3 year old needs glasses & eye patching, any advice?

[~*max*~]

We just learned that our 3 year old dd has one good eye and one that is incredibly far sighted. She has even lost some vision in this eye and it turns in in response to it's weakness. I believe this is called Amblyopia. Eye glasses and eye patching (covering the good eye for one hour a day to help the weaker eye start working) have been recommended.

She is a very sweet, easy going little girl. I think she will cooperate with both wearing the glasses and doing the patching. I plan to make the patching special time where we read books, color, etc. (She loves that.)

Any BTDT moms? I'd love to hear your experiences with glasses on a preschooler & if anyone has any patching tips that'd be great too.

Thanks in advance.

[Marylizah]

Hi, Max.

A friend of mine went through this with her son when he was even younger. I'll ask her for some tips and PM you.

[~*max*~]

Thanks Mary!

[Mamabeakley]

Hi, Max -

My BIL had eyes with wildly different vision and wore patches, contacts, and glasses. I believe he still wears a contact in one eye + glasses to get adequate correction. However, I don't think MIL caught it until he was a bit older than your DD . . . I think you're on the right track trying to make it matter of fact - and patching time fun.

I know my 3 yo is really particular about some things and if it were him, I'd imagine it would be important to do it "his way" whatever that was as much as possible. But your DD may not be as particular.

[s_kristina]

I'll hope for your sanity she is far more cooperative than I was at that age. I have strabismus in addition to one eye being much stronger, but had issues with both eyes. I would never leave a patch on. As soon as they got one on I would go hid and pick until I got it off. I also hated my glasses at that age and would hid them any place I could find. My mom once found glasses that had been missing for months in a box of Christmas decorations.

We moved over the summer and I am trying to find an eye doctor that is good with children and takes the hmo ds has. Last year when I had his eye checked the doctor said he probably needed glasses, but it wasn't bad enough to do anything at his age as he couldn't see them being left on by a 3 year old That particular doctor did not want to put him in glasses until he started school and would need to see across the room to the board. I'm hoping to find a more reasonable doctor here.

[olliepop]

My dd was recently diagnosed with Amblyopia and given instructions to wear a patch for 3 hours each day. She has been wearing glasses for over a year, but the patch was harder to swallow.

Luckily, she doesn't have to wear it in school, but there was still resistance. The opthamologist gave us some adhesive patches with decorative designs, but I made some for her out of felt. She really liked those.

This book really helped:
http://www.amazon.com/Patch-Justina-...3068866&sr=1-1

And when looking for the link above, I found another book that I plan on getting from the library. Hope this helps!

http://www.amazon.com/Travelin-Eye-Jenny-Sue-Kostecki-Shaw/dp/0805081690/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263068384&sr=1-2

[neptunemama]

My oldest dd had to wear a patch at 8 y.o. She was VERY resistant to it, but we made it through. Our eye doc said to do active things while wearing the patch, to make the weak eye really work. Reading, writing, and art projects were good. TV didn't count, but using a computer did. I know your child is only 3, so some of this stuff she may not do yet. We didn't watch tv in our house, it was only for movies, so tv was a huge treat. So to start off with, we allowed tons of tv time when my dd first started patching. For the first week or so, we let her watch practically unlimited tv. This eased her into wearing the patch, b/c the first few days or so she couldn't see at all w/the patch on. Everything was blurry and she was really frustrated. So the tv helped get her (and us) over the hump.

My dd needed to patch for 2-3 hrs/day. To do this, we built up to the 2-3 hrs over the course of a couple of weeks. The first few day she only wore it for 5 min at a time a couple of times a day. Then slowly lengthened how long she wore it for. I wouldn't worry about patching the whole time right away. Taking a week or two won't make a difference in getting your dd's eye strengthened, but it will make her happier and more accepting of the patch.

We played a lot of games, and tried to do things where she had to track an object w/her eye when she wore her patch. We'd sit on the floor and roll a ball back and forth to each other. We'd play 2 square (like 4 square but w/2 people). And we have a pinball machine, so my dd would play it a lot. We built stuff w/legos, playdough etc... And she used the computer for games quite a bit. It took a few weeks or more but then wearing the patch became no big deal.

I found some great patches online and let her choose the patterns she liked best. We got two and that was plenty for us. We got them from patch pals (see link below). They fit well on her glasses, and she loved the cute designs. Make sure to get the patch for the good eye!

Oh, and one other thing. It sounds like your dd has to get used to both glasses and a patch. So did my dd. I forgot that we got her used to the glasses first for a couple of weeks before easing into the patching.

http://www.shop.patchingpal.com/cate...5?categoryId=2

[~*max*~]

Thank you for the info & the links ladies! You have all been very helpful. Yesterday was when we got the diagnosis. We have ordered her eye glasses. They will be ready in about a week. In the meantime we will begin using the patch. Our dr. recommended an hour a day, broken up into two 1/2 hour segments. We did that today w/no problem. We just snuggled together & read books. Dd seemed to enjoy it. I need to come up w/a good patch though until we get her glasses. Then I wilI order some of those cute patches from your link neptunemama. I have made her a patch out of fleece, but I want to be completely sure she can't see under it, and it does seem a little itchy for her. (Why can't I find a pirate patch when I need one???)

I'd love to hear more about what you do during patch time. My dr. mentioned reading books. He said handheld video games work well too. (She has a Leapster that she enjoys, so that will work.) I like the ideas of rolling a ball back & forth and the play doh. She also enjoys doing workbooks, so we'll incorporate that too.

I also wanted to ask you experienced mamas, we will be getting her glasses right before our Disney World vacation. I am thinking this would not be the best place to get used to them, and I think I will constantly be worried about them falling off & us losing them. Should I bring them anyway and have her wear them a few hours a day, when we are not in the parks? Or should I just wait until we get home & start wearing them full time?

[sunnmama]

Dd did patching over the years, and finally had surgery this spring at age 8. We used these patches, because we needed the kind that actually adhere, and these were the least irritating (the drug store version would irritate her skin). The patterns are fun.

When she was really young, we did patch time when we were out and about because it took her mind off of it. We would go outside, or wear it while grocery shopping....anything to distract her.