Patching

[Clairelou08]

Hi, my son has a lazy eye needs patching 5-6 hours a day but this isn't happening. Consultant has suggested alternative treatment of drops to dilate the pupil in his good eye to cause his vision to blur, has anyone tried this and how did it go?,thanks

[bonzo77]

Poor boy. No experience of the drops, sorry. The patches are hard, and 5-6 hours is a long time. Does he wear glasses? Mine does and he chose some decorative patches on line. He's got two and picks which one to wear. Admittedly only 2 hours a day, but at weekends he wears them far longer because we forget about them, today I realised at lunch time that he'd had it on since getting up and we'd been to the park with it. DS is quite cooperative, and I'm sure he'd be fine with eye drops instead, but I'd prefer to avoid actual medication if possible.

[Clairelou08]

Hi, yes he's had glasses for a year now and wears them fine. We have patches with lots of designs on but he just doesn't like them I think because his sight is so bad in his left eye he can't see if I patch his right. The drops are a last resort but I'm giving the patches a couple more weeks before we see the consultant

[forgetandforgive]

Hi claire. My son is 11 and he used to patch his eyes when he was 5 to 7years old. At first when there eyes are still relatively young the doctor wanted to patch longer maybe 3 to five hours a day if possible. He used to have ones which had pictures on them and they should stick over his eyes. Ds would always cry
each time id put it on his left eye. Untill I've used up the 4th path
before any success. But have you tried distraction and the
patch would work better if you could get ds to do some focus
work. Eg looking at books together or jig saws puzzles. I know
that 6 hours a time is too long for your ds try. If possible try to spread it out and a few hours a day is better than none. There was a time when I felt like giving up and the doctors gave ds the pirates patch which went over his glasses instead. He prefered that more but the only down side is that ds could peep over his glasses but I felt that was better than not patching at all. Now he still wears glasses but his vision has improved and his lazy eyes was corrected eventhough I could only manage the most a few hours a day. Doctor said after the age of 7 the eyes stays the same so please: I know its hard with ds crying but persevere with the patching because it is all worth it in the end.

[Emochild]

I used to hate patching -just didn't like the feel of the patch over my eye and on my face

My mum said she could never keep them on me longer than a couple of minutes

[chippednailvarnish]

My DS was patched, but only for a few hours a day. Six hours does seem very long.
Could you tie using the patch to an activity he likes? Like watching a film after school?

My DS was far less resistant if we patched before school as he was less tired and generally more able to cope. Does your hospital have any events? Ours had patching parties at Halloween and Christmas to help the children accept it.

[ilovespinach]

Ds is currently being patched for 7 hours a day and its hard. This has gone down as previously we had to patch him all the time. It works now he has 100% vision in both eyes.

I guess you've tried all the obvious things - reward charts, chocolate when patch is put on etc I even buy ds something from time to time and make sure he knows it's for being good with his patch.

[Clairelou08]

Thanks everyone! I have tried all the things suggested and he is much better when distracted but that's the hard thing, keeping him distracted. He's managed 3 hours the last 3 days so better than nothing. We rethinking of going with the drops just to see how it goes x

[bonzo77]

Oh, and we went slightly over board on rewards initially. DS1 has an impressive collection of water guns and a pogo stick as a result.