My Dad's doctor has given us eye drops for my Dad to take, but he refuses to take them. What can be done?

Are they for dry eyes, low tension glaucoma, or other purpose? The next time you see the doctor, call beforehand and ask him to emphasize the need to take them. Sometimes parenst listen to doctors before listening to their children, even if the doctor is the one who prescribed the drops.

There may be something else involved, and that's the inability to get the eye drops in easily. My father had this trouble. Sometimes it does take practice to get the little nozzle positioned just in the corner of the eye, but not touching it. It's the positioning and avoiding touching the eye that's the challenge.

It's easy to end up watering the area around the eye while the drops drip down the face.

There are special applicators but we didn't find them that helpful. Sometimes trial and error works better.

If you or someone could apply the drops, it might ease the way for him to accept that it's a matter of learning how to insert them. And if it makes his eyes feel better, so much the better.

Good luck!

Maggie is right. If you have done everything you can think of to convince your dad to take the eye drops and he continues to refuse there's not much more you can do. Unless you want to peel his eyelids back while he's sleeping but I don't think that would go over very well ;)

If you can't cajole him into letting you or someone else put in the eye drops . . . If promising him a pretty doesn't work...if laying dome good old-fashioned guilt on him doesn't work...if threatening him with a visit from Nurse Ratchett has no effect...if carefully explaining the consequences of NOT using the drops doesn't move him...then recognize you've gone all you can and let it go.

If dad has dementia, you might ask his doc if there's anything that would make him more compliant, but, in the end, if he's just about in his right mind, it's his right to refuse medication.