How do I help my grandmother with her dry and irritated eye lids?

Baby shampoo used with warm water is rather soothing.

I should say "topical prescription antibiotic". Both my mom and my teenaged daughter had this.

Babalou is right on. There may be no cure, but this condition can be managed with Babalou's simple home remedy. I use the baby shampoo routine now myself to remove any eye make up remover residue. It feels so fresh and clean.

Google Marginal Blepharatis, baby shampoo and a prescription antibiotic ahould help.

I hate it when doctors tell you there is no cure for something and act like that should be the end of the issue; you can be if it was happening to his mother he wouldn't be satisfied until she had some relief. There may not be a cure for the underlying condition, but there should be strategies to cope and treatments to help soothe the symptoms. Try googling treatments for blepharitis.

Thanks for the answers. I took her to the doctors and found that it is indeed Blepharitis that is source of the problem. Unfortunately I found out theres no cure, but so far rinsing them seems to work fairly well, although she is still complaining a lot about here eyes being sore.

You need to take her to an ophthalmologist, quickly. It may just be dryness and lack of cleaning, which does happen. Ours told my father to use a moist comfortably warm cloth on his eyelids in the morning.

Or it may be an infection.
Older people don't tend to remove the mucus that can accumulate overnight, and it then dries and accumulates.

My mother has this also. It most like likely is an infection. The dr Rx'd antibiotic cream for eyelid (not in eye) and it cleared up quick. She was rubbing her eyes with dirty hands. (P.S. don't use eyedrops for removing redness)

In the meantime, you can try this: have her close her eyes while in the shower and rub baby shampoo onto her closed eyelids, especially near the lash line. Rinse them well. There is a condition called "marginal blepheritis" and this is the preferred treatment. You only need to use a drop or so of baby shampoo and only need to do this once a week once you get it under control.

Can you take her to see an opthamologist ? It sounds as though she may have an infection, which could be treated by a regular doctor, but it may be something more complex. Have you talked to her regular doctor?