Effective Pink Eye Home Remedies

Are you looking for an effective pink eye home remedy? Before we start discussing some of your options in using recommended home remedies, let’s first discuss what a pink eye is and what are its common causes. This way, we could familiarize ourselves and know if it’s caused by viral or bacterial infections or if it’s just the result of some allergic reactions caused by substances within our environment.

What is Pink Eye

Pink eye, conjunctivitis or also called as sore eyes are common eye ailment that can affect both children and adults. Pink eye are usually linked to or assumed to be caused by bacteria or viral infections. But in some cases, it is also caused by allergens such as dust, smoke, pollens or other substances that will irritate the eye thus resulting in a pink eye. This type is called non-contagious form of pink eye. Although this type is not contagious, necessary precautions must still be followed because we really can’t tell if the type of sore eyes that one of your household members has acquired is contagious or not.

Most commonly, pink eye is caused by bacteria or viral infections. This type is highly contagious. So watch out if one of your household members acquires it. Although pink eye is not serious, life threatening or can cause loss of vision, it can cause annoyance and may disrupt certain activities, like going to work, class or to public places. It is still best to prevent the infection from spreading around and this can only be done by staying at home.

Usually, pink eye goes away after 7 days but usually can extend up to 10 days by just keeping the eyes clean by washing or wiping away any crust or pus that might develop or discharged around the eyes even without applying any medical treatment. This is one common pink eye home remedy that works all the time but it will take time before your eyes get healed.

Common Symptoms

Common symptoms of pink eye are redness, excessive production of tears, burning, itching, sensitivity to light and development of crust around the eyes. And some, aside from these obvious symptoms, suffer headaches every day. If you think you or one of your household, office mates, classmates have acquired pink eye, tell them to apply effective remedies immediately and advise the infected to stay at home in order to prevent spreading the disease around. If this is the non-contagious type, the symptoms will go away in a day or two as soon as the substance that is causing it is avoided. But if it’s the contagious type then it will stay longer (about 7 days) especially if you will not use any medical treatment.

Recommended Pink Eye Remedies

Because what concern us here are our eyes, one of the most important organs in our body; I will only recommend a few effective pink eye home remedy.

One effective pink eye home remedy was already discussed earlier. Keeping the eyes clean by washing away the crust that will develop around the eyes or pus that will be discharged is enough to cure your pink eye. Just be careful in removing the crust, placing a towel soaked with warm water will make it soft thus it could be removed easily. A towel soaked with warm water placed on top of your eyes will also help relieve the itching and burning sensation that your eyes will feel. Always wash your hands clean so you will prevent spreading of the infection and you will not make the condition of your eyes worse by introducing dirty substance.

Another known way to treat your pink eye naturally is to use Chamomile. Chamomile is a daisy like plant and is well known in curing pink eye. You gather some Chamomile flowers or you could buy a few teabags. Boil them and when they are cooled, place the teabag on your eyes. If you couldn’t find any Chamomile teabags, just boil the available Chamomile you can find then after cooling it, soak a clean towel or cloth then place it on the top of your eyes. Just make sure you squeeze excess water away so they will not be dripping to avoid yourself getting wet.

Breast milk they say is also an effective pink home remedy. I never used nor experienced this when I was young but some of my relatives and friends swear that breast milk does indeed work in treating pink eye quickly. If you know someone who is breast feeding a baby, you could try this cure. And when I say “know someone” it means someone you really know; a relative, co-worker, acquaintance etc. We don’t want getting breast milk and dropping it on our eyes from someone we don’t know.

Not Recommended Pink Eye Remedies

I don’t recommend placing citrus drops on your eyes. I tried calamansi before, I placed a few drops, and boy, really it stung, and my eyes became worse. It became redder and I think it got burned because the redness stayed for two weeks. I also don’t recommend putting any beverages containing alcohol like vodka or gin either. Even if some say or claim that all these stuff works, I would rather buy eye drops rather than placing these things on my eyes. I would rather cleanse and allow my eyes cure naturally waiting for 7 days or more rather than experimenting with things that might damage my most precious organ.

Conclusion

Although the following pink eye home remedies mentioned above (the ones I recommend) are effective. Using eye drops made exclusively for pink eye infection is recommended. It will make your eyes heal faster (less than 7 days) and you will have some peace of mind that these things do really work. Again, buy eye drops for pink eye, not the regular eye drops because using eye drops not for pink eye might make things get worse.

Using natural home remedies have many benefits, worth mentioning is the money that you will save instead of buying medicines and the prevention of harmful side effects that drugs may give. Take note that if after a few days, 3 or 5 days and things are not improving, then it is advised to see your doctor. As I have mentioned before, pink eye is not a serious matter, but if you observe that things are getting worse, then it is time to consult your physician.