Hi, my almost three year old son has to wear an eye patch for two hours a day to strengthen his left eye. We have tried everything and find it very hard to get him to wear it. Anyone ever deal with something like this? Any suggestions on how to get him to wear it would be greatly appreciated! We have tried playing pirate and even that doesn't work for long.
Thank you,
L.
hi L.!
My daughter wore a patch for quite some time...In fact we used the large size bandaids in an effort to keep the patch on. I also let her (and her sibs) decorate them...Permanent markers...stickers etc. The funniest one was a 'winking' eye drawn on!
Try to have fun with it !
Hang In!
Michele/cat
Working on having him do other things simply because you tell him to is a good exercise. If he only does things b/c he wants to or b/c it is fun or b/c he completely understands and agrees with you, then he is being formed into someone who can't follow directions.
My daughter wore patches for 4 hours a day, and what helped was that I let her watch tv or play her GameBoy for as long as she wanted IF she wore the patch. We got the ones from the eye doctor that were basically adhesive ovals. She also had to wear glasses for the other eye, so that made it harder to take the patch off. The good thing about catching a lazy eye this young is that it can be fixed faster than when we caught our daughters (age 6 - took 2 years). Up until about age 9 the brain sets the "amplification" (strength) of each eye separately. After that both eyes work as a pair. This means you have until about age 9 to strengthen the weak eye. Our daughter went from 20/200 in her left eye to 20/40. Well worth the fight to keep on the hated eye patch!
Perhaps there is some kind of Leapster game he would like to have? Or get some new movies? (How to train your dragon is very cute). Finally, Gamestop has used Gameboys for sale for about $25 and old Gameboy games starting at about $5. Nintendo does not make this format anymore, but there seems to be an active market for used stuff. This was the starter handheld device, so a lot of younger kid games are available since those kids have grown up and moved to DS or PSP games. Good luck!
A friend's son had to do this. The are big into Reinnesance Festivals, go every weekend in the summer, so they would do his therapy there where they would dress him up like a pirate or a wounded knight. Worked like a charm!
M.
I wore one as a young child. Mom would decorate the sticky patch or let me pick a sticker to put on it. She put the sticky patch over my eye, then my glasses on top of that.
At this age (I have an almost 3 yr old boy also), I know how difficult it might be to persuade him to wear it. What I would try if it were my son would be to have two or three activities every day that will distract him for those two hours, yet also will let his left eye focus far and close. IE: watch one half-hour program on tv, then do play-doh with him, then he could help me cook or include a meal during that two-hour time. Perhaps he can have a small reward if he keeps it on for the whole two hours.
My son has been patching for a year and a half. We've used the adhesive kind that he hated, but now use a patch that hooks on to his glasses which he likes much better. I second the game playing or just let him watch tv if he wants. An hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. It doesn't have to be 2 hours straight unless your doctor says differently. Good luck, patching is tough, but well worth it.
my son had to patch an eye also- it didn't last long though, from when he was about 6 months old until he could pull it off around 18 months old. there is a website that sells kid themed eye patches - i think its called orthopad usa. try to google it.
now that my son refuses the patch, we have to put a special drop in his good eye (to blur it) forcing him to use the weak eye and strengthen it.
When my daughter was 3, until present time, we've patched for 1 hour a day, and the ONLY thing that has worked is playing a hand held game! The leapster, game boy, DS lite or anything of that sort. We do try to limit these things, but for the patching hour, it works wonders. Not to mention how good it it for them to strengthen the weak eye as they really have to focus!
My son had to wear a patch for several years and now my daughter is wearing one for a couple hours each day. What works for us is using the fabric patch that slips over the glasses. Both of my kids hated the sticky ones. Also, I would give a small piece of candy when they put it on and then one when they were done. I took them to the bulk section of the grocery store to pick out the special candy which was only for wearing the patch. I'm not big into giving my kids candy but I figured two hershey kisses or gummy worms weren't going to be too bad. I like the idea of the handheld games. In any case if you know what will motivate your child, bribery works in this situation! My son who is eleven now doesn't even wear glasses anymore so stick with the patching...it works!
My son also was supposed to patch when he was two. It didn't work. Instead of patching, we replaced the lens with a clear lens and he naturally strengthened his weak eye....much quicker than patching a fee hours a day. We put the prescribed lens back in once the weak eye was stronger. He never said anything!!
