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Tips for wearing eye patch?

woolgatheredwoolgathered
in Special Needs

Hi everyone,

My son has intermittent exotropia and has to wear an eye patch every day for a few hours so his eyes are healthy enough for surgery. Thing is, he is 22 months and just will not wear it. The opthamologist suggested putting mittens on his hands and taping them on, but that sounds incredibly cruel, not to mention extremely hard to do (I can't even put his patch on! How will I get mittens on and then tape them?!?!). 

 Suggestions very welcome. I'm taking him to another doctor for a second opinion, just because I always want a second opinion for any surgery, let alone one on my baby.

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Re: Tips for wearing eye patch?

  • BUmamaBUmama

    Does he wear glasses? DD1 has been patched for amblyopia and the patches she used went straight onto the lenses of her glasses so there was nothing touching her eye, otherwise we would have been struggling with what to do as well!

    Good luck!

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  • Glendi2.0Glendi2.0

    DD was a bit younger (about 20 months, I think?) when we had to patch her- it was hard at first, but not impossible! She wore glasses and the patch went directly on to her skin, so in our case, having the glasses obstructed her access to the patch a bit (enough so that I could distract her before she had a chance to rip the patch off, anyway!) We started off in very short spurts... just getting her to keep it on without ripping it off for about 5-10 minutes... after she got used to it being on, going from 10 minutes to 4 hours (what our doctor prescribed) was pretty easy... it was getting up to 10 minutes that was the hard part!

    If I recall correctly, distracting her with something REALLY desirable, (in most cases, a show) was very helpful in getting the patch on and in place for a little while. I found once the initial shock of it being on passed, she was usually fine. In most cases, the length of the show was enough time for her to get used to it. 

    A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost. ~Marion C. Garrett
    image7_0002 A ~ 2.7.06 S ~ 9.2.07
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  • lesleytaylorlesleytaylor member
    My husband said you should ask your doctor to use atropine drops instead of a patch. Atropine causes the eye to not focus blurring the good eye so the bad eye has to work.
    <a href="http://s1083.photobucket.com/albums/j385/lesleytaylor7/?action=view
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  • Glendi2.0Glendi2.0

    imagelesleytaylor:
    My husband said you should ask your doctor to use atropine drops instead of a patch. Atropine causes the eye to not focus blurring the good eye so the bad eye has to work.

    We were also prescribed atropine as well in the event patching wasn't successful, but ended up not needing them. I know it seems impossible but it is doable... I didn't have a dx at the time (it came a couple of months later), but I was dealing with an ASD kiddo who had sensory and rigidity issues at the time... anything is possible!!

    A sister is a little bit of childhood that can never be lost. ~Marion C. Garrett
    image7_0002 A ~ 2.7.06 S ~ 9.2.07
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  • woolgatheredwoolgathered

    I am so thankful you posted this about the eye drops. I didn't know we could do that. He doesn't wear glasses, so sticking a patch on him every day is just an exercise in I don't know what. The second I turn my back to attend to my 6 mo old, he rips it off.

     

    I'm definitely asking about them. THANK YOU!

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  • RoxpupRoxpup member
    What kind of patches are you using?  The patches we used (we patched from about 13m to about 15m and now we've been patchless for 2m and just had an eye appt and still have no patches for the next 4m, that obviously could change at the next appt).  

    The patches we had were so hard to pull off, I could hardly get them off my son.  We used nexcare ones, we bought them at Walmart.   Here's a link: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Nexcare-First-Aid-3M-Opticlude-Orthoptic-Eye-Patch-20-Ct/10890113 and the bonus is they were only a quarter of the price of the patches at the eye doctor. Good luck and try not to give up :) 
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  • FiveofmineFiveofmine

    I would ask about the drops.  DD was patched from 5months till surgery at 10months and it was a nightmare. She would cry and rub her face until the patch came off. We even tried putting socks on her hands. It didn't work. Her vision is 20/20 so we had no need for glasses.

    I had good luck putting the patch on while she was asleep. She would wake up and not pay attention to it as much.

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