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Amblyopia, if left untreated, can lead to monocular blindness. That's what I was told when I took my two year-old son Joshua to the eye doctor. I was really frightened, as I didn't know anything about Amblyopia. The doctor told me that Joshua needed to be "patched" over his right eye for three hours each day so that his left eye would grow stronger. When I asked the doctor how I was supposed to get Joshua to not only put on the eye patch, but to also wear it for up to three hours a day, he replied "I don't know." That's when I realized there were no good resources for parents dealing with children suffering from this condition.
Later that day at home, I tried to get Joshua to put on his eye patch. After struggling with him to wear the patch, he pulled it off after approximately 30 SECONDS! After fighting with him for over one hour, we were both very frustrated and I didn't know what else to do. I eventually gave up, put the eye patch in the kitchen drawer and started to cry thinking that my son was going to go blind in his left eye and that I was helpless to do anything about it.
Later that day while Joshua was watching T.V., he saw a cartoon with a pirate wearing an eye patch. All of a sudden, my son, who originally wanted nothing to do with his eye patch, came running into the kitchen, took it out of the drawer and attempted to wear it just like the cartoon pirate dancing on television. I stood there speechless. After all the fighting and arguing, he put on the patch after watching a silly cartoon.
I then realized I could make a video just for Joshua with puppets wearing eye patches in order to encourage him to wear his. This lead me to perform further research on Amblyopia and I realized there were many other frustrated parents with limited resources to help them. That's how my DVD for "The Eye Patch Kids" came about.
With the help of my wonderful husband, Allen (who was also just as scared as I was about Joshua's eye problems), my sister Tracy who helped me write the script and perform various roles and my close friend Andrea who is the star of the video playing Princess and the Eye Patch, "The Eye Patch Kids" came to life. They put in countless hours of rehearsal for their parts and I am forever grateful to them. Thank you.
Even after seeing the rough cut of the video, my son was so good with his patching because he associated wearing the patch to having fun with the puppets. He no longer felt different and in many ways thought he was special because of his new puppet friends. He would begin his morning ritual by picking out which eye patch he wanted to wear and placing it on with the DVD. We no longer fought about him wearing his eye patch and life was much easier.
Update 5/11
Joshua is now doing great as a result of his patching. He no longer patches and just wears glasses. He has binocular vision, depth perception and is 20/25 in both eyes.
I know that patching can be very hard, but it is worth it in the end when your child grows up with great vision and a bright future ahead of them. They might not be happy with you while they are going through it, but when they grow up and realize all of the time and effort you put into helping them patch they will love you for it.
Good Luck,
Kelly Harmsen, Owner of Bjort & Company, Inc.
Bjort & Company, Inc.
1767 Lakewood Ranch Blvd.
#264
Bradenton, FL 34211-4906 USA
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