My ten year old keen to wear occasional contact lenses - advice please!!!

[loveyouradvice]

Hi

my ten year old year 6 daughter is very keen to wear contact lenses. We'd said at 11 but now she is going to be Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing and is keen NOT to wear her red glassses - she's very short sighted.

Optician says ok for occasional wear... Im guessing every couple of weeks.

Has anyone done this? Love to know your tips and recommendations!

Lizzie x

[scurryfunge]

My son had them at 10 and he wore them for sports and occasionally at school. So long as she is good at hand washing and general cleanliness there shouldn't be a problem.

[suburbandweller]

If it's just for very occasional wear I would suggest you get daily disposables - it will keep the cost down (as you only pay for the number of pairs you want) and given your DD's age, it's probably the least risky option in terms of potential for problems. They have improved massively in recent years - as a long-term (soft) contact lense wearer I find dailies by far the most comfortable now. Do also make sure you take her for regular check ups and eye tests though.

[CMOTDibbler]

Daily disposables are by far the best for occasional wear - no worries about cleaning, and you can control how often she wears them

[narmada]

I wore contacts from 12 years, every day. Is this not recommended any more ?

[skewputt]

My ds (9) has just had a contact lense assessment, and the optician said that daily wear is fine as long as the lenses are decent- there's quite a range of lenses it seems, the more expensive they are the better of course!

But using daily disposables avoids having to clean and care for lenses, so seems to be the way forward. Ds is desperate to have them as he does a lot of sport and is getting quite short sighted, so he's on board with the whole hygiene thing. I wouldn't have agreed to it if I didn't think he would be careful enough with hand washing etc.

[suburbandweller]

Back when I was that age contact lenses weren't recommended for daily wear because your eyes have the potential to change a lot during childhood. I was desperate for them and finally got them at 16 when I'd had a few eye tests with no changes. I would think though that the main issue with children is hygiene, which is why dailies are so good.