How do you persuade a small child to wear any eye patch?

[Sparkletastic]

DD2 is nearly 5 and needs to wear a stick on eye patch for an hour a day for the next 12 weeks to try and correct her squint. Anyone got any great tips for getting her to do this?!

Put it on when she's asleep.

The eye clinic that DD goes to has patches that you can accessorise with stickers. Could she choose some sparkles or favourite characters to go on it?

The opthamologist in the clinic was really good at getting DD to keep the patch on whilst doing the tests in the clinic, she made it into a pirate game.

When we were trying to get DD to wear her glasses initially, we used a sticker chart/reward system, which worked really well.

DD didn't have to wear a patch in the end but I did when I was little and I wasn't keen at all by all accounts so I wish you good luck with it.

Sticker chart with rewards..lots and lots of rewards!

My DD had to wear hers for 6 hours per day , 7 days a week .
The eye clinic gave us boxes of patterned ones , all pink and flowery etc .
She was very good at wearing them and adapted very quickly , but she was a little older .

You can also get a wall poster that they can stick their discarded eye patches onto at the end of each period of wear , so they can build up a pattern .

Play Pirates. Get a few other bits, neckerchief, parrot, and say "Aye Jim'lad" etc.

I agree with rewards - even financial bribes. Seriously, do whatever it takes.

I had a squint corrected aged 4 and, while they did a great job and it's perfectly straight, the optical pathways didn't develop properly as I apparently 'wouldn't wear' the patch once I started school.

The eye is lazy, and now I'm short-sighted in the other one. Not the end of the world, but I am conscious that if anything happened to my 'good' eye I'd really struggle.

Agree with what other posters have said.

I had a patch for a year or two when I was 6-8.

Make it fun, rewards, treats, star chart......

Just don't make it a big deal. It's most likely more of an issue for you, worrying about name calling etc, than your DC is.

We had boxes of patterned (boys) ones from Ortopad - then we put a black plastic pirate patch over the top too (so his friends think it is cooler!)- he is running around the garden wearing them at the moment and DS2(4) is wearing a pirate patch in sympathy. DS1 is 6 nearly 7 and because we've been doing this since he was 18 months old is not too bothered now.

Ah thanks so much all. I have already invested in some reward chart stickers and will absolutely bribe her . At present she seems okay with the concept as there is a lad at her school who wears one. Saying that I haven't tried to put a patch on her yet so will face that tomorrow...

Despite being a total Taurus she can be surprisingly tolerant sometimes as she has also been wearing hearing aids on and off for the past couple of years and has to have regular blood tests for a chronic health condition. She will only have to wear her patch for an hour a day according to the Orthoptist - I'm surprised about this as all my frenzied reading has implied that most DCs have to wear them for several hours a day to make a difference. I found a web-site with really cool fabric patches but they are obviously only for kids that wear glasses....

I used choc buttons with my dd when she needed a patch. One to get it on her and then one every five mins. Had to use the same technique to get her to wear her glasses. She was only 2 though (In my defence). In both cases it only took a couple of days before she was used to it and the bribery could stop.

agree with topsyturner at the opticians where i work part time we sell patches wih pictures/ designs/ sparkles etc and give the child a big poster - each used patch sticks on the poster to make a design - princesses, zoos, animals etc

Pirate hour!

Harr harr!

if only there was a Pirate Barbie she might go for that - she tends towards the girly side of girldom...

Pictures / designs and sticker chart it is...

my dd only had to wear hers for 2 hours per day to start with and that dropped to 1 hour as her eyesight improved. She had the stick on ones and I used to buy little stick on gems, stickers, etc and she used to decorate it before wearing it. She was about 3 when she had patching treatment.

Stickers and gems is a brilliant idea thanks Seona - was thinking it would be a waste not to use the packs the hospital gave me but they are a tad uninspiring. Eyepatch-jazzling

My DD had to wear a patch for 2 hours a day. The guidelines have changed. They think that it is just as beneficial to wear for two hours than for 6. We were the same as Seona - it went down to an hour, then 20 mins, then alternate days. One year on, no patch and they just check every 3 months to make sure it hasn't gone lazy.

The key (I think) is to do some close work when you are 'patching'. A great time to jazz up her patches :-). I honestly think that's why patching worked quite quickly for us. Whenever the patch came out so did the arts and craft box. All sorts of bribery worked. Princess games on the computer. Lots of coulouring in. Dot to Dot etc....

Also, our wee on was 2 when we did it but when we stuck a patch she got to stick a patch on her Dad. He quite often went to work with pink, sparkly patches on forgetting about them.
Dollys and teddies have all been patched too. Go wild, the Orthoptist will just post out more patches to you.

If all fails, our Orthoptist did say watching a fave tv programme is ok as well. Something is better than nothing.

Sorry just noticed your DD likes Barbie. Try a bribe of, wear your patch and you can play online Barbie games. There are a few where you choose outfits, the games are actually quite small so she'd really have to focus her eye to play. Worst case scenario - she can watch a Barbie DVD if she wears her patch.

We played the online Disney Princess DVDs. She was only allowed to play if she wore her patch. Hope it all goes well.