I am wondering how i can tell if my sons have pink eye or if it's just allergy-related. my 4-year old has had green/yellow yucky stuff building up in corner of eye since saturday. on sunday, his eye was a little swollen, a little pink, and he was pink ar

Hello. : Hello. It sounds as if your son's eye is red and he has colored drainage. Now a second child has symptoms. This sounds more like an infection than common allergies.

In : In addition, if cold symptoms or a sore throat are also present, this is more likely to be pink eye. Green/yellow buildup is also a little more likely to be pink eye, whereas the allergies tend to cause whitish/mucous discharge.

Both : Both allergies and pink eye (viral infection) will cause conjunctivitis (inflammation of conjunctiva). Conjunctivitis will cause discharge, which will dry and collect as sandy particles near the nasal aspect of the eye lids. It is not possible to determine if it caused by allergies or pink eye without a slit lamp (micro scope for the eyes). Often, a family practitioner without a slit lamp will determine the diagnosis from the history given to them. Pink eye is contagious thus more than one family can have it but more than one family member can have the allergies as well. Pink eye start out affecting one eye but can spread to the other eye. Allergies usually affect both eye.