Ideas for Eye Patches/glasses for Children!!!

I had to wear a patch when I was younger...awful! I remember my Mom used to put a patch over my favorite doll's eye and that used to make it a little easier. I ended up having surgery to correct it, which I suggest doing at the youngest age poosible, I was 12, too old.

Good Day C..
I don't have much advice, except to say that I have a friend so close to me, I call her my other mother. She told me that she has a runaway eye and it was hard for me to believe her. She is in her 60's now...but she told me the reason I can't notice is because she has control over the muscle in her weak eye. She told me that as a kid, she wore and eye patch over the good eye, just like this doctor you're speaking about told your loved one...seeing the result of this method, I would highly recommend that somehow you have stay on top of the baby to keep this pacth on. She told me she went through a lot with the kids outside on the playground and in school when she got a little older...but as a teen and an adult, her eye is very hard to tell she has an issue with it. I have another friend who also has the same issue since she was a baby...she is now in her early 40's. She did not follow through with this method and has had a run away eye for years now. She then had surgery done and it helped temporarily for a year or so, but now her eye is right back to doing the same thing again. Even the surgery did not correct the problem and help her.

So, I know it's very, very hard for the kids and the parents to keep up with keeping the patch on and must be quite annoying for the baby too...but it is so worth it in the end, I would think.

Good Luck and God Bless you and yours.

My little sister who is now 15 had the samething. But My father and Stepmother did not put the patch on because she would cry. It's a hard thing to do to a little kid but now she is getting a operation on her eye. I rather hear a kid cry then watch my kid get operated on. So please have her doing it. He will get use to the patch. ANd when he is older and is in school they might make fun of this eye if they don't take care of the situation now. And the patch really does want it is suppose to do. Your eyes do adjust.

My friends' daughter had the same issue. She just has to keep trying, and try to distract him during the process. I know her pediatric opthalmologist had her work up to the 4-6 hours. The first few days, do it for a 1/2 hour, and gradually work up to it. She was also able to order 'pretty' patches so she would feel like a bandaid, kids love bandaids! Any amount of time, will help. The point is don't make a big deal of it, and reward after he kept it on.

I sure can relate to you on this topic. My son will be 2 next week. He has been wearing a patch since he was 18 months old. The worst part isn't that I sometimes go through 3 patches he has ripped off, but worse is that he puts them right in his mouth & I'm afraid someday he will choke. I myself keep wondering, "How do other people keep the patch on their little ones?"
The best patches are called Coverlet- the cute ones are too easy for him to get off.
This probably won't help you, but he has arm restraints from a palate surgery that he had a year ago. The ONLY way to keep the patch on is to put his both arms in the restraints. They just look like something you would wear if you sprain your wrist. He can run around and play, but he can't bend his arms enough to reach the patch. You might ask a pharmacist if they have something like that. I have to say though that my little guy looks like he was in a bad fight - people see the restraints & patch- UGH!
He made the perfect little pirate for Halloween!

Good Luck - if you have any ideas for me - send them my way.
P.

You will have your work cut out for you that's for sure...but its all in the fun! Make it fun and all is well, force anything or push for it and you can forget it. Pirates wear patches, I think it should be "PIRATE TIME" at your house everyday!!!!! Pirate play, pirate tub toys, pirate legos, pirate finger puppets, pirate EVERYTHING! This includes you. Wear a patch with him, make it a game. Put patches on everything that will allow for it. The cat, the dog, the siblings, the family. When he wears one, everybody wears one. Place stickers on them. The backyardigans have pirates, veggie tales has pirates, I think if you look, every cartoon character has a pirate episode, so pirate him all out! Good luck and remember, make it fun!!

Place a different sticker of things he likes on the new patch everyday. Let him pick what he feels like wearing for the day. Give him 5 or 10 minutes of extra play time or Mommy/Daddy time. Make it fun and cool! Maybe there is a safe way that he can decorate them himself. Magic markers or something.

Good luck! My son scratched his eye when he was about 1. What a day he got that patch off 3 times before we were able to get out of the ER. It took that velcro board restraint, 1 DR, 2 nurses and both of us to keep him in that too. I didn't think a child could get out of those things but I must have a Hudini. Horrible day until daddy came home, then poof everything was just fine. AAARRRGGGGHHHHH

my son is 19 months old and has had glasses for several months. The key to success is distraction. I've found that if we have a special toy or activity for when it is time to put on the glasses, or in you case the patch, the child will get interested in the activity and forget about the glasses/patch. This has been very successful with my son. You also have to have tough love and make sure they keep it on. It is hard but you can be creative and make that time fun. Good luck!

Have him pretend he is a pirate from the Backyardagens. I went through it with my nephew and my son. We made it a game and had rewards for each day he kept it on, now my son has many videos;, and at the age of 13 still likes to watch;)
The patches come is different styles and designs, let him pick the one he likes, let him be involved in the proccess as much as possible. All the best.

Our daughter had to do this and she was very self conscious about this. We got the patches by NEXCARE that are like adhesive and you can trim them to fit better. I do warn you that they stick really well so soaking them with a warm cloth before trying to remove them saves the child a lot of grief. Also we let her decorate her patch for the next day by keeping lots of stickers, glitter pens and paint pens around in themes and colours she liked.
It is VERY important that he wears the patch because it will help! My daughter had a lazy eye and had next to blind vision in it, thanks to the strengthening she has almost 20/20 vision now.

I have a 26 month old daughter, and at 21 months I noticed that her eyes were drifting. I took her to a pediatric opthomologist, and was told that she had ambliopia and needed to patch each eye alternating each day for 2 hours. There are child patches that have fun designs, and we took turns putting the patch on our eye, saying "WOW COOL," and then she refered to the patch as her "wow cool." I found it easy to start while she was distracted watching TV, or putting on her stuffed animals.

I also have an older daughter who went thru this when she was 8, havng to wear a patch and glasses, and then she got a contact lens for her weaker eye, which she learned to put in herself at 8 years old, and has worn it ever since, and is almost 13.

I am a mom of 3 (14 yearl old boy, 12 year old girl and 2 year old daughter)

Your best bet is to have anybody that needs glasses even for reading to wear them around your nephew. My niece had a lazy eye and thats what we had to do. The patch just takes time, to get used to. but my niece never wanted to take it off.

My son is 5 1/2 years old and has to wear the patch 10 hours a day plus the drops monday and thursday . He is 20/200 in his left eye and 20/20 in his right. We have been doing it since Dec of last year. So far no change. He has gotten use to the patch though. He has been wearing glasses for over 2 years now.

Hi there! I am new to the site and have a legally blind child who was patched and given drops as well as wore glasses. The best advice I can offer is at the opticians office, you can buy a patch that actually goes over the glasses lens and they come in really cool patterns. We had to patch for a few years and for 4-6 hours daily...it was challenging, but over time, they really do get used to it.

My son went through this at 8 months and it was impossible for him to keep the patch on...especially when he realized he could pull it off. The opthamologist gave us a prescription for atropine..which is an eye drop that blurs the vision in the good eye, so he forced to use the weak eye. Hope this helps!

Hi C., My grandchildren went through the same thing. My granddaughter had to have drops put in her eyes in order for her to wear her glasses. They couldn't keep the patch on her for very long. You may have to wait until his glasses get in and then do the drops for him. Best of luck. J.

C., My son was 4 when he had the patch on his eyes. But what I found that worked was we all wore a patch too. We tried to make it a game and seemed to do ok with it. Unfortunatly it didn't really work and now his is 12 and has very thick glasses. They say its not in his muscle but it still never corrected itself right. But maybe try to make it game and play pirates or something and wear one with him. Hope this helps a little.
Stef

Hi Auntie,

Patches are like stickers or stretchy Band aids now

You can watch Kipper he dresses as a pirate, Rugrats the movie has pirate songs in it, Pirates of the carribean

Ect.. and then decorate the patches

and WEAR a patch too.

he will get used to it, just takes time tho,

try and make it fun.

put one on the dog, and cat and teddy bears

M

My daughter has lazy eye. She has had glasses since she was 18 mo old (Dec 2007). This didnt correct it and we've been giving her eye drops in her "good" eye since Feb 2008 to force her to use her "bad" eye. The eye drops dilate her good eye so that she is forced to see with her bad eye. The glasses are to correct her vision. Once she is using her bad eye more to see with and her vision is more equal she is going to have surgery to correct it. Im not sure if this is that same situation as your nephew but maybe she should suggest the eye drops instead of the patch if he doesnt keep it on the way he should. We didnt try the patch for the same reason. I hope I could help in some way.

I don't have advice - but am about to go through the same thing with our son. Thanks to everyone for the great advice!

When I had to get a patch for my child, the doctor recommended the eye patches that slide onto the glasses, instead of attaching to the skin (like a bandaid). Sure it was difficult to keep the glasses and the patch on at times, but we enjoyed picking which patch he'd wear (soccer, train, truck, etc.) Happily his lazy eye corrected itself rather quickly after six months and 4 hours a day with the patch. We didn't even know he had a lazy eye, but after an eye exam, I felt aweful for not knowing he wasn't using his eye at all! Although we still wears glasses, we're very happy the eye corrected itself, otherwise, he would have never been able to use it.