"I want to hide"

Today was Belle's first day of wearing the patch to preschool. I got her up as usual and set her up with her breakfast and chocolate milk while she watched kiddie TV. She asked me for her glasses so she clearly gets it that they help her see better. About 45 minutes before we needed to leave for pre-K I got out the adhesive patch and stickers and let her decorate it. She picked some jewel stickers and Cinderella - of course. She enjoyed decorating it and gave me no issues at all when she was done and I occluded her eye.

One thing is that I upped her to the Nexcare - Regular size patches since the Nexcare - Junior seemed just a touch too small on her gigantic blue eyes. She was able to release the adhesive by manipulating her face and then peek out of the edges. The Jr. size patches measure 2.44"x1.81" oval vs the Regular at 3.19"x2.19" oval. She can wear her glasses over the top of the patch, they fully occlude and they are pretty discreet looking (until she puts shocking pink sequin stickers on top of them!). A box of 20 is around $6 which isn't too bad but I can see where we'll go through a lot of these if she peels them off, has to take them off for gym/dance class, etc.

After she got the patch on and was ready for school I let her pick out the Patch Pal to go over her glasses. Ultimately I hope to just be able to use a re-usable cloth patch but she really peeks with them and they aren't fully occluding her so if she wants to wear the pretty girly patch then we have to put the adhesive one under it. She picked out the princess patch and we were on our way.

We headed to school and she was happy as a clam until I pulled into my parking space. She got out of her seat and tried to hide in the 3rd row of the minivan and said she needed the Patch Off. I said she had to keep it on and that after school we'd do something. We headed up to the "line-up" where the kids line up against the wall before all walking in together and she wouldn't get in line. She sobbed, she clung, she pitched a fit. She created such a spectacle that all the other parents at the drop-off were staring with their mouths open. Of course, I'm use to people staring at me and my kids (my son has Autism and has done some crazy stuff in public in the past, I'm over it). It didn't bug me so much as I wanted them to mind their own business. Meanwhile Belle was losing it and all the line proceeded into the school.

"I want to hide"
"I don't want this patch"

One of the classroom aides came over and took her by the hand (she was still crying and trying to hide) and walked her in. I had to do the Walk Away and not look back. It killed me, but I know it was the right thing to do.

At pickup time she came skipping out with the line and was smiling and her cheery self. The teacher reported she did just fine in school with it and kept it on. I anticipate that wearing it at school will get easier as time goes on.