Eye Drop techniques?

Quartzcpw

We are on day 3 of eye drops and now DS clamps his eyes shut.  I tried dropping them in the corner, so that when he opened his eye it would go in, but to no avail.  He also bit me trying to get away.  Help???

TexasSmith

I found it was easiest with DH's help, but I did find a way to do it without him. Here's what I did (sounds torturous, but it was only for a few seconds and it HAS to be done, as you know)...

Lay him on his back on the floor. Get on your knees and straddle him, so his legs are secured between your knees and he can't kick free. Take his two hands and hold them in one of your hands (your left hand if you are right handed), then hold firmly against his chest so he can't get loose. Use that elbow and arm to sort of hold his head in place...don't know how to describe it. Then act fast with the drops in your free hand! If he closes his eyes, just wait it out...he'll open them to see if you're still there. I would always have the bottle partially squeezed so the drip is actually dangling from the tip of the dropper (if that makes sense)...then when she opened up -- BAM!

Good luck!

CareBear01

TexasSmith:

I found it was easiest with DH's help, but I did find a way to do it without him. Here's what I did (sounds torturous, but it was only for a few seconds and it HAS to be done, as you know)...

Lay him on his back on the floor. Get on your knees and straddle him, so his legs are secured between your knees and he can't kick free. Take his two hands and hold them in one of your hands (your left hand if you are right handed), then hold firmly against his chest so he can't get loose. Use that elbow and arm to sort of hold his head in place...don't know how to describe it. Then act fast with the drops in your free hand! If he closes his eyes, just wait it out...he'll open them to see if you're still there. I would always have the bottle partially squeezed so the drip is actually dangling from the tip of the dropper (if that makes sense)...then when she opened up -- BAM!

Good luck!

This made me laugh thinking of how you are getting her into this position.

Love the bolded part, especially.  So true!

Quartzcpw

This is an awesome visual...I may have to set up a video camera to capture this mommy moment.

 

Thanks! 

TexasSmith

I so wish I had a video of it. We had to do eye drops a couple times for Natalie about a year ago...wrangling a child who has just gotten good at walking and being independent is no easy task. Good luck!