Chalazion in children

Chalazion in children

Most cysts disappear with time but can take weeks and sometimes many months, to go away. They are normally harmless and can be safely left to get better with time in most cases.

Symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of chalazion is similar in adults and in children.

When to seek further advice

Seek further medical advice if after treatment, your child experiences:

  • Increasing redness and soreness of the eye itself
  • Very blurred vision
  • Very noticeable and spreading redness together with a lot of swelling of the eyelid

Treatment

In many cases a chalazion can be treated at home.

For further advice on how to clean the eyelids of children and babies, please watch our instructional video here:

video transcript
To clean the eyelids the first step is to do a warm compress which softens the debris on the eyelids making it easy to clean off.
Place a clean face cloth under a hot tap, nice and hot but not hot enough to burn or be uncomfortable. Wring it out and hold the hot compress on top of the closed eyes for one or two minutes.
If the cloth becomes cool, warm under the tap again, wring and replace it on the closed lids.
Next we perform the cleaning for older children we use a moistened cotton pad. This can be moistened in warm tap water or by using a weak solution of baby shampoo or bicarbonate of soda.
Squeeze out any excess moisture.
First you clean the back edge of the eyelid. Pull down the lower lid and run the bud firmly but gently along the thin line of skin behind the lashes four or five times.
 Do the same for the top lid putting it up and away from the eye. Then we clean the lashes. For the top lid, close the eyes firmly and scrub vigorously at the base of the lashes doing a small part of the lid at a time and moving gradually along the width of the lid to do all the lashes.
In the same movement to use for brushing your teeth. Then open the eye, look up and repeat with the bottom lid lashes, again moving gradually along the lid to ensure all the lashes are clean.
Ideally older children should be taught to do this themselves.
For younger children we start again with a warm compress.  Then use a face cloth to clean the lid edges moistened in warm tap water or with a weak solution of baby shampoo or bicarbonate of soda.
After moistening wring out the cloth wrapped the cloth tightly around the index finger so it covers the length of the finger holding the rest of the cloth in the hand.
With the child's eyes gently closed lay the finger with the length of the cloth along the lashes apply gentle pressure towards the eye and wipe up in a sweeping motion two to three times to clean the upper lid.
The gentle pressure towards the eyes will allow the eyelids to turn out a little so that the back edge of the eyelids are cleaned. Then wipe down two or three times in the same way to clean the lower lid.
To clean the base of the lashes; with your child's eyes tightly closed use the length of the the finger covered by the cloth to rub quite vigorously along where the lashes come out at the skin moving along the eyelids so that all areas are cleaned.

Occasionally, the doctor will prescribe a short course of antibiotic ointment or drops to help any irritation and, if there is infection spreading from the cyst, antibiotics by mouth.

However, medication does not cause the cysts to disappear. If there is a large cyst which remains for a long time, it is possible to perform surgery to remove it.

In most cases, chalazion surgery in children is not medically necessary or recommended.

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