How To Massage Infant Tear Duct Instant

Lay your baby on their back—on a changing table, a bed, or your lap. A calm baby is a cooperative baby. Try this during a diaper change or after a feeding when they are relaxed. If they are flailing and crying, take a break.

You don’t need any special equipment. Just wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water. Keep your fingernails short and smooth. Have a few clean, soft cotton balls or gauze pads nearby. how to massage infant tear duct

Massage is the key. Gentle, precise pressure can pop that membrane open like a tiny bubble, allowing tears to flow freely. The specific technique used for this is called the Crigler maneuver . It sounds clinical, but it is simply a gentle, guided squeeze. Here is how to do it safely and effectively. Lay your baby on their back—on a changing

Place your index finger (or your pinky for better precision) at the inner corner of your baby’s eye, right next to the bridge of their nose. You are looking for the medial canthus —the small bump where the upper and lower eyelids meet. If they are flailing and crying, take a break

Welcome to the art of the tear duct massage. Think of your baby’s tear drainage system as a tiny drainpipe. Tears are produced in the gland above the eye, wash across the surface, and then drain away through tiny holes in the corner of the eye (puncta), down a narrow duct, and out into the nose.

In many newborns, the very bottom of that “drainpipe” is still sealed by a thin, residual membrane that didn’t fully open before birth. The tears have nowhere to go, so they back up, pool in the eye, and eventually turn into the goopy discharge you are wiping away.