Diagnose and Treat a Stye: Vital parenting information from Eyewitness News

A stye is a common problem pediatricians diagnose, especially in their preschool and elementary age patients. It's that bump on the eyelid is a stye... a clogged pore on the skin of the eyelid. A common problem with an easy treatment.

Dr. Joe Matusic, MD, Pediatrician
The good news is we can treat it like pink eye. Hot compresses on the eye can help melt that kind of wax plug. The compress will also draw blood to the area to help the body fight the infection. Hot compresses are generally all that's needed to treat the stye.

Doctors will like to see your child in the office, if their eye looks like this, to make sure it's not something more serious. Your doctor may even prescribe drops that you would commonly get for pink eye.

Dr. Joe Matusic
A stye is contagious, it's like pink eye. So any material coming out of there can infect the eye, the other eye or other children.

The stye can interfere with vision and eyelid movement. And you need to make sure the condition does not get worse.

Dr. Joe Matusic
It could swell up enough to where the infection could spread into the rest of the tissue, that could spread into the eye and back into the brain. So they can be serious, they just rarely are.

Dr. Matusic stresses that a hot compress is the key for stye relief. And this condition won't get better overnight. It could be a week before there's significant improvement. Talk to your doctor about your child's specific condition, and discuss whether they should stay home from school.