Massage of Your Child's Blocked Tear Duct
These instructions are for Children's Hospital of Philadelphia patients with a blocked tear duct.
Important information:
Learn more about blocked tear ducts. The most common treatment for a blocked tear duct is gently "milking" or massaging the tear duct.
Instructions for massaging a blocked tear duct
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Wash your hands with soap and water.
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Place a small amount of the prescribed ointment on your pointer finger.
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Place your pointer finger with ointment where the corner of your child's eye and nose meet.
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Firmly massage toward the nose and down along the side of the nose.
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Do this 5 times on each blocked tear duct. Repeat 4 or more times each day.
Contact your CHOP healthcare team with questions, concerns or if your child shows signs of infection such as:
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8:00am-5:00pm, Monday-Friday
215-590-2791
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Evenings, weekends, and holidays
215-590-1000, ask the hospital operator for the ophthalmology resident on-call
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Non-urgent questions
Send a message through the MyCHOP portal.
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Reviewed on April 21, 2023, by Ivy Kuhn, MSN, CRNP; Machelle Woolston, MSN, MHA, CPN, RN