It is very tough on children, caregivers, and their pediatric ophthalmologists when a child has to patch their seeing eye. Patching the seeing eye is very important to preserve vision in the weak or compromised eye. Most children are unable or unwilling to patch for a variety of reasons. I cannot blame them. Regardless of the value patching has in strengthening vision, patching is difficult.
My son’s left eye turned weak and started to wander from amblyopia or ‘lazy eye’ when he was just 8 months old. By his first birthday he had to start patching his right eye 4 hours a day. He was lucky, because many kids are prescribed 8 hours of patching each day.
I remember my son tearing off the patch. It hurt him. It left his skin red and irritated. Patching drew unwanted attention and comments. With the help of arm splints, I trained him in two days to leave the patch on (I will share how I did this in a separate Tips and Tricks post).
Eventually, due to a tumor, my son lost his left eye. His orbital prosthesis would not stay in. Covering up his eye loss and disfigured socket in an unassuming way became crucial so that we could go places.
My work-around to these problems gave rise to OcuSkin Solutions. OcuSkin™ technology is a revolutionary vision therapy tool and cosmetic alternative to traditional patches.