Clean cotton balls or gauze, warm water, and a calm baby (try doing this during a diaper change or right before a feeding when they are relaxed).

Massage (known medically as Crigler massage ) uses gentle pressure to create hydraulic force, popping that stubborn valve open and flushing the duct clean. Before you begin, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water. Trim your fingernails to avoid scratching the delicate eye area.

The gummy eye. It’s a phrase that strikes fear into the heart of new parents. You wake up, lean over the crib to greet your sleeping angel, and find one eye crusted shut with yellow-green discharge. Before you panic about pink eye or an infection, take a deep breath. Chances are, your baby is dealing with a very common condition: a blocked tear duct (nasolacrimal duct obstruction).

Keeping that pressure, roll your finger downward along the side of the nose, about half an inch toward the nostril. Imagine you are squeezing toothpaste through a tube from the top to the bottom.