Did you catch part 1 and part 2 of this series? If not, click the links below so you can get a wide range of ideas to help your child with their patch time!
Are distractions not working?
Children who are really struggling with their eye patching time may not cope with distractions such as reading, search and find books, or dot to dot puzzles. It doesn’t mean that those strategies will never work, its just not the right time, and another approach is needed.
This blog covers how you can encourage your child by using their creativity, whilst also jazzing up their eye patches!
Engage your child starting with the eye patch itself!
Allowing your child to be part of the eye patch choice, is a great way to get engagement from them!
We are so fortunate in Australia to have a range of adhesive eye patch brands to choose from, and you could let your child choose their favourite colour, design or buy plain ones and lots of craft items to decorate them with. The bonus is that decorating time, can also be patching time!
So get creative, and don’t be afraid to mix and match eye patch brands and colours. Something we often encourage is a decorating day once a week for arty children to go wild and show what they can do! They then can chose which patch to wear each day when their patching time comes around.
By allowing your child to be involved in the choices being made, they will feel more in control of their patching treatment.
It is not just about supporting patching, but giving your child the confidence to feel awesome whilst wearing it is also so important as children can be very self-conscious about eye patching. This feeling of insecurity only adds to the stress of eye patch treatment, as they are already experiencing difficulty seeing clearly and having to work much harder than normal.
It is going to be difficult road ahead at times, but if they love their patch design or style, then encourage them to show it off!!
How can I help my child feel confident when wearing their eye patch?
Here are just a few ideas beyond decorating your eye patches:
1. Consider taking a photo of them wearing their freshly decorated eye patch, you can then send it to relatives or print it and put it out on display at home. Maybe even an Instagram account to show them off?
2. What about Facetiming grandma so she can help chose the decorated eye patch for the day?
3. Can your child do a ‘show and tell’ time at school with your best decorated eye patch or favourite design?
4. Read a book about eye patching together and talk about the characters and story. Compare eye patches with the character/s – who has the best patch? Reading is great patching time!
5. Complete a patching chart, sticking the best patches on for everyone to see! Check out the awesome selection available in our online store!
6. Have a pirate themed day, with everyone in the house dressing up and wearing eye patches!
Looking for inspiration?
Check out the wonderful @Laylaspatches on Instagram, its run by an amazing Dad who decorates his child’s plain eye patches every day to keep it fun and engaging for her! All photos below are from their wonderful Instagram which has years of patching posts for you to use as inspiration!
Other fabulous creative Instagram accounts to check out include; @patch_baby, @patch_and_paco, and @patchinjackson. Let us know if there are other Instagram accounts we should be adding to our inspirational list!
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Kids Eye Gear Small Eye Patches
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Nexcare Opticlude Regular Eye Patches
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