months old. Otherwise, you may be reapplying bacteria, says Dr. Fried.