Swollen eyelid and sinus infection

amother

Yellow

Wed, May 10 2017, 9:10 pm

My 4.5 year old woke up with a swollen eye. I thought it was just a stye because he's had it a few months ago and then went away. A day later, his swollen eye got worse..more swollen and also red..and he couldn't open his eye fully. He didn't complain about pain and I didn't see any discharge from his eye. So I took him to the doctor and she first told me to give him Benadryl and an allergy eye drop and to see if it improves after a couple of hours. I called her back saying that it looks the same, so she then told me to give him antibiotics for 10 days. She said it's sinus infection. I did tell her that for weeks, his nose sounded stuffy at night and he doesn't like to blow his nose, however, I didn't see if the mucus was thick or not.

I'm always worried when it comes to giving kids antibiotics..because it seems like in this pediatrics office (and many others) they tend to give antibiotics so fast so easily! One time they prescribed antibiotics for an ear infection and I ended up not listening to the doctor, put some garlic and it went away on its own!

Since my son's eye didn't improve, I decided to go ahead with the antibiotics and gave him his first dose. I'm hoping that tomorrow morning the eye will look better. However, I'm still very worried that maybe this doctor didn't give a good diagnostic because first she was telling me to give him an allergy medicine. Also, I never knew that sinus infection symptom could be one eyelid swollen and red. I thought it could be a stye or some sort of mosquito bite, but I know I'm not the doctor. Has anyone else had the same symptom and was diagnosed as a sinus infection? By the way, he also didn't have any fever or other symptoms. Just a swollen red eyelid.

amother

Saddlebrown

Wed, May 10 2017, 10:04 pm

I cannot comment on your son's condition because I am not a medical professional, nor have I had a similar experience. I hope he has a refuah sheleimah.

I would like to say though that it is important to have a doctor you trust. Perhaps you need to switch to a different doctor.

ETA: Some diagnoses are very straightforward. Many are not. Many symptoms can be indicative a few different possibilites. Doctors are not G-d. They can just do their best to arrive at the right diagnosis, which sometimes is a process that involves ruling out other possible diagnoses. A competent and experienced doctor will know how to go about arriving at a proper diagnosis, but won't necessarily know right away what it is.

octopus

Wed, May 10 2017, 10:09 pm

My son gets swollen on one eye during allergy season. The allergist agrees it's a totally weird reaction. He will also get it in one eye after allergy shots (if this happens they lower dose and start again). It may not be an allergic reaction on your child, but it wasn't a bad diagnosis on the dr's part.

amother

Lime

Wed, May 10 2017, 10:10 pm

I would definitely not play around with a swollen eye that is not improving. It sounds like periorbital cellulitis which can be very serious. Usually with bacterial infection there is discharge from the eye so she may have wanted to treat it as an allergy first to give it time to respond. But since it did not respond to allergy treatment it's definitely time to use the antibiotics. She did not misdiagnose your child. She understood that you are reluctant to use ABX and wanted to try conservative management. Medicine isn't always black and white. Sometimes it is safe to wait and let your body fight off the infection on its own, but sometimes the risks are too great.

Also, you mentiond ABX for ear infection. It is now recommended by American Academy of Pediatrics not to use antibiotics for ear infections in children over 2 as most ear infections are viral. The exceptions are high fever or extreme pain. So you did fine to give the garlic oil. Many parents don't want to wait and pressure the doctor to prescribe antibiotics. It's definitely my preference to try conservative management whenever possible but there has to be a backup plan for what to do if symptoms are not getting better.

fiji

Thu, May 11 2017, 1:46 am

My son had something very similar- extremely swollen eyelid with no discharge. It ended up being a chalazon which is basically an infected stye. He was put on both oral antibiotics as well as a antibiotic eye ointment. It worked with BH no side effects from the medication but did take over a week to clear up.