We noticed Aria's eye sometimes turning in when she was an infant, but the doctor told us this was normal and it would probably correct itself. It seemed to get better sometime after she turned 1, but then got worse around 15/16 months. At her 18 mo appointment her doctor sent us to a specialist and he concluded that she needed to patch 3 hours a day until her 8 week follow-up appointment. At that point he will assess her improvement and she will probably have to continue to wear a patch for a while. The doctor did say that sometimes patching doesn't help and it can only be fixed with surgery. Hopefully we won't have to go that route.
So after about 2 weeks of trying and trying to get Aria to wear her "sticker" we were finally successful with total compliance. At first there was nothing we could say or do to convince her she needed to keep it on her face. We approached her with a fun attitude, clapping and singing, but she wasn't having any of it. After reading some advice on-line, I came across this:
Consider having a rule that only parents touch (put on, take off) the patch (e.g., "When the patch is on, only Mom or Dad touch the patch.")
So there it was. The one piece of advice that was the key to our success. She finally let me put the "sticker" on and I told her that "mommy will take the sticker off when it's time". Voilà! She didn't pull it off her face. I had to remind her about 20 times, but it worked! Everyday has been the same since. No fight, no fuss.
Cute Aria with her wonky eye (about half her pictures turn out this way now, this will be one of the few you get to see :-)
We picked out some fun stickers for her to wear and of course they match each outfit accordingly:
Ladybug Red
Smiley Blue
Flower Power Pink
3 comments:
I'm so glad you figured out a way to get her to keep it on! That must be so hard for all involved.
I think the stickers are totally adorable!
At least the makers of the patches have found a way to make them fun with the patterns and stuff. They are definitely cute!
those patches sure have come a long way! when i was teaching i had one kid who had to wear it everyday and his folks drew on it to make it look 'cool'. glad everything's working out, though. trying to convince a toddler to do anything for more than five minutes is challenge enough!
:)
Post a Comment