How do you get a 2 year old to wear glasses?

[bettyboo83]

My DS is 2.9 months and has got glasses this week due to a squint. According to the optician his actual prescription is quite mild. The longest I have got him to wear is about 5 minutes and usually he point blank refuses. He will wear them whilst he watches television but obviously I can't let him do that all the time. I guess that because his vision isn't too bad he doesn't see much improvement when he wears them. We have a sticker chart and he gets a little treat each day then I have wrapped some little toys for if he fills his sticker chart (7 days) but he's not that bothered about it. We go back to the orthoptist at the end of the month to see if there's any improvement otherwise probably surgery :-( help!

[WhenDoISleep]

The only way to do it is persistence.

I have a just 2yr old and we have had glasses since he was 14m - wearing time has slowly improved but is still not great.

Will he wear them when outside the house - my DS is better outside than in the house?

Hopefully as he is a little older he may understand if you talk to him about why it is important.

I also bought some social story type books about characters that find out they need glasses which we use.

I also found a useful website with other parents experiences - I can look it up (and the book titles) if you think it would be useful.

[bettyboo83]

Thank you for your suggestions :-) it doesn't seem to matter wear he is. He seems to remember he has them on after about 5 minutes then pulls them off. We got a book about a dog called Arlo that needs glasses which we started reading in the week before he got his glasses - he loves the book but it hasn't made much difference. The website would be great, thank you.

[WhenDoISleep]

This is the site I found.

We have the Arlo book too, plus this one.

Good luck with getting him used to them.

[LizzieMint]

Persistence here too. My DD was 2.6 when she started wearing them, and it's just a case of constantly reminding them, constantly giving stickers and rewards! She's now 3.8 and wears them all day, but it probably took us a good 4 or 5 months to get anywhere near that.
She's also had squint surgery, which was really brilliant so don't be too worried if he has to have that done. Better to get it corrected when they are really young.

[odyssey2001]

How often do you reward worth a sticker? Is it only one a day, as that is a long time to last and wait for a reward?

How about chocolate buttons? When we were potty training we broke the day down into six parts, between food sittings. It worked really well.

[EyeoftheStorm]

Another vote for persistence. And not making a fuss or getting cross. DS2 would hand them back to me, I'd smile and say thank you. Then try again later or whenever I thought a good time, always trying to build up the length of time he wore them.

Just tell yourself you're in for the long haul. He'll get there.

[TinyTheTortoise]

Odyssey2001 has a good suggestion, beat me to it ;)

Do you or DP wear glasses? If so you can use that to your advantage, "Ooh look, you can be like Mummy/Daddy"
If not could you get a cheap plastic pair from ebay or such and then try the whole looking like you spiel?