2.10yr old needs to wear an eye patch

[justgaveup]

Has anyone else's toddler worn an eyepatch for a lazy eye?

I'm upset about how he's going to look but am being practical and thinking at least they can fix it and it could be 100x worse so let's just get on with it and accept it.

However, I have no idea how he'll keep it on, he won't even keep his trousers or shoes on!!

Has anyone else been through this and how long did your child wear the patch for (i've been told 1yr minimum)

I wore a patch as a small child but it was just for certain days during the treatment for the eye - most of the time I wore corrective glasses.

Yes it could be 100 x worse. My mother sat there all those years ago in the waiting room crying because her little girl had to wear glasses.

Then a little boy came in who had lost an eye in a road accident.

If your boy has to wear the patch all the time thats easy to pass off as a pirate patch!

Hi justgaveup, my daughter started to wear an eye patch at about the same age. It is very hard work but I found it helped to do something with her like a jigsaw or colouring, something she really liked and would concentrate on for a bit to take her mind off it! She then got used to it, she never liked it mind you. My DD wore the patch for a few hours a day for a good few years - but she did have a particularly lazy eye. Her vision is almost as good as her other eye now, so it is well worth persevering.

Good Luck

DD had this for a while (although not as long as we thought she would need to, which was a blessing!).

She did get used to it very quickly. A bit of this was because we always made sure she was centre of attention when the patch was on, and brought out special toys and books to play with - so it was fun.

But mainly because a relative, entirely by chance, rocked up the week beforehand with a toy wearing a patch. here So we told her that she was wearing a patch like Patch, and it made the whole thing much easier...

dd had plain ones that looked like big plasters so I bought fancy stickers and she would decorate it before it was put on. She had to wear hers for 2 hours a day for ages and then it dropped to 1 hour per day until she didnt need to wear it any more.

Ds patched from age of 2 till 4.5, I think.
He hated the sticky plaster ones and cried and cried. So I ordered a material one. Best thing I ever did. He loved wearing it and asked to !!
The best one I found was :framehuggers. Some people like:
perfecteyepatch
or:
eyepatchheaven.
HTH

I'm 26 and a year ago I had a scary and painful operation on my left eye to correct the extreme squint. My lazy eye is now slowly returning because it has passed the point when it could be permanently straightened, the brain won't use it now so it just drifts out regardless. It is something I will probably always have to deal with. Peoples reactions can be really unpleasant and distressing.

I wish my mum had been stricter with me about patching when I was young. I did have patches, hated them and would just sit there doing nothing. She gave in eventually as as a result I have a massive squint, which is the bane of my life.

I have a friend who also had a lazy eye as a child. His Dad was a GP, he made his son a 'cool' pirate eye patch with a wad of cloth under it, and made him wear it for an hour or two a day, playing with him and supervising the whole time so he could distract him from the annoyingness of having to wear it. My friend hated it as well, but his Dad was firm and he knew he just had to put up with it. And it was only a bit each day. He now has lovely straight eyes

So... yeah. Basically, make it seem cool, make it fun, and then distract the hell out of them while they have the patch on, making sure the exposed eye gets a good workout. Good luck, it will be worth it.

thanks so much for all your replies, cheerful vicky - yours in particular has made me think I just NEED to get through this cos it's for his own good and he'll thank me later.

Try to get a material one - my ds wore that with no prob, but couldn't cope with the sticky ones. He had to wear his for 1.5 hours - 2 hours per day, so he played for half that time, then played on the cbeebies website for the second half of the time as a reward. If you explain it all to them (I know he's little, but it does make a difference!) then that helps too.
DS wore his for a year - less than we'd originally been told, because we stuck to the times very strictly, and it worked very well. He'll always need glasses, but the sight in his left eye is now fully functional, and easily maintainable with glasses. And if he chooses to go onto contacts in the future, he'll only need one!

Also, we did his patch at the times he wasn't at nursery, coz we were worried about people commenting, but actually, whenever we were out and about, other children never commented. Only the annoying adults .

make lots of eye patches and put them all your cuddly toys
don't call it an eye patch, call it something like "special pirate power mask"
be glad that the problem is being sorted out early before it is too late
don't worry what other people think, they probably won't even think anything
it's fairly common in young children, I work in a nursery and last week a 2 year old came in with glasses. We spent the whold day looking for them, as she kept taking them off anf leaving them in odd places. Yesterday, she kept them on the whole day and even adjusted them when they slipped down on her nose.
Children do adjust very quickly, most children take things in their stride. It's us adults that give them hang-ups.

Just tried a patch today, sat him down, showed him pics of kids with patches on, talked about pirates, let him choose a sticker, put his very fav video on, sat him on my knee...put patch on - he went utterly beserk!!!

Do I just keep trying, I feel so cruel...
(but know it's in his best interests)

I would keep trying. The first step is for him to let you put it on him, even if it doesn't stay on.
When you have overcome that hurdle, the next one is to try to increase the time he wears it. If at first he only wears it for a few seconds, it's a start.
I know how uncooperative children can be, but I think that perserverance is the key.

Have yo got one that you can wear too?

justgaveup - DS1 was patched for 2 years (form 4.5 0 6.5 years).

Getting him to wear the patch was the hardest thing I have ever done. (Yes, I know that sounds dramatic, and like Iv'e had an easy life, but honestly it was)

However...I did work! So persevere!

I tried every method to get him to keep the patch on; rewards/bribs/star chart/shouting/begging/reasoning/forcing.

We got through a huge number of pathces at first, as he just pulle them off, or the fell of because of his tears. You can't buy more, but the hostpital (or whoever gave tehm to you) will give you more if you just ask. I never tried the cloth ones (I didn't know about them), but wish I had.

So don't give up...it is worth it, and did improve DS's eye. Good luck!