My three-year-old wears an eye patch. Right now, she only wears it for one hour each day, but she used to wear it for two hours a day.
She wears it for a wandering eye. The hope is her eye muscles get stronger and we can either avoid or postpone surgery to correct them.
It’s not a big deal; I wore eye patches when I was a little kid, too! She has the advantage of much cuter designs than I did. I am totally fine with talking about it and explaining why she wears it. Questions are welcome!
I’ve had a few moms approach me and ask how my experience has been because their own children have worn eye patches or may need to in the near future. I’ve even shared who my daughter’s ophthalmologist is with the mom sitting next to our table at a restaurant. We’ve met moms who approached us with their kid to tell us they wear a patch, too! I love and welcome these interactions (yes, even though I’m an introvert).
What’s not welcome is making us feel awkward or like something is wrong because she’s wearing it. There have been multiple times while we were in public where a total stranger (once even the manager of a restaurant) has come up to us and said dramatically, “Oh no! What happened to her eye?”
I understand not everyone will know what the purpose of the eye patch is, and some may think she hurt her eye. But my daughter was two when she started wearing it, and we have had a mostly positive, cooperative experience with patching. I don’t appreciate someone acting like something is wrong with her having an eye patch, and I don’t want her to feel bad about wearing it, especially in public.
The weird thing is, I think I could probably wear an eye patch in public and no one would ever say anything to me about it, because I’m an adult. But because she’s a child, others think nothing of questioning and commenting on her appearance, in front of her, in a shocked and concerned manner.
Something else you could say is, “Wow! That’s a really cool eye patch!” Usually, eye patches have fun designs, or animals you can point out. Or you can just treat her like any other kid, and not even mention the eye patch!
