What it is: Erythromycin, an antibiotic to prevent your baby’s eyes from being infected with gonorrhea. The use of the eye ointment for newborns is referred to as eye prophylaxis.
When it’s done: Within 24 hours after your baby is born, a nurse or doctor will apply a thin strip of the antibiotic under your little one’s lower eyelids. It will make her vision temporarily blurry, but it doesn’t hurt. This eye ointment for newborns isn’t washed off — it eventually just wears away on its own.
Why it’s done: Babies can get gonorrhea from their mothers during delivery. This bacterium causes a type of eye infection called ophthalmia neonatorum in newborns. Usually sometime between birth and five days, the eyes of an infected baby will become puffy and red with pus. A baby with ophthalmia neonatorum caused by gonorrhea will need antibiotics though an IV. If the infection isn’t treated, it can damage the corneas and cause blindness. Since some moms-to-be don’t know they’re infected, newborn eye ointment is given to all babies — even those delivered by C-section — just in case. Unfortunately, the ointment doesn’t prevent ophthalmia neonatorum caused by chlamydia (another sexually transmitted disease), which is more common today but less serious. A baby with a chlamydia eye infection will be given oral antibiotics.
Is it standard? Yes. In fact, the practice dates back to the 1880s, when practitioners used silver nitrate instead of an antibiotic to prevent gonorrhea. They switched to erythromycin because it’s much less irritating to a baby’s eyes. In 2010, the US Preventive Services Task Force reaffirmed its original 1996 recommendation that all babies receive antibiotic ointment at birth. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization all support the recommendation.
Should you ask for it? You won’t have to.
What you need to know: Because the ointment can make your newborn’s vision blurry, you or your partner can ask the nurse to delay applying the ointment so that you can get some quality eye contact with your precious baby right after she’s born. But keep in mind that your baby should get the eye ointment within the first 24 hours, so you can’t postpone for too long.
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