A Little Health...Pink Eye

I work in pediatrics. Besides the continuous chief complaint of "I think I have strep", we get a lot of "I think my child has pink eye." So I thought I would share a little pearl of wisdom on how to determine if your child needs treatment with antibiotics drops. Hopefully this will save you an unnecessary trip to the pediatricians office.

If your child awakes in the morning with goopy eyes, but his/her eyes are clear or have only clear drainage the rest of the day...it is viral. We take a "Watch and See" approach and will not prescribe anything.
If your child awakes in the morning with goopy eyes, and his/her eyes continue to have yellowish-green goopy drainage throughout the day...it is bacterial. We will prescribe antibiotic drops.
Here's to hoping nobody in your family gets pink eye this fall. But if you do, now you know how to treat it.