If your child wears contact lenses

[Soubriquet]

How old where they when they started?

dd is 11 and is now wanting to stop wearing her glasses. She is squeamish about wearing contact lenses though

I started at 13. I think it depends on the child.
My concerns would be:
Why is she wanting to stop wearing glasses? She should still wear glasses, e.g. when she takes them out, if she has an eye infection etc. Is her not wanting to wear glasses going to lead to her wearing lenses when really she shouldn't and should be giving her eyes a rest from them? I am very bad for this and basically done leave the house wearing glasses. It's not healthy and I think you should encourage her to not completely give up glasses.

Hows her hygiene generally. She will need to be fastidious keeping them clean. Especially if she's removing them at school (swimming, showers etc)

Looking back, I wish I'd been encouraged to wear my glasses more often and think that I was probably too young to wear them all the time. I can't drive in my glasses, only wearing lenses. I literally never leave the house in glasses. I wear contacts in the pool and don't change til I get home...

Thank you for everything you said. I’m not sure why. I’ll have to really ask her. She’s someone who has to wear her glasses all the time, so I think it’s just wanting a break from them

Ds started at 12, we've been strict from day 1. They come out after school and he has at least 1 or 2 days a week without them.

I started aged 14, I think that's about right. Contact lenses are much more comfortable and easy to use now - over 40 years later!

My daughter wears eye dream lenses, you wear them at night and they change the shape of your eye so you don’t need to wear glasses or lenses during the day. She’s been wearing them since she was 11 and although a bit tricky to get used to they work well as she doesn’t wear them out of the house and doesn’t need to worry about swimming, playing sports or losing them at school.

I would take some specialist ophthalmic advice rather than anecdotal, because eye health has general guidelines, but also specifics according to the individual.

I was about 19 when I started and then, in middle age with lots of computer screen usage and air conditioned offices, developed severe dry eye. So I feel there's a balance to be found between the immediate needs and wants and long term eye care. MGD and dry eye are on the rise across the population, so something to bear in mind.

Perhaps if you decide to go ahead daily disposables would be a good consideration, once you have a special contact lens prescription you can order them online cheaper and just pay for an annual contact lens examination in addition to the regular eye test.

my daughter was 12, said we needed the.lm for sport. She loves the. And has never looked back …. My son was 13, tried them a few times and is ambivalent

both use daily disposables which saves the worry of having to clean them overnight

My boys started wearing them at around 13, I think. It was a massive confidence boost for them.

My son started wearing them a couple of months ago he's is 11 and in Y6.
He wears them everyday for school but takes them out when he gets home and doesn't wear them at the weekend.

Specsavers offer a contact lense lesson and if it goes well a free 2 week trial to see how they get on.

Ds took to them really well but he was really desperate to make it work. He's worn glasses since he was 5 but recently was become more reluctant to wear them.

I started at 15 over 35 years ago and have never looked back, I have a strong short sighted prescription and I love them.
DC has just started them age 13 at her request as playing winter sports in driving rain was becoming a nuisance and affecting her ability to play due to rain on her glasses giving poor visibility. She was totally against swapping to lenses for ages due to finding the idea icky but she does a lot of outdoor activity and lenses should be more practical in bad weather. She has the myopia control glasses and lenses which are supposed to massively reduce short sightedness getting worse - they are worth looking into if your DC is short sighted.

Ds was 13 - completely his idea and he drove it. It took him three separate lessons at specsavers. I am really squeamish so i said he had to be completely independent.

if your dd is squeamish I can’t see how it will work.

Tell her that she can have lenses when she can put her (washed!) finger on her eyeball and hold it there for 3 seconds. Because that's pretty much what you have to be able to do to get them in. She can start practicing this today.

You can’t order children’s lenses online. It’s (thankfully) illegal. They need keeping a careful eye on.

I’ve fitted a lot of children with contact lenses. Youngest was about 8 - but I’d only really fit then it there was a clinical reason. The majority of my younger patients would wear them during the school day only and take them out and swap to glasses at home. Or wear them for sports only.

11 year old girls are often good candidates. Getting her to practice touching her eye lids with clean hands and when she’s confident with that book an assessment with your optician.

Look at ortho-K or similar lenses, OP. They’re horrible to start with but once they get used to it, it’s a great thing to only have to wear them at night.

Ok thanks for all the advice. She actually has an appointment on Friday at specsavers so I’ll speak to them whilst we are there

Just started at 14yo

Been straightforward.
Responsible
Really think depends on the child!

Mine started at 8 or 9 with those myopia control contacts. 11 is not too young. They prescribe daily disposable for children. It’s much more comfortable and easier to care for than monthly or permanent from my youth.

I have never had my finger on my eye for 3 seconds in 40 years of wearing contacts, the finger just dabs in with the lens very quickly (although several goes may be needed at first) and then you can squeeze them out again with your eyelids. I started at 17 but that was only as late as that because rigid gas permeables were normal back then and a pair needed to last at least a year and it took till that age for my prescription to settle enough. Now with disposables prescriptions can be changed whenever needed and I know a few DCs who have worn them since early secondary school age. You do need to keep an up-to-date pair of glasses though, you shouldn’t wear lenses all the time and hygiene is crucial, you should never swim or shower in them for example.

My dd had a trial with specsavers when she was 11. She struggled to get them out and said she felt them on her eyes and hated them so she gave up on the idea! I'm sure she will try again with them in a few months.

My daughter got daily disposables at 10 but she mainly just wears them for ballet shows and parties, sometimes the odd day at school if she wants. She has lovely glasses she feels good in and prescription sunglasses too, so it's her choice. She's 13 now and generally a box of 30 lenses lasts six months!

My son started just before he went to secondary school, so aged 11. He’d tried and loved wearing mine so was really keen.

He’d been teased about his glasses at primary so used to avoid wearing them.

He wears daily disposables.

My DS was about 13 and sport was the main driver for him. It took him several sessions at the opticians to learn and initially getting them in and out was time consuming and a bit stressful but after a few weeks he'd got it sorted and he's never looked back. They're (literally!) a game changer for sports and not having to regularly replace broken glasses has probably more than covered the additional costs of contact lenses!

Both my sons started around 8/9 originally just for sports but after a few check ups at their hospital they pretty much began to wear them a lot more.

She had just turned 10. She has autism, needed glasses, but absolutely would not wear them. We paid for private exposure therapy to try to acclimate her to glasses, but it was an utter failure.

So she got daily disposable contacts. She is careful with hygiene, but I was only going to trust a 10 year old so far. Washing her hands and learning to put them in was enough without needing to worry about her cleaning them properly.

My son who is 12 has been wearing them for a few months now. He wears them to slow the progression of his short sight so they're not for cosmetic reasons. After a slightly fraught start he is absolutely fine with them which has amazed me really. Because he wears daily disposables the only hygiene consideration is that he washes his hands before he puts them in. My advice would be to find a contact lens practitioner who has experience of working with children - it makes all the difference 😃