If your kids are in public school, they will most likely have pink eye at some point. Fortunately pink eye is similar to the common cold - it DOES go away on it’s own.

Most schools will require they be on antibiotics to be able to come back. Our school always says that, so I just keep the kids out for a few days. I would never put my kids on antibiotics unless it was necessary. Especially for something that’s easily treated at home and needs no extra help to get rid of.

It’s simple: Just make sure you keep their eyes clean to avoid any long term damage to their eyes. A warm wet rag will do. I also use chamomile tea bags over their eyes to draw out the infection. That’s it! Their eyes stay clean and their bodies are able to fight off the infection on their own.

The kids have had pink eye twice now, and this has always worked. Even I caught it once last year. It takes about 2-3 days to be completely free of symptoms without antibiotics. Both times I’ve only kept them out of school about 2 days. Actually the first time there was a “threat” of pink eye in school this year and my daughter’s eye started to water, I immediately treated it with tea bags. She never fully got it. Did we prevent it? I couldn’t say, but I do know she hasn’t had pink eye yet and there’s now been two threats at school in the past few weeks.

Now of course if the symptoms get worse or it doesn’t go away within a few days, you DO need to seek out medical attention. I cringe just saying that because I really do not respect most doctors, but you also want to make sure your kids are well taken care of.