I created this blog to share my tricks for making Patching with a toddler a little easier -- sometimes even a little fun.
Be sure to check out our Tricks and Tips page for some ways to stay one step ahead of your toddler! And check out our free Printables for some fun Patching Activities!
My daughter started wearing her patch, or her "Patty Cake", as we call it, in August 2014. When the doctor told us that she would need to wear a patch for three hours a day, I remember thinking,
"How am I going to get a 2 year old to keep a patch on her face? I can't even get her to keep her pants on reliably!" But it can be done. And it doesn't have to be as hard as you think.
Keeping a positive attitude surrounding the patch in the first few days is crucial. As you already know, it is impossible to make a toddler do anything. Allow your toddler to explore the patch at their own pace at first. This is more important than reaching your target patching time in the first few days.
Here is what we did: On the first day of patching, we didn't say anything to our daughter about the patch. My husband and I both put patches on our own eyes and went about business as usual. It didn't take long for our almost-2-year-old to point to my husband's hot pink patch and ask, "What that?".
"Oh this?" My husband answered, "this is my Patty Cake Patch. Doesn't it look fancy?"
Of course, ever the daddy's girl, her reaction was to say, "I want one too!"
We pretended to debate over whether or not she was a big enough girl to have her own Patty Cake, but eventually decided that she could have one too. We spent the next ten minutes standing in front of the mirror as a family giggling about our fancy Patty Cakes.
Then we hit our first speed bump. She decided she was all done wearing it.
A stern, "Don't take it off or you'll go to time out," was my husband's reflex. And that was when I realized we hadn't gotten on the same page. My husband thought I was nuts when I told him my low-pressure plan, but agreed to let me try it for the first few days.
For the rest of the first day, we treated the patch like it was a super fun and stylish accessory. We would ask if she wanted to wear it, compliment her on how fancy she looked with it on, and if she wanted to take it off after a few minutes, no big deal.
We were shocked late in the afternoon when she sought one out, without any prompting, and said, "Patty on?" She LOVED the attention she was getting.
Bribery and Distraction were the keys to the next few days. We had to be sneaky about it though and make sure that she felt like she was in control. We would say things like, "hey, let's go to the park! You have to put your Patty on if you want to go the the park though. ...... Oh, you don't want to wear your Patty right now? That's okay. We can go to the park later then."
Giving her a choice worked well because she felt like she was in control even though we knew she would choose the fun choice + the patch over being bored.
We found that any time she was really engaged she had no problem leaving the patch on. The result was amazing! I felt like super mom because I was not only accomplishing the impossible (getting a 2-year-old to comply) but I was also having a lot of fun with my kid!
Any time I saw her little hand getting ready to tear off her patch, I had to think of a new activity or distraction on the spot. It was hard to mask the desperation in my voice as I fished for a silly game that would be interesting enough to make her forget about the patch on her eye. "Hey, let's put our hands on top of our heads and spin in circles!!" It was an added bonus if I could think of a way to keep her hands away from her eye. And if the silly game technique didn't work, there was always candy.
Of course, as much as I would like to give three hours each day of undivided attention to keeping a sticker on my kid's face, it just isn't sustainable. I also didn't want to become a candy dispenser, rewarding her each time she thought about removing her Patty. Having a two-month-old baby along with other household and parental responsibilities meant I needed to find a way for her to keep the patch on without my constant intervention. I had to move past this stage of heightened engagement and back into real life. .
After day three or four I moved into a long bribe strategy. (When I say "long", I mean 15-30 minutes long... but when dealing with a toddler, half a Sesame Street is a long time.) I wasn't sure if it would work or if she could comprehend the promise of a future reward, but it did. I took a kitchen timer and told her that when the timer went off, if her Patty was still on, she could have a chocolate chip (which is exciting stuff for a 2-year-old). The first few times I set it for really short amounts of time (three minutes or less) until she got the concept. After that I could set the timer for longer periods of time until eventually we stopped needing the timer and the bribes all together.
Our first week with patching went amazingly well. A combination of luck and low pressure gave us a really good first start. There have been speed bumps along the way and days when we gave up after less than ten minutes with the patch, but for the most part patching has been pretty easy for us (mind you, it is a totally different story when it comes to glasses, the bane of my existence...but we'll get to that later).
If you are new to toddler patching or looking for a new approach, I hope our experience will be beneficial to you.
Visit my Tips and Tricks for more about what has worked for us!
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