eye drops for a 3 year old - any tips?

[mckenzie]

Ds has just been diagnosed with conjunctivitus and given some drops. I'm not too sure what's the best way to go about getting them into his eyes though, I cant see him staying still and just opening his eyes somehow!

Don't know how many does per day he needs but the easiest way is to give them when he is asleep. He obviously has to be lying on his back and you just put a drop (or two? depends on what you have been prescribed) in the corner of his eye and it just seeps in. Saves the battle you will have, well, when he is asleep anyway. Maybe when he is awake you could ask him to lie down with his eyes closed? That way he won't see the bottle coming near him but of course tell him what you are going to do beforehand.

If you have to be forceful it's best to lie them to the left put one arm under your left arm and hold the other with your left hand then put drops in. Hard I know It's also much easier with another helping. Hope it goes ok hun as it's awful to do.

while they're asleep every time.
you can even open the eye a little sometimes without waking them.
Nurses do it like this.

doing it when asleep is fine, but if you've been told the same thing i was last week, you'll still have to administer one lot when DS is awake!
i got the GP to have a "solemn chat" about this with DD. she loved it. he told her to hold her chin up and keep her eyes open but the second bit certainly goes against nature. she has never managed it -- tho' she's in love with GP and takes everything he says very seriously.
what we did (conjuctivitis went after 2 days of drops):
got her to look up with closed eyes, put a drop in the inner corner, and then told her to blink to disperse them in eye
as long as the drops weren't too cold, ie i'd put them in my pocket for 5 mins beforehand, it was OK
also bribery
and letting her give her teddy drops, too.

Mckenzie, the ointment is much easier to get in than the drops. don't suppose that is much help if you have already got the prescription though...

thanks for all the tips. We did the first lot last night while he was asleep and that was easy. We then managed to get some more in this morning but pretending that I was the Fat Controller and I needed Thomas the Tank to have shiny bright eyes so that he could pull an extra special coach! The things we do huh?
He's also been good all day with letting me wipe his eyes with cold tea (recommended by a friend) and his eyes already seem so much better.

Thanks again

Glad to hear it's going well for you