Contacts in the pool?

[Florencenotflo]

I got some contact lenses last year, just disposables for when I go out really. When I went for the fitting appointment they said obviously don't wear them for swimming.

We go to Centre Parcs next week, do you think I'd be ok wearing them in there, I don't swim as such, I'm usually supervising my 3 year old. But my eye sight isn't great, I've managed before without them but dd is now here there and everywhere and I'd feel much better being able to see properly. I hate wearing my glasses in there they steam up and if I do get splashed they are impossible to dry off.

I don't submerge my face at all, the worst is probably a splash to the face. I usually come out with dry hair and I'd take them out as soon as we get out.

I have prescription goggles for actual swimming but agree they are not much use for pottering in CP type pools if you have a very strong prescription as the peripheral vision is so bad, they also steam up and you have to keep them on till you can get back to where your glasses are (mine are -10 but my actual prescription is quite a bit stronger). It’s not great wandering round the poolside looking for your sunlounger in steamed up goggles. I tend to just wear my glasses in the pool for this type of activity, although can’t go on water slides. My contacts are monthly, I have taken a chance in the past, or worn them with blank goggles, but wouldn’t now. With daily disposables removed as soon as you are out of the pool I think you are probably minimising the risk as much as you can.

I have worn contact lenses for 30 years and never ever knew about not swimming with contact lenses! Always worn them monthly's better get some disposables ordered for the summer!

I would, and have done plenty of times in the past. If you wear disposables change them when you finish swimming.

I wear my contacts at Center Parcs and it’s fine when you’re pottering in the toddler areas, but I add goggles (with contacts) when I’m in the bigger pool as the older kids splash about and it saves me worrying about getting my face wet. (That’s what I meant about getting goggles - just pick up a standard pair for those times when you’re around more splashing).

I don’t think changing contacts afterwards makes much difference - I think it’s the risk of getting swimming pool water in your eye and trapped behind your contact that’s the issue??

@Heroicallyfound I think that's what I'll do. I don't need to wear them at all that day apart for the couple of hours in the pool. I can wear my glasses the rest of the time.

I have worn lenses in the pool for nearly 30 years, including multiple times down every slide at Center parcs.

Fuck being blind if I don’t need to be!

@swedex and @Taq 😂 I think I might be ok then for an hour or two then!

I wear my old glasses swimming. If you dunk them in the water they don't steam up!

But chlorine will damage any coating so don't wear the ones I need to wear daily just to see!

I also have prescription goggles. I struggle with them as have astigmatism and only brought some normal ones because of cost.

But they were £25 from spec savers.

My ds training goggles cost more than that because he's a swimmer!

I find this problem so annoying, more so when trying to work out what to do for eg water sports. I usually wear dailies for swimming with normal goggles on top for a holiday, otherwise I can’t see when I’m wandering about looking for cocktails or working out where the DC are.

In a swimming pool I wear prescription goggles and just keep wearing them until I get to the lockers - or take them off and hold them to my eye like a monocle and shuffle back to the changing rooms 😂

I've worn contacts for 23 years and have always worn them swimming - in pools and in the sea, UK and abroad. In fact, the reason I got contacts in the first place was for swimming and my opticians were fine with that at the time.

It's only been the last couple of years that I've noticed opticians giving a lecture about not wearing them swimming. I made the mistake of telling one a couple years ago at a lens check and you'd have sworn I told her I enjoyed dripping bleach in my eyeballs for fun 🙄

Now I just smile and nod, say oh no of course not whilst swimming, and continue to do it.

I also went for a period of 10 years or so where I wore night & day contacts (the ones you leave in your eyes for 30 days straight, including for sleep). And I also wore those swimming often. So never mind disposables, they stayed in my eyes for another few weeks!

I wouldn't do that now though, I stick to disposables after getting a really nasty eye infection with the night and day ones (although not swimming related).

I recently tried contacts and was told not to get them wet at all - no swimming and no showers etc. It's put me off buying them now really, as one of the reasons I wanted them was for exercise. If I do that relatively early in the morning, then I can't just have a shower and carry on with my day like I'd intended. I'd have to take the contacts out and go back to glasses for the rest of the day, which seems a waste of a pair. Or put a second pair in, and that's even more of a waste, 2 pair a day. Especially as I need reading glasses a lot of the time too. So I think I'll give up on the idea, as it's just not that practical, is it. My prescription is complicated, and disposables for it are very expensive, and not even showering in them makes them a bit pointless.

I have worn contacts swimming for over 20 years, ex club swimmer and when training wore goggles (prescription goggles were ££££ back then), in a pool with the kids now I still wear them as if I rub my eyes after getting splashed in the face one will inevitably fall out.

On holiday I tend to wear sunglasses rather than goggles unless properly swimming as they are mostly enough to keep the splash out.

I've been wearing contact lenses full time for about 30 years, and have swum in them and shower in them without any issues, so I would wear them without any question. Having also had a quick google it appears a lot of the risks are mitigated if you are taking them out straight after, as the increased risk is down to the lenses trapping bacteria etc in your eye. If you are not even getting your face wet I don't see the issue.

I’ve never heard that advice and that is your provider being extremely cautious. I know lots of lens wearers and they all shower in them I’d imagine- certainly never had anyone told me they don’t and I’ve been at spas and gyms with CL wearing friends and not seen them take them out.

As stated upthread I’ve worn lenses for over 30 years, put them in first thing and take them out at bedtime. I am obsessive about hand hygiene and change them after swimming baths but shower in them all the time. Never had an issue at all.

The risk is that the water gets between the lens and the eye so the fact that you use daily disposables and take them out after swimming is irrelevant.

It’s more than a standard eye infection that you are risking. The actual risk is a condition called acanthamoeba

https://www.moorfields.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/Acanthamoeba%20keratitis%20%28AK%29.pdf

its very painful and very serious. It can cause permanent blindness in the affected eye. Treatment is long and painful and involves having to wear an eye patch for many months to protect the eye from sunlight and it’s unlikely you would ever be able to tolerate wearing contact lenses again.

I had a friend who got it in a splash pool with her toddler - she absolutely does not thing it was worth the benefit of wearing her contact lenses on that day and is evangelical about telling others about the risks. Her treatment was long and arduous - she couldn’t work or drive for months and was in a lot of pain.

I've been wearing them full time for nearly 40 years and the advice from opticians has always been to not get water on them or in your eyes.

Mine are the sort you can sleep in and although I don't any more I did when the DCs were babies and waking in the night, so I was showering in them then, I do occasionally now too, but I stand with my back to the water and head tipped back to wash my hair so it doesn't run onto my face (use wet hands to wash face) and keep a towel or dry flannel to hand in case a bit does get near my eyes. It's very easy.

Nobody ever told me you weren’t supposed to wear them swimming. I have disposable contacts, and a swimming pool, never had a problem. I don’t submerge my head though.

Another daily disposable if swimming person - I hate glasses, and besides which, it seems a little bit dangerous to have them in a pool.

If you forget and open your eyes underwater they can float away, so also wear googles/don't go under.

I've been wearing contacts for nearly 30 years now, and maybe I've just been lucky, but touch wood, no problems so far.

The risk is that the water gets between the lens and the eye so the fact that you use daily disposables and take them out after swimming is irrelevant.

I don't think it is irrelevant - the infection needs to be 'held' there surely, otherwise you'd get it just from being splashed in the face too when not wearing lenses? Taking the lens out straight after means that the absolute maximum amount of time the water is in contact with your eye is the couple of hours you're in the pool - my kids definitely have their eyeballs in contact with water at a pool for that long too!

I agree it's a very serious infection - I know someone who had it - she got it following not changing her daily disposables every day though, and often sleeping in them.

@Choconutty the infection is caused by a parasite which is only found in water so either your friend had a different eye infection or she did not contract it in the way you say she did!

Having worked in an opticians and seen the first hand effects of acanthomeoba, I just will never ever take the risk again. Its not worth it.
Incredibly painful and can ruin at least a year of your life from the treatment and having to be in a dark room, and forget ever being able to wear contacts after contracting it- not to mention a high risk of losing vision in the infected eye.
Much rather have the inconvenience of a slight-blurry-have-to-wear-my-specs swimming pool experience than the alternative.

I'm about -10 in both eyes and they work brilliantly for me? I wouldn't be able to read in them but I can read the pool clock & recognise people, and they make my sight good enough.
In your case OP, I'd either wear my lenses or (preferably) glasses - once my glasses have warmed up to the temperature of the pool area they don't steam up, even in the jacuzzi pool

I always wear mine when swimming. Have done for 20 years. Lucky I suppose.

I always wear contacts in the pool. I've been a diver (high board) for 30 years, so have to wear contacts to do the sport. I still wear them in the water now all the time. And I still dive!

I understand the risk of infection is there, but only really if you don't take them out for hours after swimming, Just make sure you give your eyes time to breath and wear disposables.