Chalazion is a chronic inflammatory granuloma of the lid gland due to obstruction of the ducts draining the lid gland and retention of secretions. It is also known as a chalazion cyst. It can occur in both children and adults, but is more common in children. The disease progresses slowly and can be recurrent. What should I do if my child has a chalazion? Some people on this website suggest massage and hot compresses, while others suggest eye drops. Children’s eye doctors remind that for larger chalazia in children, if drops and medication are not effective, surgery should be considered as early as possible. Without active treatment, chalazia can break down on the skin surface, leave scarring, and in severe cases, cause eyelid ectropion and bald eyelashes. Early conservative treatment is available When the lump is small, the first thing to do in the early stages is to use aggressive conservative treatment methods and wait and see what happens. For example: hot compresses, which promote the absorption of inflammatory material, increase local blood circulation, and encourage expansion of the glandular opening of the lid gland. Topical eye drops and ointments can reduce inflammation and make the eyelid redness subside. Local injections of prednisolone and local injections of hormones allow for rapid absorption of inflammation and healing of some of the small early lumps, but may require several repeated injections, adding to the child’s pain. There are also a variety of methods such as eating Chinese herbs and applying acupuncture points to the feet, which are effective for some children and ineffective for others. A special reminder is that surgery usually cannot be avoided when the lump grows and penetrates. Without aggressive treatment, chalazia in children is a localized elevation of the skin of the eyelid, which can occur on both the upper and lower lids, and can be single or multiple, as large as a cherry or as small as a grain of rice or a green bean, without pressure or pain. For larger or more numerous chalazia, surgery should be considered as early as possible if treatment with drops or medication is ineffective. If not treated aggressively, they can ulcerate, leave scarring, and in severe cases, cause eyelid ectropion. Most surgeries are performed from the inner surface with no cosmetic impact, whereas once a chalazion breaks out from the skin surface after a long delay, the incision may need to be made from the skin surface, requiring stitches and a significantly higher chance of scarring. Why does a small chalazion surgery require general anesthesia? Although chalazion is not a major disease and the surgery is not very difficult, it needs to be done under general anesthesia (general anesthesia) because of the risks that children may pose if they are difficult to cooperate and move around during the surgery. Mothers are worried that general anesthesia surgery will cause after-effects on their child’s intelligence. In fact, general anesthesia works by blocking the transmission of pain to the brain with anesthetic drugs, thus temporarily suppressing the patient’s consciousness. Due to the blood-brain barrier, it is impossible for anesthetics to act directly on the brain. 80% of the anesthetics are metabolized by the liver, and part of them are metabolized by the kidneys, which can be completely metabolized and excreted in about 30-120 minutes after stopping the drug. As long as the strict implementation of the operating procedures of general anesthesia surgery, general anesthesia is safe. To use a simple analogy, if the vegetables we eat every day have pesticide residues, and pesticides are difficult to metabolize through the body’s liver and kidney detoxification organs, then with the extension of time pesticides will accumulate in the body and produce toxic effects, while most of the current anesthetics are metabolized in 2 hours, 1-2 days later so the anesthetics can be completely excreted, will not cause adverse sequelae to the child. The last question that mothers will be concerned about is: how to keep the chalazion from coming back? Chalazion (especially multiple chalazion) is prone to recurrence and even surgical treatment is not a permanent solution. Prevention of recurrence is the key. Children’s eye doctors suggest 1, chalazion children 2-3 weeks after surgery, but also to the ophthalmology follow-up, most children still need to use local anti-inflammatory drugs. 2. Do 1-2 blepharoplasty massage daily to squeeze and remove the blocked secretions from the blepharoplasty gland mouth to reduce the obstruction, but pay attention to the gentle technique. 3. Local hot compresses are applied, continuing for 5-8 min each time, 2-3 times a day. You can choose to use a boiled egg (no need to shell it), wrapped in a small towel outside. Moms can feel the temperature with their hands first, probably hot but not too hot for the skin, and gently rotate and massage on the eyelids. 4. Babies should be instructed to pay attention to eye hygiene and to change the bad habit of rubbing their eyes with dirty hands. It is also important to regulate the diet, to correct the affected child’s partial eating habits, to drink more water, to eat more vegetables and fruits, to eat less sweets, and not to eat greasy, fried, and fire-prone foods. According to the health condition, the child should take microelements and multivitamins as appropriate.