How do I get DD1 to keep her glasses on when she is wearing her patch?

[Dysgu]

DD1 (2.9yo) has amblyopia and strabismus. (Squint and 'lazy eye')Is very long sighted so has to wear glasses. She has had them for about 7 months and has always been very good about keeping them on. (Ophthalmologist says they must make a HUGE difference).

Two months ago she was checked again and it was decided that she should wear a patch to block her sight in her good eye so that the 'lazy' one has to work harder. The hope is that this will help to correct the squint and avoid surgery.

She was given a flimsy, pirate-type patch that slotted onto her glasses and blocked some of her vision (I tried it on my glasses - quite off-putting) and we made a big fuss and pretense of everyone wanting one and managed to get her to wear it [sometimes].

Then it split in the washing machine!

So I ordered some made-to-measure ones from USA which are great but we are back to square one. I have to bribe her to wear it as she has 'got out of the habit.'

She is okay about wearing it for the childminder but not for me.

I am going to try to get her to wear it for pre-school tomorrow and see how that goes.

But does anyone have experience of similar and how did you get your DC to wear their patch? To make it worse, she takes her glasses off now if the patch is on and it is very important that she wears them...

Will check back in the morning.

my DD1 had one of those covers for her glasses, as she had similar eye problems to your DD at around the same age.

After a few days of trying to persevere with it, we simply gave up and stuck with the actual patches (that stick over actual eye). But, these were 'extra special for extra special girls' IYSWIM and were in a variety of designs. When she first started wearing her patch, it simply looked like an elastoplast - and everyone asked what she had done! The new ones were very colourful (dalmation design, ladybirds etc) and looked like they were supposed to be there, and not the result of an accident.

Sorry, i digress!!! My point was, in all my years of attending the eye hosital with her every three month - i very rarely saw young children with just the glasses cover on. I did see loads of kids with very colourful patches on - they all thought they were great!

By the way, after 4 years of patching - DDs sight is a lot better now - so have faith that it will work!!

you can make your own!

i can't remember how i originally found this. it think she might be a MNer.

dd used the stick on patches that looked like big plasters. We used to buy fancy stickers and she used to decorate her patch every morning before she had to put it on.

My DS 3.5 yo has amblopia and has (had) very little vision in one eye. He started wearing patch & specs at 14 months.
Anyway, cut a long story short would never wear patch, tried all sorts inc the slipover patches but he peeked round the corner. We even splinted his arms so he couldn't bend them to get it off
Every day was tears from me and him about the wretched thing. At Christmas we were told that he would go blind soon unless we could sort it
In January we attended hospital every day for a week for an hour of 'patch' with a play therapist to get him into habit. We bought him a nintendo DS and only let him have it for 30 mins each day with his sticky patch on.
In 6 months he has, miraculously, gained almost normal vision. It is quite simply the best £100 we have ever spent. Unbelievable, hospital can't get over it and I am writing to nintendo!
There's no way he would have the console under normal circumstances but I was desperate. I am so glad we did it.

Sorry for length, hope it helps.

Thank you for all of the replies.

This morning I dressed DD1 in purple/white clothes and she chose the matching patch. We made a deal that she would keep it on all the way to the clinic (weight check for DD2) and would keep it on until we got home.

Lots of interest at clinic - especially from HV and student nurses. She took her glasses off several times but put them back on when I reminded her of our deal.

The minute we got in the front door she had the patch off - BUT as we played for ages at the clinic it was about 90 minutes door-to-door.

jetcat32 and frimblypoo good to know that the patching is successful. DD1 was born 2 months early and they think this stems from that. We hope to be able to avoid surgery to strengthen the eye muscle. [fingers crossed emoticon]

the patching is to improve the eyesight in the eye and wont necessarily make a difference to the squint. DD'd eyes have ended up with pretty equal sight but she still had a squint even when wearing her glasses. She had an eye operation when she was 4 to improve the squint and her eye looks a lot better now.

I had a patch at about 3 1/2. I hated it and spent lots of time arguing against its use. Eventually I was convinced by a "six days on, one day off" regime with some sort of treat on the seventh day (which, as I recall it, was Sunday). I also had a big friend who threatened to "bash" anyone who teased me about it. which helped a lot.

incidentally, I had the muscle correction surgery three times (at about 4, 10 and 13 or 14 from memory) and it wasn't that bad (hopefully this will make you feel better, the idea of operating on eyes is, i know, a bit scary)

Seona - i think it depends on the lens prescrition? Or maybe the degree of squint? My DD had lenses which 'pulled' her eye outwards - to correct the squint. Of course she still had the squint when not wearing her glasses.

She wore the special lens for a few years, and that combined with the patching (which was reduced over time) means that her squint is a lot less noticable now, though it is still there a little.

Of course i could be completly wrong here as it is really hard to understand all the opthalmic speech lol!

Thank you for replies.

Yes, the lenses she has pull the left eye out so we have to make sure she wears them properly so she is looking through the middle of the lens. (We have to get them refitted quite often as they 'stretch')

The patch is to improve the sight in her left eye. She can see but is very long-sighted I think.

I am not sure how much she can see - she is currently watching TV having taken them off. We often have bedtime stories after she has taken them off and she can point to things on the pages.

I must ask the ophthalmologist about these things but I always feel like I am fussing. I only know what 'she has' from looking at her notes when i carried them back to reception to get her next appointment!

Dysgu - i used to wish i could ask the optician to assemble a pair of glasses with his variety of lenses to show me what DD can actually see! This was way back when she first started wearing her glasses and patch (3rd birthday - feel so bad for it not being earlier . I am very shy though, so never managed it!

I hope your DD has as much success with it all as mine - but it is a very long process!!

We used to use micropore tape over the top of her glasses and stick it onto her face. The optician was very insistent that we leave no crack for her to peer through and also said to encourage her to do as much close up fine motor skills work as possible (colouring, looking at books- even playing with a game boy) to maximise the effect. SHe used to say these kinds of activities for about half an hour were far more effective than a longer stretch watching tv or playing.

DD is now nearly 11 and her lazy eye is no more and her prescrition has gone from +6.5/ 7(when she was 2 and a half) down to +2.5.

jetcat3 that is a really good idea. I wear glasses myself and one of the opticians where I get DD1's glasses from is my own. (We use two different ones as mine is local and independent whilst the other is national so can get stuff fixed when we travel!)

I have to have my eyes tested in November I think but I might get them done a bit early and try your suggestion. My optician is really nice and I have been seeing him on/off since I was 20.

smartiejake that is also a good idea. I try to make sure DD1 wears her patch whilst doing something active as then she seems to forget that she is wearing it so will keep it on for longer. We usually do colouring or jigsaws.

I will mention it to my childminder though so that she can make sure DD1 wears it there at simialr activity times. I think I was doing it more to keep the patch on through distraction than any thought-out reasoning.

She wore a patch to her pre-school fair today and one of the assistants was telling me that her daughter had a similar issue. I am hoping to get her to happily wear it at pre-school soon - but she has only just started going and is only there two afternoons a week. It will be different when i go back to work in September and she does two full days there.

Also, smartiejake that is really promising to know that the sight has improved so much. DD1 is also +7 in her lazy left eye and I have already envisaged her wearing such think lenses as a teenager. (We woould, of course, have paid to have them made using the special thinner lenses.) It is good to know that such a drastic improvement may be possible for her too - the patches we have purchased from the USA are great and block out everything in the right side.

She is also managing to wear it for a longer period each day - we are averaging about 90 minutes already.

Thank you for all the replies - it is great to know that we are not the only ones going through this - as she is so much the centre of attention when she is out with a patch on that it seems to be a rare situation when i know it is not.