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Patching Therapy HintsThe purpose of this page is to provide helpful hints to parents about patching their child's eye for the treatment of amblyopia, commonly know as lazy eye. And, there is no better source for information about patching a child's eye than parents. As a consequence, we are requesting those parents who have experience with patching therapy to share their wisdom and experience with everyone, via this web page. This web page will be updated regularly as experienced parents share hints, techniques, types of bribery, behavioral methods and everything else one can think of in order to get the child to where his or her patch. If you want to share your experiences and valuable suggestions for getting little "Larry" to wear his patch for the required time, drop us a line by filling out the below form. Thank you for making this web page a success!
Helpful Hint #9 Anna Nicole's Daughter Has Strabismus and is Being Treated with Patching to Prevent Amblyopia It was reported on Entertainment Tonight, January 14, 2008, that Anna Nicole Smith's daughter, Dannielynn Birkhead, has strabismus. In an exclusive interview, Entertainment Tonight reported that the daughter is being treated with patching to [prevent the development of a lazy eye]. The little girl's father, Larry Birkhead, reported on the U. S. news show that one of her eyes was turning in (a condition called esotropia) and that she was prescribed patching. It was also reported that the little girl is regularly seeing an eye doctor for the problem. To help Dannielynn cope with the patching therapy, the father bought a pirate doll to "show her that people wear patches". The father also reported that he will also wear an eye patch "to show her that it is OK". As with many very young infants, at first Dannielynn didn't mind wearing the patch and was too young to be able to remove the patch. However, as she has gotten older, she has become adept at removing the patch, the father reported. The father also reported that "it's [now] a little bit harder for me to patch her". The father is experiencing many of the trials and tribulations of occlusion therapy faced by parents of children with lazy eye. In Dannielynn's case, her misaligned eyes were noticed early and she was taken to the eye doctor promptly before amblyopia developed. To prevent the development of amblyopia, alternate patching of the eyes is a common strategy. The eye doctor will make sure that Dannielynn can see equally with both eyes and if glasses cannot correct the strabismus than eye muscle surgery will be undertaken to correct the eye misalignment and to further prevent the development of a lazy eye. Having a parent wear the eye patch is also a common strategy used by parents to help the child accept the eye patch and cope with wearing the patch for a period of time. Also, pirate puppets and pirate dolls are great to show the child that an eye patch is OK. As in Dannielynn's case, as children get older they are better able to remove the patch because of better muscle and hand coordination. Of course, this creates additional challenges for the parent(s) and requires vigilance to ensure that she wears the patch the required amount of time. We wish Dannielynn and her father the best and hope her case helps others in the treatment of strabismus and amblyopia. Helpful Hint #8
Are your child’s adhesive patches causing painful skin irritation?
Dr. David Rogers, pediatric ophthalmologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, has a safe and easy remedy for parents to try before resorting to cloth patches, which he believes are less effective at treating amblyopia. “Nearly every one of my patients who has experienced skin irritation from adhesive patches has found that applying milk of magnesia to the skin around the eye before applying the eye patch has prevented irritation and allowed them to continue their prescribed adhesive patching treatment,” Dr. Rogers states. “Using a cotton ball, parents should apply a thin layer of milk of magnesia to the skin around their child’s eye. The adhesive patch should be applied only after the milk of magnesia has dried completely.” Dr. Rogers notes that because this is a preventive therapy only, any current skin irritation needs to be healed completely in order for this therapy to be effective. Milk of magnesia is commonly used as a stomach antacid and laxative and is available over the counter at your local pharmacy. If you have any questions or concerns, you should consult your child’s eye doctor.
Helpful Hint #7 A Patching Success story The "Ks" have an energetic one year old, Theo, who was diagnosed with amblyopia during the first months of life. At about 6 months of age he had 20/100 vision in his good left eye, normal for his age, and 20/150 in his right amblyopic eye, the eye that turns inward a bit when both eyes are open. In fact, it was the slightly deviated eye that the parents worried about and lead to Theo's visit to the pediatric eye doctor. After six months of patching, Theo had 20/80 visual acuity in each eye, normal for his age, because of the parents’ perseverance in occluding his stronger, left eye. Theo's amblyopia was cured. I asked the Ks about their success in occlusion therapy and here is what they had to say: They patched their son for 2 hours per day in the morning after he was alert, feed and changed. The mother would place the patch on his left eye as directed by their eye doctor, and engage in activities with Theo and their older child. At first, Theo would try to remove the patch and Mon would simply distract him with toys and other activities. Soon, Theo would forget he had the patch on and would play with his toys and sibling. Mon would continue to play with both of the children for the two hours. Mom indicated that she could not simply place the patch on his better eye and let them play alone for any length of time since Theo would soon remove the patch. The trick was to keep him occupied and engaged during the patching period. In addition, it was important that Theo was not tired or that it was not too late in the day. Dad also played an important in Theo's therapy. Dad said that he thought that visual activities, such as going to the food store, helped. At the grocery store, Theo was stimulated by moving through the isles of food and people. Dad wheeled Theo around the store in the grocery cart stimulating his amblyopic eye with the patch on his stronger eye. Theo loves the grocery store because of all the visual stimulation. Theo's success story is due, in part, to the fact that his amblyopia was detected early in life when patching is the most effective and when his vision in the amblyopic eye wasn't too bad. It also helped that Theo only had to wear the patch a few hours per day. Other children, with worse amblyopia, may have to be patched much longer. But nothing can take the place of dedicated parents who know the importance of perseverance - you do what you have to do and get the job done. Theo will be thankful when he is older that his parents persevered. Helpful Hint #6 Another Success Story The "Z's" daughter, Hailey was diagnosed with amblyopia at 4 months of age. At 5 months of age Hailey's visual acuity was 20/150 in the amblyopic right eye and 20/80 in her normal left eye. Hailey was prescribed glasses and she learned quickly to pull them off "every five second" said the mother. Mom said that she persevered and entertained Hailey until she adjusted to the glasses. Hailey's older 3 year old sister also helped and would "tell on" Hailey whenever she removed her glasses; "get those glasses on" she would say to Hailey and was vigilant about Hailey wearing her glasses. Than came the patching. At first, patching was easy said Hailey's mother because Hailey "couldn't even figure-out how to remove the patch". But that changed quickly. Again, Mom entertained Hailey when she was wearing the patch and Hailey's 3 year old sister also helped monitor Hailey to make sure that she kept the patch on the required time. Hailey's mother also recruited the help of their baby sitter, grandmother as well as the day care personnel to ensure that Hailey wore her patch the required time. The mother reported that she "wanted her [Hailey] to see" so she persevered. The mother also said that she had the personal responsibility to ensure that Hailey would not grow up with one good eye. The Z's perseverance paid off. In December 2007 Hailey had a follow-up in the Eye Clinic and she now has 20/80 visual acuity in each eye, normal for her age of 17 months. The mother was vigilant about maintaining her eye doctor appointments and will in the future.
Helpful Hint #5 Hi all, my daughter is 5 and had
to have the corrective surgery when she was 3 1/2 for this condition (I still
can't pronounce it!) We have been patching ever since and just recently went to
the dr and have had IMPROVEMENT I was starting to get discouraged that it wasn't
working! I am so proud that my daughter will wear the patch, we had to
compromise so she wears it for half the day and is in control to take it off
during lunch. We got a giant dragon chart from the eye doctor with spots to put
patches on it at the end of the day and have filled it up. The Dr wants us to do
it another 4 months, I am praying this will be the last of it. Has anyone found
cheap places to buy the patch bandaids or made their own? Thanks Jessica
[Web master note: if you have an answer we'll add it to this page.] Helpful Hint #4 About your
request for helping parents with kids with a lazy eye see the prevent blindness
america site that has a discussion about lazy eye from parents. I don't know the
site name but you should be able to find it with a google search. Thank you. Web master note: The site the sender is referring to is at: http://preventblindness.org/discus/messages/20/20.html?1145232919 and includes parent discussions about patching children for lazy eye, among other things. Helpful Hint #3 I have a 5 year old girl that has
patched on and off since she was about Helpful Hint #2 We offer our
daughter, age 5, "Special Reading Time" at the end of the Helpful Hint #1 We
bought Sponge Bob square pants bandaids and put them over his "good END
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