Q: My two and a half years old son has developed a bump on his upper eyelid. Initially, we thought that it is an insect bite and so we did nothing. But, it kept on growing and five days later, another bump appeared in his other eye. Then we took him to an eye specialist. He told us that he has a chalazion and that we should do hot fomentation on his eyes four times a day, also gave an eye drop and an ointment. We did this religiously for five days. Then we went to his regular paediatrician, who said that we should not do hot fomentation, as that would make the chalazion grow bigger in size. He told us to leave it alone; if anything changes then we should see the eye specialist again. We are a little confused on what to do next. Please advise.

A:Chalazion is a cyst in the eye lids due to chronic inflammation of one of the glands and pus becomes thick and it normally does not come out unless a small operation is done to drain it. It can burst or disappear on its own if you leave it long enough usually 6 months or later. Hot fomentation does neither help to grow smaller or bigger neither do any local antibiotics. If you cannot wait, get it operated but as the child would need general anaesthesia for this operation. This is a 2 minutes minor operation.