How to make an eye patch for Amblyopia or Strabismus

 Every parent of a child that has to wear an eye patch as vision therapy knows how much of a pain adhesive patches can be, let alone expensive. My daughter has to patch for six hours a day to make her amblyopic eye stronger. It has been a few months of trial and error to figure out a patch that she will actually wear. This is the solution that we came up with, and it just so happens to be the easiest and cheapest.

This is a no-sew eye patch that connects to a pair of glasses that have a nose piece. You will need one sheet of 2mm craft foam, a pen, a pair of scissors, and a small hole punch (optional).

I could give you the template for our patches, but chances are, they probably won't fit your face. Every face is different, and a slightly different shape may be more effective for you. You can practice the shape you need with a sheet of paper before you cut into your foam. I laid the glasses out and kind of traced around where I thought the patch should be. Keep in mind the following: if it's too big around the nose, the patch will make the glasses slip down the face. We put a little bump around the bridge of the glasses to keep the wearer from peeking. Form it around the cheek so it doesn't dig in, and bring the top up high enough that if the glasses do slip down a bit, the wearer can't peek above it. It's better to make the patch too big and then trim it down, than to make it too small to start with.

Trace all the patches onto the foam sheet and then cut them out. I can fit 15 on a sheet. Let's do some math here. One sheet of craft foam is $.75. It makes 15 reusable patches. Adhesive one-time-use patches cost $4.35 for 20. So, do you pay $.5 a patch, or do you pay $.21 a patch? Duh.

UPDATE 12/09: I found craft foam in big packages with lots of colors at the dollar store. This would make these even CHEAPER, if you can imagine that.

You can see above that now and again my daughter will get fed up with her patch and rip the thing off. She is three. I expect it. These are so cheap and easy that I don't care. The next step is to punch the holes. you need one at the back to thread the ear piece through, and two at the nose to thread the nose piece through. Then cut a slit with the scissors, connecting the dots on the nose. Punching the hole will prevent the foam from tearing as easy, making a stopping place for it.

If you don't have a small hole punch, you have a few options. You can cut just a slit on the nose and an X in the back, but that will lead more often to tears in the foam.You can also use a larger hole punch and overlap the holes on the nose.
These are really easy to decorate with stickers. I have also sewn a layer of fabric on top of the patch to dress it up a bit. They also take well to drawings and doodles.