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eye patch wearing tips?

10 replies

Woooozle100 · 05/10/2006 12:45

Hello. DD now has eye patch to wear to correct lazy eye. Thought this was no big deal till I had to put it on her. Eeek - not seen her so angry / distressed before. Any tips / advice for making it a bit more pleasant? Am letting her know its coming, doing lots of nice talk / praise and trying to give her nice books / stim things to look at

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r3dh3d · 05/10/2006 14:06

Hi there ejb;

I think the first thing I'd say is that it is likely to get better. If one eye is very lazy then it will be weird to look through the other one at first. I think a lot of kids with this strongly resist having the "good" eye covered at first.

Second, look at different brands/sizes of patch. Some have stronger glue than others and they come in diff sizes. We use a large one (an adult or teenage patch not sure which) that covers all the eye area so it doesn't brush against her eyelashes and annoy her and the skin it sticks to is less sensative.

What else - probably v obvious but don't patch when tired/in a bad mood because you'll just get an hour of whingeing. Also we tend to patch during other activities as the time adds up otherwise - so when on the swing or at soft play or even when swimming! They're not supposed to be waterproof but splashproof seems to work.

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FioFio · 05/10/2006 18:07

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Mateychops · 05/10/2006 18:52

We were lucky, dd only had to wear it for one hour a night when she was 3. I used to also wear one at the same time, and then we would do whatever she wanted, with lots of attention. TBH, it normally meant only sitting on the couch cuddling as she couldn't be bothered to do anything else and I used to get a migraine. It's horrid, I don't know what to suggest, but I can really sympathise with you. The only thing I can say is that it really helped dd, she's still wearing glasses but the vision is slightly improving every time we go to get her checked.

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Woooozle100 · 06/10/2006 11:17

thankyou

Am deffo going to try wearing one with her.. and putting it on for swimming / hydro. I will have a look around for different makes - we have large ones from the hospital - they are very sticky and v painful to remove I think.

DD goes to weekly EI nursery group. She was inconsolable for an hour and half after it was taken off. DH decided to patch the lens of her glasses instead. Hospital didn't recommend this as they say she can still look under / over the lens but we're just going to try and cover a bigger area.

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Sparks · 06/10/2006 11:31

A tip for when the patches are too sticky: stick the patch on the back of your hand first, then on the child. Some of the adhesive will stay on your skin, so it won't be so sticky on theirs.

My dd had patches for years. R3dh3d is right, part of the complaining is because they can't see much with the lazy eye on its own. Patching does work, though. My dd is 8 now and her vision is fine.

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millycat · 08/10/2006 20:36

Hi, my son had to wear patches for six months last year for 3 hrs per day (aged 3& 1/2)The hospital were great and his patches were really funky - combat/cars/action man etc and the girls ones were pink and fairy style. I put one on teddy and always did patch time in the morning when he wasn't tired, but it is true that he saw things differently after being used to seeing thru a squint and it did take time to get used to the patch. The good news was that after 6 mths the patches had done the trick and he stopped although still wears glasses full time. Good Luck!

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chipmonkey · 08/10/2006 22:05

Ejb, there are cloth patches you can get which fit over the frame and so you don't have the issue with stickiness
However I think the issue with your poor dd is that she probably can barely see out of the lazy eye and doesn't understand why you're making her try! Don't tax the lazy eye too much to start with, maybe play a game with big, bright objects to make it easier. As the vision improves, it will become less of an issue. Will see if I can find the cloth patches anywhere online, if not will find out in work tomorrow where to get them. ( I'm an optometrist)

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chipmonkey · 08/10/2006 22:13

framehuggers are the only ones I could find online but I'm sure you can get them in the UK as well. Will check tomorrow!

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UniSarah · 09/10/2006 22:01

My little bro wore a patch for what seemed like AGES (when I was about 8 and he 5 & 6). Mum cut the patch to shape a bit so it didn't pull his eye brow hair when removing.
Eventully he had an op to correct his squint, but the patch seemed to have sorted the lazy eye.

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Woooozle100 · 10/10/2006 14:50

ta muchly

aye chipmonkey - her lazy eye is -8.5 (other eye is fine) so I completely understand her distress at being made to solely rely on it. Also suspect she may get headache during/ afterwards. We are sticking to 20 mins at a time. It is getting better - she didn't complain too much yesterday and even smiled at stuff whilst it was on!

The framehuggers look ace. Will order from them if don't find any UK stockists (mmmm how about animal print - very this season!!)