Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Advice Under the Influence

Dear ILBAB,

I follow your blog and just came across a posting about your daughter wearing glasses and an eye patch. My youngest daughter just turned 1 and now has to wear glasses and a patch, but she hates it. How did you ever do it? She started wearing contacts at 8 weeks old but can no longer wear them so glasses are our only option now. She hates the glasses. She was born with cataracts in the right eye so she has no prescription in one lens and a very heavy one in the other. She wears a Pez brand of glasses with cable temples, not the type with a band that goes around her head. She uses the Ortopad patches, they are the only ones that don’t rip her skin off but she can peel them off so it’s a lose-lose situation. We have tried the no-no arm bands but no luck…

Thanks!

Beth


Dearest Beth,

Argh, sister. Welcome to the land of toddler piratedom. So it sounds like you have the most comfortable glasses possible. The Quiet Contemplator has the cable-style ones and they just stay on the best. Plus, she doesn't always look like she is heading out for a game of racquetball. No matter what you do though, she may just choose to hate them. We found that praising the crap out of the Contemplator while she was wearing them helped. Telling her how proud we were, how cool she looked, etc. Kids are just natural born narcissists, after all.

As far as the patch goes, we tried the stick-on ones until I found out there were alternatives. TQC either pulled them off herself or they just fell off due to the sweaty disgusting mess that is a toddler. Then I found Eye Mateys. They rock: www.eyemateys.com. They are made of felt and just slip around the arm of the glasses and onto the lens. They have a dark backing so no light gets in and they also have sides to protect from peeking. Plus, it is one of the only brands I found that offer infant/toddler sizes.

If your little girl still won't tolerate the patch, have you talked to your Dr about the drops? They dilate the good eye so your child is forced to use the bad eye to see, thus strengthening it and correcting the amblyopia.

In our case, the patching helped improve my daughter's amblyopia greatly, though it did nothing for the strabismus. Hence, her surgery. More to come on that in the future. Hope this helps.


Smooches,
The Beer Bitch
Advice Under the Influence
Not sure of whether to go with Playtex or Dr. Brown's? Looking for a way to keep your toddler from shaving your cat again? Want to know what to do when your husband pees on the toilet seat again? Well, the Dr. is in. Email me your query and I will put on my thinking cap and publish your question, along with my answer. 

4 comments:

  1. I sold glasses for four years and saw far more little kids than I ever thought I would. I definitely second the praising comment, kids want to know they're "cool" even that young.
    The most awesome memory I have is a two year old getting her glasses for the first time. Two of our walls were all windows and she ran over to one and started pointing at things and naming them. A tree, a plane, a bus. She hadn't ever been able to see them before. Her mom started crying and so did we.
    I give lots of props to you moms (and dads) who work hard to make sure your kiddos can see.

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    1. We saw the same thing when TQC got her glasses. it was like she was seeing a book for the first time and we had read it a million times before!

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  2. Good luck! As a fellow mother of a patcher, I hope it gets easier and your daughter becomes more agreeable to the idea! Maybe try a reward system? We started patching at 1.5 yrs old and from the beginning we called it 'pirate practice'. For the first while, I'd let him wear a pirate halloween costume during patch time and he did pretty good. That might not sound as fun to a little girl though! Maybe 'princess practice' and let her wear a princess crown during patch time?

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    1. Great idea. And girls like the pirate stuff just as much as the boys. Ha!

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