Eye patching is hard.  When a little one first puts an eye patch on they can't see very well.  It's frustrating and likely they are going to fight patching.  We have found offering choices to empower the young eye patcher is a good motivator.  Our Diva Decorations let the child decorate their own eye patch.  They can select the style and color of eye patch.  When the eye patch is delivered they receive stickers and jewels to use to customize their eye patch.  This can excite the eye patcher and create a sense pride for them.  It's important to keep the eye patcher involved in the whole process.  

When my daughter Mackenzie started eye patching 20 years ago, there were not many books available that I could borrow or buy that were geared toward wearing eye glasses or wearing an eye patch.  Sure there might have been characters in a book that wore eye glasses but rarely was a book found that centered around the struggles of eye patching.  Fortunately things have changed.  Over the years many wonderful parents have written books about eye patching.  They have created beautiful stories with adorable characters working through the task of adjusting to wearing an eye patch.  These wonderful stories are great motivation for young children and their families who are challenged with the disruption of being told they need to wear an eye patch.  Eye patching is difficult and we are thrilled that there are now books that a parent can buy or borrow and sit down and read it to their child.  Check out our "Books" page for a list of books about eye patching or wearing eye glasses. http://patchpals.com/books

The year 2015 is almost over, 2016 begins tonight. The beauty of a new year, is we all get a chance to start over.  A chance to organize our lives and reboot.  A chance to exercise more, eat healthy, and be kinder to those around us. If you have a child that wears an eye patch, now is the time to make new goals with their eye patching therapy.  Throw out that old ratty eye patch and order a new eye patch that will excite your child and keep them motived.  Sit down with your child and download a new incentive calendar  http://patchpals.com/calendar​ , decide which rewards will be given when they do a good job.  If your child is too young to understand, make a resolution for yourself to make eye patching a priority.  Eye patching works when you are committed to it, just like exercising, eating healthy, and being kind.  Think how gratifying December 31, 2016 will be when you can look at your child knowing that you helped improve their vision. Now that's an excellent New Year's resolution and a precious lifelong gift.

Every year we search for the perfect Christmas gift for our children.  The kids usually want the latest and greatest video device along with the most popular video games or apps.  Our team here at Patch Pals actually recommends using the TV, computer, iPad and iPhone with your eye patcher, especially at the beginning of their eye patch therapy because the kids are easily persuaded to wear an eye patch during tech time. However, spending all their eye patch time on an electronic device isn’t always a good thing.  We have researched some alternative toys, games and activities that would be wonderful gifts for your eye patcher.  They are fun, inexpensive and can actually improve hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.  Many of the games on this list you will remember doing yourself as a child.  Remember the best gift you can give your child is your undivided attention, especially during eye patch time. Check out our list:

Lacing Cards                                        Paint by Numbers
Rainbow Loom                                    Bead Stringing
Mazes                                                   Peg Boards
Melty Beads                                         Light Bright
Finger Paints                                       Stencils
Playdough                                            Legos
Lincoln Logs                                        Tinker Toys
Dot-to-Dot Activity Books                 Ants in the Pants
Operation                                            KerPlunk
Jenga                                                   Don’t Break the Ice
Fishin Around                                     Toss Across
Playing Catch with a Ball                  Perfection
Connect Four                                      Dominoes
Puzzles                                                 Memory Games
K’Nex                                                    Jigsaw Puzzles
Scrabble                                              Sand Art

Every human being loves praise.  Tell me that I look good in my new outfit today and I will be over the moon.  It really can be a confidence builder.  But if no one notices that I have a great new outfit, I begin to question if the outfit is all that great.  

Praise is very important when dealing with young children, especially young eye patchers. These little tykes are in need of some big time love while patching.  Try to really exaggerate those compliments, "I LOVE YOUR EYE PATCH" , "YOU LOOK SO FANCY!" "I BET THAT EYE PATCH GIVES YOU SUPER POWERS!". Your child will be beaming from all the positive attention and rewarding the good behavior will help reinforce their choice to wear their eye patch without fussing.  Remind family members and friends to take time to give the eye patcher a boost during the child's eye patch time with a big inflated compliment. 

On the other hand, bad behavior like taking the eye patch off, or fighting when told to put it on, should be met with an under-reaction. Be aloof and let them know with a calm voice that they need to put it back on.  Try saying something like "oops your eye patch is off, let's get that back on." Controlling your emotions and being matter of fact will help deflate the bad behavior.  In most situations, your child will mirror your emotions.  If you are upset dealing with the patching therapy, they will be too.  Do your best to inflate the good emotions and behavior, and remember it is just as important to deflate the frustrations of both you and your child.  

Getting a toddler to wear an eye patch is very challenging.  They are too young to understand why wearing an eye patch is neccessary, but old enough to take the eye patch off on their own.  It's hard to reason with toddlers.  However, we do know that they understand the concept of rewards, especially treats.

You don't want to become a candy dispenser, however rewarding your child for wearing their eye patch can definitely get you off to a good start.   Find a timer to use like the timer on your stove or using a special ringtone on your phone.  Tell your toddler that when the timer goes off, if the eye patch is on, they will get one m&m candy (chocolate chip, skittle, marshmallow, grape, berries, cheerio, fruit loop, etc.) Set the timer for 2 minutes.  If you see your toddler trying to take off the eye patch, remind them that they have to wait until the timer goes off.  Don't force them to comply.  When the timer goes off, smile, clap, and give them the treat. If they do not have the eye patch on say, "Oh no, the timer went off and you are not wearing your eye patch.  Let's try again."  Reset the timer and try again. Try hard to distract them for those 2 minutes by dancing. singing or doing an activity with them.  Reward them everytime the timer goes off if they have their eye patch on, even if they take it off but put it back on when you remind them.  So they cannot predict when the timer will go off, set the timer for random amounts of time.  Start at 2 minutes and then 4 minutes, then back to 3 minutes, gradually increase the time to 30 minutes and then one hour.  

You will not have to do this forever.  It may take a few days to a week to build up to your full patching time recommended by your doctor. Be patient.  Remember the vision in the bad eye is low.  Eye patching works if you stick with it.  

If you have an eye patcher in your life, you may become frustrated with the fuss they make when told "it's time to wear your eye patch". Have you ever wondered why they get so upset with you?  Try spending one morning with your child and wear an eye patch with them.  

At first, it is very disorienting and can make you feel dizzy, even sick to your stomach.  The feeling will go away after a few minutes if you calmly look around and slowly become more comfortable with your new view.  As you look around, you begin to feel vulnerable and realize half your world disappears.  You start twisting your head making sure you are not missing anything.  Shadows can catch you off guard and if someone enters your vision from your patched side it can actually startle you.  Try to go about doing your daily activities.  It's difficult, it's very difficult. 

Now think about your child.  Your child is actually patching their good eye.  So the eye they depend on for vision is now covered, and the "bad" eye their brain has been ignoring is the sole source of their vision.  That's rough.  We all need to remember this.  It may take days before you can build up to one hour of good eye patching.  Some kids are required to patch all day, take it slow. Eye patching is a challenge and these little kiddos are superheroes.  So when you get frustrated with the fuss your little one is making, take a deep breathe and give them some time to adjust, give a hug, or a high five.  They deserve a little extra patience and TLC.

When my son was a baby, his regular doctor thought he saw a fleck in his eye and recommended he see an eye doctor. The eye doctor said everything looked fine except he had an astigmatism in one eye and should be checked when he is older. When he was 3, he got his first pair of glasses. We were told he should wear them when he is watching tv, playing on his tablet, reading books, etc... but not to wear them during play. When he was 4, I started to notice that his eye with the astigmatism was starting to drift up and out when he was tired. Then it started happening more frequently and I called the eye doctor with my concerns. She didn't want to wait for our recheck appointment, so we brought him in right away. She had bad news for us. His "bad eye" (with the astigmatism) was much worse and had turned into a "lazy eye" that was also farsighted now. He could only read the big E on the eye chart with his bad eye and he was seeing double sometimes. 

When we were told he had an astigmatism in just one eye, we were just glad he was ok. We didn't know all the implications it would cause him in the future. After he turned 4, and we got the news that he had developed Ambloypia due to his Astigmatism and that his vision had gotten much worse. We were devestated, sad, and full of questions.

Our son use to constantly peek over the top of his glasses and he didn't like to wear them. It was a daily struggle. After a year of this, we let him pick a new pair of frames and then he never asked to take them off. Now our struggle is to find focus activities for him to do during patch time every day (1 hour). 

Always be proactive and do your research. If you think your child might have an eye problem, don't wait, make an appointment. Let your child help pick their glasses. Spend extra time shopping for them to make sure they are comfortable and it's VERY important to make sure the frames are large enough that they can't peek over the top. Try to make glasses and patching fun for them. We got our son transition lenses and we call them his "magic glasses" since the sun makes them turn into sunglasses.  He was so exited when I surprised him with a patch in his favorite color and with his favorite character on it!  Here is a photo of him.

Take a few minutes today to celebrate eye patches.  Today, May 21st is the day where people all over the world will honor patches, today is "I Need A Patch For That" day.  So post your favorite eye patch photo and let everyone know you are celebrating!"I Need a Patch For That Day" holiday.  

"Some holidays are set up with the express purpose of ensuring that something we often take for granted or miss entirely receives the honour that it deserves.

I Need A Patch For That Day is a good example of that. Quite simply, it is a day in which we sit back and celebrate the humble patch in all its forms. You may be wondering what sort of patch is referred to, and the answer is that it is every single type of patch that you can imagine: from patches in clothes to nicotine patches, from software patches to patchwork quilts.

Do we really need a day to celebrate patches? Well, think about it. Every single day we take many little things for granted, even though we would often struggle without them. Think of I Need A Patch For That Day as an idea that helps us to appreciate those little things in life."

- www.DaysoftheYear.com

The year 2014 is over.  A few of us accomplished our resolutions from last year, however many of us stumbled and did not do as well as we had hoped.  The beauty of a new year, is we all get a new clean slate.  A chance to start over.  A chance to exercise more, eat healthy, and be kinder to those around us.  If you have a child that wears an eye patch, now is the time to make new goals with their eye patching therapy.  Sit down with your child and download a new incentive calendar
 http://patchpals.com/calendar​ , decide which rewards will be given when they do a good job.  If your child is too young to understand, make a resolution for yourself to make eye patching a priority.  Eye patching works when you are committed to it.  Just like exercising, eating healthy, and being kind.  Think how gratifying December 31, 2015 will be when you can look at your child knowing you helped improve their vision. What a precious lifelong gift.