HELP, Daughter with a Servere Adversion to Eye Drops and She Has to Have Them.

Please consider chiropractic care to boost her immunity. We are not born with allergies, they are caused by something and can be reversed when the body is strong and healthy. Improve her diet with healthy food and drinks. Vit. C and a good absorbable vit would help. Probiotics are great too. Other than that, the corner method sounds good for getting them in. Good luck!

My son doesn't like water in his eyes. So I give him the rag to hold over his eyes and that seems to help

S. I understand your frustration, my duaghter at 7 is still a nightmare to take meds. But what worked for me at that age i little better was making it quick and fun. FUN being the key word. I would play like I was doing meds with her and we would race. I always had a drink ready so she could drink right after. For eye drops I would have her lay on her side and put my hand over the eye closest to me. She would keep her's open. I would leave just the corner closest to that eye uncovered and put the drop in. For some reason not seeing the dropper coming towards the eye helped. Her laying on the side would allow the dropps to fall to the other side, covering the whole eye. As for bath time, swimming...play first and then have her put on water glasses and wash her hair like that. No water in the eyes and it is fun. Good luck. C.

I am not sure this will work, but does your daughter sleep pretty soundly?? My daughter and son both go into a DEEP sleep and I could practically hang them upside down without them even realizing. Do you think you could put the drops in when she is sleeping - she might not even realize and if she squirms a bit more than likely she will go right back to sleep - not all kids are alike, but it was just a shot in the dark - hope this idea works or maybe someone else might have a better idea to work for you!! Nothing is worse than seeing your child upset - it makes us feel like our hands are tied and breaks our heart - Good luck to you and your daughter!! ~C.

In floortime play therapy or sensory Ot style therapy, we start with "following the child" and moving the child a bit at a time.

You may have to let her hair be very dirty and pull it in a pony for a week or two :). You may want to start by talking about that you guys are going to bathe and not wash hair for three days (which may end up being many days, but just pick a number and don't go before it), but you guys have to play with your hair dipping it in the water and washing your hair but not hers. Ask her to please not get water in your eyes, because it scares you a bit. After you dip your hair, tell her "wow, that did not get near my eyes". Then let her cover your eyes while you gently dump or spray your hair. Then let her do it to your hair. Then just bathe her body, next time do the same thing, but warn her before you get in that this time after she washes your hair, you guys are going to just dip the ends of her hair in the water. Don't talk her into it, just say it somewhat matter of factly. Make sure you get a feel for where the break point is and don't go all the way there. Approach that point over and over just a bit further until you can gently get her to agree to approach it. You will get to a point that you will know when she will get upset, support her, retreat, and then push in again. Patience is of course a necessity. The best part is that you will become her partner it, not her adversary. It will build trust in many ways other than hairwashing. Oh, one more thing you might do, if, before the period you define, she says she will wash her hair, be very careful to take her up on it. Say, well, maybe we just wait one more day? Be sure you are not going to set the process back. Just something to play with when you are in it.

If you must medically continue the eye drops and cannot use this method, then use techniques like letting her do it to you first. Make sure you explain that you are a bit scared and you need her to count to three and keep counting while she does the drops. Say "wow, the counting really helps me know how long I have to open my eyes". Start slowly by getting her to close her eyes and maybe use visualization to work through like " Close your eyes and imagine we are going to do your drops, are you a little scared - yes, I know, but mommy is here. Lets wait a minute, now imagine we are all done, how do you feel now, yes, better, does it hurt now?". Then move the visualization to "Imagine we are going to do your drops, we are counting now, how much longer - oh, yes, we only have to count to 5 before it is over. Now imagine it is over - is it all better now". Move slowly until you get her to visualize the drop hitting her eye, but she is counting, how much longer? - you will ask. etc...

I know this hard to get accross in the mail, but the main point is to start where she is, help her see the other side of the fear before she experiences it. Support and stay with her, try not to oppose her. Irrational fear cannot be worked through rationally, it must be done with emotion and with love.

I hope some of that works for you. If you cannot make it work, you may seek a great OT who understands sensory support (www.floortime.com) to help you.

J.

Have you tried for the bath a washing cap? They have them at Babies R US. Its a visor hat that the child can wear during a bath that keeps the water out of their eyes. That may be a good try for her. The thing that we do with our daughter (2 yrs 1 month) is washing her hair in the sink. She lays back on a towel with just a bit of her head over the sink and we wash it that way. Then she is not surrounded by water...so possibly eliminating some of the fear. Maybe from there the eye drops won't be so scary. Oh, the way I do my own eye drops is with my eye closed and then put the drop on my eyelashes. Then blink and the drop goes in. You may have to put 2 drops on to get enough in, but you don't have something that your watching coming into your eye. Best of luck!

I believe you that you've tried everything -- I can only offer my own ideas -- but, if those have been tried too, I do believe your daughter has a true phobia/issue/whatever you want to call it -- and the very best way to deal with it is to nip it in the bud and take her to a counselor and help her to work her way through it. Phobias that get in the way of everyday life (like hers does) are a problem that must be solved. The poor thing isn't being difficult -- I believe you that she's just truly freaked out! And as illogical and baseless as it seems, it's very real for her.

So, I would try first with the hair washing -- lying a dry face cloth over her eyes while you rinse, shampoo, rinse, etc her hair so as to keep her eyes "safe". With the drops, in a calm and safe demeanor, lie her on a sofa with her head in your lap, eyes closed. Drop the drops into the corners of her eyes and let her blink them in. She can even "follow your finger" to make sure the medicine gets in. Then, after each, LOTS of praise and hugs!

Failing those, I would definitely seek a counselor.

Good luck!

Have you tried waiting until she is calm and lay her down and have her close her eyes. Then pull the bottom of her eye down and put the drop in there. That way she is not seeing it. I think the room temp idea for the drops will help as well. If she is supposed to get more than one drop, I would start with just one (in the worst eye) and then praise her for her bravery. These may actually sting so what if you read her a story about a brave little girl who had something that she was afraid of (possibly a medical issue) and was able to be brave. Maybe the library has one or even your ped or the hospital. Good luck!

Is your daughter scared of water, if she is or isn't either way she could use some swimming lessons, the will teach her to put her face in the water an blow bubbles , this could help with the fear. Hope this helops! A.

Since you have not been not successful then enlist someone else to work with her, maybe her grandma, or someone she trusts, otherwise you'll just have to stop the bribing and whatever and just do it. You might as well face it, you're going to have to hold her down, but you don't have many choices left. You have let this get out of hand by letting her get the upper hand. If the drops aren't that important then don't do them, if they are then do what you have to do. She's going to be upset no matter what. After all you're not giving her a shot for Diabetes, but if she needed one to survive would you not do it because she was scared? Take the bull by the horns, that's all you can do. I totally understand the water thing on the face, my granddaughter was like that, but grandma always took great pains to make sure I did what I promised,(that I would not let one drop get on her face, that way I gained her trust)) when she was in the tub or getting her hair washed.
Good Luck

Have her close her eyes and put the drops in the corner of the eye. Then have her open her eye and tilt her head so the drops roll in. Hope this helps.:-) Works for mine.

I don't know if this will help or not, but you can try it. My daughter had to have her pupils dilated recently for an eye exam and she was very frightened about having the drops put in her eyes. The optometrist had her lean back and close her eyes. She then put the drops in the corner of my daughter's eye and then told her to blink several times to spread the solution across the eye. No problem. Hope that helps!

I have 2 daughters. When my youngest was 2 she would freak out on anything going over her head and had to wear a dress everyday! Thankfully she has since grown out of both of those. For eye drops we let her do it herself or we just wait until she is in a deep sleep and do it then. For the bathtub "no water in my eyes" we bought shampoo/conditioner combo that is tear-free; the rubber bath visor at Babies R US; and we let the girls wear goggles. There are even animal goggles to make it even more fun..that is most important..keep it fun..make sure you don't unknowingly start to have an expression of painfull or frustration at her when it is time for the drops or shampoo.

Hi S.,

I am a mother of 4 ages 3 to 10. I don't have a specific suggestion for getting the drops in yor daughter's eyes, but I might be able to offer insight into her allergies. What type of allergies does she have? Do you know her blood type? I am a nutritional consultant, and I work closely with a nutritionist who might be able to offer further insight to resolve the initial problem. Please reply or email me at ____@____.com call me at ###-###-####.

Kim

Hi S.,
Recently both my kids( almost 2 and 3 1/2) came down with pink eye and of course had to have eye drops. My daughter was first and we had a hell of a time trying to get the drops into her eyes, we used bribery anything we could to get those drops in to no avail....then my son got it and his dr was wonderful she told me that the best way to do it was to put the drop in the corner of his eye and then let him open his eye and the drops will spread out over the entire eye. This has worked wonderfully on both the kids. I hope this helps!

I personally HATE getting eye drops myself. My husband has to put them in for me. What I have found, that makes it easier, is balancing the eye drop dispenser across the bridge of your nose - so that it is actually sideways from the way you would normally give them. And then squeezing and letting them fall in the eye that way, is much more pleasant that feeling like someone is coming at your eyeball with the end of that eye drop dispenser. Hope this helps you!

My son has had to have drops in his eyes only a few times, but it was never fun. I don't know how your daughter does with the TV, but if it is something my son wants to watch, he totally zones out. So I would tell him to lie on his back (so his head would have to turn to the side and he wouldn't see the dropper coming at him) and I would turn on his favorite show, and I would just tell him to keep looking at the tv and drop it in really quick. He would cry but it worked. After the first eye I told him we were going to turn around so I could get the other eye with him looking at the tv. Usually he would cry because he didn't want anymore, I would just tell him that if he didn't lie back I was going to turn off the tv. This worked for us, hopefully it'll work for you if by chance you havne't tried it. Good luck!!

I believe that your daughter's allergy is caused by the harsh chemicals in childrens' shampoo and body wash.
P. S

You may want to ask your dr is there is an ointment version of the medicine available. Your daughter may be much more tolerable to having the ointment put on her eyelid than drops put in her eye. Plus, it can be more soothing. Most people usually prefer the drops first because it's quicker and easier, which is not the case here. :( Good luck!

It helped at my house to make sure the drops were body temp. Hold the bottle in your hand for a few minutes or under your arm pit. Sometimes the comic factor of under the arm pit helped. Good luck.