Curious about eye ointment for your babe?! Erythromycin eye ointment is a med that is standardly given to newborns after birth in the US. The practice started in the late 1800s, when about 10% of babies in Europe developed opthalmia neonatorum (ON) - also called conjunctivitis or pink eye. Of that 10%, about 3% ended up blind. When physicians realized that gonorrhea was causing the ON, they discovered they could treat all newborn eyes with silver nitrate to prevent ON… Fast forward 130 years: -