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Children's health

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Original poster

does anyone elses Dc wear an eye patch ?

15 replies

hodgepodgepanda · 30/01/2015 23:43

6yo Ds has been told he has to wear an eye patch for 90 minutes everyday and it has to be from 9am til first break at school .
I'll be putting the patch on before we go to school and his teacher will have to take it off at break .
He has been wearing glasses for around 16 months as he has limited vision in his right eye but I've been struggling to get him to wear them consistently he wears them at school thanks to the teachers perseverance but won't wear them at home and is supposed to wear them all the time which I'm working on .

All this would be a hell of a lot easier if he didn't have aspergers , I'm dreading Monday as he will be devestated and no doubt very angry .

Is their anyway I can help him with this , maybe a book or something .
Also any advice welcome as his teacher will have fun taking the eye patch off

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McFarts · 31/01/2015 08:58

No major advice as its a long time ago since my youngest DD did patchwork but i bought her a couple of these rather than using the stick on ones. I would also try lots of rewards and a countdown timer, good luck.

doradoo · 31/01/2015 09:16

DS1 and DD have had to patch - DD still does - it helps that they get to choose the patterns/designs of the patches though it takes forever for DD to decide in the mornings

DS1 didn't want others to see him wear it - so we used to do it after school instead - would that be an otion for you?

DD takes her own one off (she's 4) after the alotted time - it doesn't pull or hurt - no lost eyebrows here. The main thing I think is that it makes wearing the glasses a bit uncomfortable. But it is working and her weak eye is much better and so we only need 2hrs a day now - though she often wears it for longer as she forgets it's on.

I'm not in the UK and see a fair few kids here with patches on - and loads of people wear glasses so it's not that unusual - not sure what the UK provision for the patches is, but I think I have loads of 'boy' ones left - star wars / rock star / football - if that sort of thing would help your DS I'd be happy to post them to you dd will only wear the pink princessy ones

dementedpixie · 31/01/2015 09:22

Surely it doesn't matter when in the day he wears it. After school would be fine too. Dd patched for a while and we had plain patches that we decorated with stickers and stick on gems.

MrsDumbledore · 31/01/2015 09:23

My dd ( now 5) did for 1-3 hours a day at different times for a year from when she was nearly 4. She is having a 3 month break from it now to see how the eye copes. I think we were lucky -she was pretty good about it, and us also great about wearing glasses. And there was no problem with wearing it to school /nursery when she did -at that age the other kids are interested, but not laughing at it etc. A few were actually jealous and wanted one themselves! You'll probably find he can take it off himself at break once used to it, so teacher may not need to.

Not sure what advice I can offer, as obviously different situations due to age, sn and my dd being less reluctant, but I guess sticker chart /rewards may help, and hopefully the fact that he is better with his glasses in school will also mean he is more open to the patch in school than at home? My dd was definitely better with it when we had a regular routine in place with when to put it on and take it off, rather than the times we were more ad hoc, so the plan you describe sounds good.

turdfairynomore · 31/01/2015 09:26

I taught a little girl a few years ago who wore a patch. She'd been given a fabulous "sticker sheet" that the used patches went on. I hung it up from my desk and we'd add the patch to it each day. She had a fish and then a mermaids.I'm not sure if these exist any more but possibly you could make one for him??

MrsDumbledore · 31/01/2015 09:33

By the way, we were advised not to do it too late in the day due to tiredness, so is that why they said has to be in morning? We found that time of day easier anyway -we don't have such a set routine in the afternoon -swimming lessons, different people looking after her on different days, etc confused the patch issue.
Also, if he won't wear his glasses at home he is definitely better off patching at school, because it will really make things hard for him vision-wise to wear patch without glasses, which will probably put him off wearing it more.

trufflenut · 31/01/2015 09:37

The key thing with time of day is patching is best when children are doing lots of concentrated close work, so reading colouring ,drawing , games on iPads etc. It doesn't have to be done at school. If you have ortopad patches which are the most popular at the moment, there are sticker charts that come with them. If the patch doesn't come off easily at the end of patching time, I always advise parents to put the patch on the back of the hand once before putting on their face. (I am an Orthoptist but also had to patch my very stubborn son so good luck )

Rowgtfc72 · 31/01/2015 09:51

We had the sticker charts. Dd was patched from 3 years to six. The sticker charts were the thing!

Original poster

hodgepodgepanda · 31/01/2015 12:06

I'm going with the routine we were told as Ds over heard & is insistent that we do it as the Doctor said as he is a stickler for rules & routine .
He was given plain eye patches that look like giant plasters

Thanks for all the advice & I'll definitely have a closer look at that web page later with the ones you can buy

OP posts:

dementedpixie · 31/01/2015 12:27

sounds like the ones dd had - I bought stickers and stick on gems and let her decorate it before putting it on.

Rowgtfc72 · 31/01/2015 16:35

We had the ortopad ones from the orthoptist at the hospital. Assumed all children got the patterned ones.

Wrongornot · 01/02/2015 20:01

We bought cloth patches from here: www.meyepatch.co.uk/

We found them much easier than the sticky ones.

Ilikesweetpeas · 01/02/2015 20:07

My DD was patched for almost 4 years and the results have been great. I hope it is as successful for your son, and that he tolerates them. Agree with the sticker charts suggested by others- what about a treat on a Friday when he has worn them successfully all week?

reindeesandchristmastrees · 01/02/2015 21:33

My son was patched from 2 years old. We found it better to get nursery do it at first as he obviously didn't like it (poor love had virtually no vision in the lazy eye). Patching worked brilliantly but vision got worse when the patching stopped (too early for him) so he probably ended up being patched for nearly twice as long? He didn't like the plasters (was allergic to them) so I made cloth ones to attach to his glasses. He is 9 now and the patching was ultimately a complete success!
Good luck

SPARKLYSTARSHINESBRIGHT · 01/02/2015 22:22

Both my DS and DD had to be patched. We went with the pirate theme, and once patch was on a chocolate coin was hidden in a room for them to find. In no time at all, DS and DD were asking for the patches on in the morning.

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