Wordful Wednesday and I Spoke Too Soon

So it turns out that we were only patch free for less than 2 weeks. Alyssa got the all clear, but Riley must now endure the eye patching experience. We had her yearly eye exam yesterday and found out that the vision in her right eye is not as strong as her left eye even with glasses. And getting her to wear her glasses is a whole other story.

This go around with eye patching is not going to be as easy as it was with Alyssa. Riley wore her patch for about 2 minutes this morning before ripping it off her eye. It doesn't help that she is not a morning person...atleast Monday through Friday. I didn't fight her about it this morning and we tried again tonight. She kept it on for 30 minutes. Hooray for small victories. We are supposed to build up to her wearing the patch for 4 freaking hours. The dr. says that patching is only therapeutic after 2 hours.

So I've got my work cut out for me. My feisty Riley will challenge me every step of the way. She has enjoyed challenging people from the get go. When she was 20 days old in the NICU, weighing less than 2 pounds, she pulled her ventilator tube out and made it clear she didn't want it back down her throat.

I better keep my bribing pants on....she worked for a fortune cookie tonight.

For More Wordful Wednesday

Visit Angie at

Patch Free!

Alyssa had a follow-up appointment with the pediatric optometrist last week and we learned that the eye-patching worked! Although, she was quite fond of her pink princess eye patches when this process started back in December, she was not too enthusiastic about wearing them on a daily basis anymore. With a little extra TLC, she would always comply to it with no big meltdowns but she sure was happy when she found out her eye was stronger and she didn't need to wear them anymore.

My patch-free, happy girl!

Eye Eye Captain

I took Alyssa in for an appointment with the Opthamologist this week as a follow-up from her 4 year old check-up with our pediatrician. At that time, Alyssa wasn't 100% cooperative with her eye exam, but it was hard to tell if it was just attitude or vision problems.

Well, it turns out that she has a very mild case of amblyopia. There is nothing wrong with the alignment of her eyes, but the image quality in her left eye is weaker than her right eye. She doesn't need glasses, but the doctor suggested that we patch her good eye for a few hours each day in the hopes of strengthening the weaker eye.

I came home feeling a bit nervous about our new adventure in patching that would begin the next morning. I was worried that she would fight with me about wearing it, but Alyssa was fantastic about it and didn't mind wearing the patch at ALL. We put it on when she wakes up in the morning and her teacher takes it off of her at preschool a few hours later. I ordered some eye patches from this website which Alyssa thinks are the perfect accesory to whatever pink outfit she has on that day. We will go back to the doctor in 4 months to see if the patching is working. Hopefully, we have caught the problem early enough that this minor intervention will work.

Alyssa models her fave "princess" design eye patch.