Patching

[dontcallmehon]

My ds, 2, is long sighted in both eyes and has a very weak lazy eye. He wears glasses, which slip off his face and break regularly and has recently been prescribed a patch. It will cover the weak eye till June, when we will change it to the stronger eye (which should be interesting...).

However, I am concerned, as he has been screaming and taking the patch off and we noticed an angry red rash where the patch had been. It is supposed to be worn ALL day and night to give the eye a rest, but he will not tolerate it and tbh, I can see why.

We tried a cloth patch from the chemist, but he just screams and takes it off.

Have tried ringing the ophthalmologist, but she is on holiday till next week. Not sure what to do. Am not putting patch on if it is hurting him and cloth patch is a waste of time, as he just takes it off.

Help!

My daughter had the same problem
She had 4 years of patching, I tried loads of different ones in the end she accepted a pirate type patch from s company called eyepatch heaven she chose the design which helped.
The only thing is perseverance my daughter went from having almost no sight in one eye to almost perfect vision now, so it it worth it.

We did patching when dd was younger.

Is your son usually allergic to plasters? It sounds as if he could be allergic to the adhesive on the patch (I believe a latex allergy is quite common). What sort of patch have you got? Is it one of the thick, Band Aid-y looking things or one of the lighter weight ones?

Difficult to know what to do without consulting the ophthalmologist, but could something like this work?

Thanks large glass. Will try that. Problem at the moment is that he is too young to reason with and just doesn't understand why he has to wear the patch.

They look good Maud.

I think it is the lighter one he has, but they are like plasters with pictures on them. The problem with the cloth ones is that he just rips them off straight away. Don't know what to do.

Those sound like the patches that dd had. I think she was 3 when we started patching, which made it a little easier to reason with her. Wearing the patch for 24 hours a day does sound like a huge undertaking. We were lucky in that we only had to do a few hours a day.

If your son is ripping off the patch, could you get through the week until the opthalmologist gets back by bribing him with a treat to wear it for a few hours a day? It's not ideal, if the ophthalmologist wants it to be worn all the time, but it seems to me that a delay in a week before you get properly going with the patching probably isn't crucial (unless the medical advice you've had so far contradicts this).

I'm wondering too whether your son is simply frightened by the patch, irrespective of any allergy to the latex. Did the ophthalmologist have any advice on how to deal with all of this?

I'm just not sure whether to put the latex patches on at all, because the rash is so red. I was thinking of waiting till the opthomologist can help. He is difficult to bribe. He really hates the patch :(

Forgot to say, dh went to opthomologist, as I was working and be never asks the right questions.

Sorry. I wasn't being clear.

What I was thinking of was getting one of those fabric patches that slot onto glasses and bribing/encouraging him to wear that - I don't see how you can stick a patch to sore and inflamed skin - but, admittedly, by the time you could get a fabric patch it would only be a few days until the ophthalmologist was back. (When exactly will that be? I thought you meant another week, but do you mean this coming Monday?)

No it will be end of next week. Could try to stick fabric patch to glasses, but am also waiting for new prescription for glasses that don't slide down his face, so would need to secure glasses first so they stay in place.

Ds2 was allergic to the sticky patches. You can get ones for sensitive skin as we were given some of these. Fortunately he was happy to wear the fabric one over his glasses but ds2 was a very biddable toddler. Ds3wears sticky patches without problem thank goodness as he won't wear the cloth one. Other options are glasses with opaque lenses or eye drops both of which were discussed with us but decided against. I would chill meantime and wait until your ophthalmologist is back. You will have a few years of patching ahead and don't want to put your ds off.

For what it's worth both ds2 & 3 had very poor eyesight in their weak eye and with patching have had fantastic results so it really is worth it.

All the best

Thanks jubilee, that is all very reassuring.

Hi dontcallmehon,

Im one of the horrible orthoptists that prescribe patching for kids!

Sounds like they are trying inverse patching with your LO i.e putting it on the bad eye. The purpose of this is to "wipe the slate clean", and pretty much re-start the eye. Its important that the patch is worn directly over the eye to block out all light etc. (So fabric patches wont be of much use at the moment) Some vaseline on the irritated skin at the end of the day. And see if your eye department can give you a different type of sticky patch. We tend to stock a variety just in case of allergies.

Get stuck into the patching even if the glasses are broken. If you are patching the bad eye at the moment then thats actually more important than the glasses.

When you first put the patch on, can you put gloves on your LO to stop him being able to pick at the edge of the patch. Sounds cruel but its better than him tearing a layer of skin off every day. And try lots of distractions. And most of all just keep trying. Every little bit that you do manage is a step in the right direction. Good luck

Cheekyginger - I'm very grateful to you and your colleagues, because you did so much to improve my daughter's sight. As you've probably noticed, there's a steady trickle of threads about patching on MN so your professional view is likely to be much in demand!

Thanks GardenMaud, I've actually got a thread going already! Its called squints lazy eyes and glasses.

hi my son lewis had the patch on his left eye which is his good eye but he did not accept the patch at all,so we are now using the eye drops which i put in his good eye every weekend and this should make the bad eye start working again.he seems to be acting fine with this still running around as normal.he has only been doing this for a week now so cant tell if their has been any approvment yet as it could take up to six months but much easier then patch maybe you could consider this hope i helped.

The drops (atropine) can only be used once the vision has been improved to a certain level. As they can only blur the vision in the good eye to a certain level. In the OP's case the vision must be significantly poor to be trying inverse patching. I'm afraid the patch is the only way forward at the moment