Pacthing Experience, Thus Far

Today marks day 2 of our patching excursion for Jonathan and here are my thoughts: he's not a fan, he is very sensitive to the adhesive, and they have to be replaced often thanks to tears and sweat. The patches are like those of a large band-aid that covers his entire eye. After day one when the adhesive left marks around his eye, I got a little concerned. Being a red head and fair skinned Jonathan is sensitive to several things - adhesive tape, band-aids, bug bites, etc. I must say he's been very cooperative wearing the patch. As a rule I have to chase him down to put the patch on but once it's there he (for the most part) leaves it alone and needs little redirection. Before nap time I removed the patch and noticed that the redness had increased and I made a parental decision to stop patching his eye with an adhesive patch.

I've spent the last 2 days reading different blogs and researching alternative methods to patching children's eyes. I placed an order for what's called "Anissa's Fun Patch" and I'm anxious to try it out. According to the several blogs that I have read parents, and their children, rate this patch over all other alternatives. With the adhesive patches they were flesh colored so it blended into his skin and from a distance you couldn't tell her was wearing anything over his eye. This new patch will be a bit more obvious but I'm hoping the comfort factor outweighs the obvious factor.

There are several alternatives out there which made it hard to make a final decision as to what we should do. Some appear to be bulky than others and others are made of felt fabric so they appear to be hotter than others. The most important factor is that the patch be fully occluded, meaning his good eye be fully covered forcing Jonathan to use his weaker eye and make it stronger.

If your child/grandchild is in need of glasses, eye drops, patches, or surgery I would recommend checking out Little Four Eyes blog. Here I have found some wonderful information (published and parent suggestions) as well as resources about alternative patching options.

Oh, we heard back about the house we made an offer on - they accepted our offer, with a minor change, so as long as the home inspection turns out ok we'll be roughly 45 days away from being homeowners!! Will keep everyone posted :)