The day the Pediatric Ophthalmologist told me that my daughter needed her eye patched was not a good day. Having a child with autism, I could not imagine keeping any kind of bandage on her including an eye patch. What was most distressing is that we would be patching her ‘good’ eye to make her lazy eye work harder and correct itself. Things went better than I expected but I was still incredibly sad for her. We were patching the eye that had the better vision!!
I had no idea this type of product was on the market until we had a need for it. The doctor gave us a box of 3M Nexcare Opticlude Orthoptic Eye Patches but then we were able to pick more up at the pharmacy when needed. The cost was minimal and about what you would expect to pay for any other type of bandages. The boxes contained 20 eye patches. Everyone is different and the doctor will tell you when to use the eye patches and when to let the child rest without them.
As I said things went better than I expected. My daughter never really noticed that much except I would see her cock her head to one side when looking at things. It took her a while to get used to only using one eye while the patch was on. This product, 3M Nexcare Opticlude Orthoptic Eye Patches, did help and her eye started looking and working more normally after about six months. Again we are having issues but some children end up needing glasses or other solutions to the issue. Applying the eye patch would have been easy enough except my daughter fought it. After it was on, she was fine but applying it was hard on a tantruming child!
The eye patches are more oblong than I expected them to be and it does go over the nose a little. The sticky part is around the edges while the part that goes over the eye is not sticky–similar to a bandaid! I never had any issues with the sticky edges going together before I could put it on her eye. It is hypoallergenic so should not cause any skin irritations. Coming off was much easier than a bandaid, it stuck well while needed and coming off was gentle on my daughter’s skin. Just like other bandaid products, you peel off the paper to see the sticky part before applying to the child. Each one is 2.5 in. x 1.8 in. in size, perfect for little kids. Her skin never got red while wearing these patches. I did notice during the summertime that she got tanner everywhere but where the patch was.
If we had used 3M Nexcare Opticlude Orthoptic Eye Patches for longer periods and when she was older and more aware, I might have looked for ‘cooler’ eye patches for kids but this worked well at the time. In the future if we need them again, I may look at alternatives but I have heard others do not stick as well reducing the effectiveness of the eye patches.This brand was recommended by her doctor and worked well. Don’t forget which eye to patch…it is the ‘good’ eye that is functioning properly!
