To think that it's really not hard to get a kid to wear their specs?

[Despairbunny]

I work in an opticians & have lost count of the amount of times parents say to me "He/she just won't wear them." Um....tell them to?

I am both a glasses wearer & parent to a kid who wear specs. Dd might not always like wearing her specs, but if I tell her to, she would!

AIBU & judgy? I work with a lot of dc who are on the autistic spectrum or who have a variety of SEN & yet it's never Those Kids who have issues!

I was a child in high school with glasses.. I would say forgot them, would rather not see the board than wear them. In the end my mum got me contact lenses.

I still don't like wearing my glasses.

My sister, fiancé, and I all have severe myopia. We were prescribed glasses at seven, five, and five respectively. It's easy to be compliant when glasses mean you can see things that you never could see before.

My DS (age 7) has about 6 pairs of glasses to choose from, so he's happy to wear them.
He has his regular ones given to him by the local optician, plus I order several more pairs online...cheap as chips for super good quality. He picks the styles he wants so has a sporty pair, camo ones, red ones, blue ones etc.

Certainly helps with him wearing them daily without a battle.

I had to wear glasses as a child (4-7 years.... some 40 years ago) and hated every minute of it... they slipped off and got in the way of stuff and I would take them off and leave them in places and get in trouble...
My mother was always on my case and is otherwise known as Sgt Maj Bossy Mum... and I was quite an obedient child and still hated them...
So to the OP... it's not always that easy to get a child, who has an opinion on the matter and hates them, to wear them. x

I am an optician, and the last couple of years I've noticed the opposite trend. Children, and even some adults, who do not need glasses want them. They are seen now as a fashion accessory.

When there is a child patient who is a glasses refuser it could be that they don't like the style of the frame, which often happens if they did not get to make the final choice on the frame.

Depending on the child's age, contact lenses are an option, and often better for sports.

Just so you are aware buying glasses online for children is a very bad idea, they are only supposed to be dispensed under supervision of a GOC registered Optician. I appreciate that he may want different styles and they can cost from a 'proper' Optician but they really do have have to be measured and fitted correctly to a child (well anyone really)

My DS got glasses at 2.3. We bribed him with chocolate buttons to get them on the first day. The second day, we confiscated his thomas until they were on. Never had a problem since, and now he's nearly 3 he puts them straight on in the morning. I think it helps that dh and i both wear them too.

my son was 2 in feb, got his glasses the week before his 2nd birthday. We have the odd occasion where he takes them off, but we enforce it. He needs to wear his glasses. Took him a day or two to get used to them but he's pretty good.

We do have the odd occasion where we have to tell him to put them on if he's removed them, but 99% of the time he puts them on and keeps them on, even at nursery, they have no problems.

We could be lucky, or it could be because we are quite strict with him keeping them on. He needs them to see, that's fairly essential!

I think most parents don't understand why it matters. I've been told that DD must wear them at all times, but thinking back I'm not sure the consequences have ever been explained.

ie 'It isn't just so she can see clearly now. (Which would allow for the 'if she's cold she'll wear her coat' line of reasoning). The visual system is still developing until the age of about 6. If she wears her glasses now, her visual system (Ie the brain bit) has a better chance of developing correctly. If she doesn't wear them, then she will never see properly (in one eye) even with glasses, and after a certain age it won't be possible to fix that. This would significantly increase her risk of going fully blind at some point in her life.

I think doctors shy away from telling a parent such stark truths. It makes me want to cry just writing it, and I probably would have if they'd said it - even though I am someone who understands probabilities and uncertainties.

But fact remains that a more chilled out parent might not have done the research I have, and might not realise that it REALLY, REALLY matters to wear the glasses.

And whilst I'm at it, why isn't there more awareness of the need to get pre-schoolers eyes tested? It's even free here (uk). All you need to do is book the appointment and go. And you could save your child's vision. Yet it isn't on people's radars at all.

Depends on the child and age.

My dd was 1.5 when she was prescribed glasses, there was no way we could keep them on her. It was a case of just putting them on her about 70 times a day (not exaggerating).

Then she eventually just accepted them, would even ask for them some mornings. Then a patch was prescribed, so we started patching her which was a nightmare and completely undid all the progress we had made with the glasses as she started then refusing her glasses again!

Now she is 3.5 and loves her glasses, still won't wear a patch though and has only just (last week) complied in her optometrist appointment. finally!!

The glasses are never going to be good enough on thier own, her sight in one eye is absolutely awful, but she will not wear a patch, no amount of telling her she has to will work!

I think it's easier said than done especially if it's when they are at school as they basically do as they please . My ds was supposed to wear hearing aids from age 6.5 yrs , he didn't want the NHS Ines so always had the tiny ITC ones , by the time he was 9 we were finding he was just taking them out and by 12 he'd stopped wearing them altogether . He got new ones when he started his teacher training and now wears them at school only , they are always back in their box by the time he gets home . I would imagine glasses are just as hard to police .

Honestly, as the child who didnt wear her specs all the time, i couldnt be bothered to fight with my own dcs if they had ever needed them.

When Igot my glasses, I clearly needed at school to read on the board. But anything else fine wo them. No headache. I didnt feel like my vision was so weird, i couldnt see.
So i wore them at school but more or less never out of school.
As my view deteriorated, i wore them more and more.

Im very happy that my mum didn't have your outlook and left me alone tbh.

Note: im not talking about glasses there to correct the position of the eye etc... but glasses need to see clearly.

It's illegal for glasses to be sold for a person under 16 online.

An optician will correctly measure & fit the spectacles to ensure perfect fit & comfort. If the spectacles need adjusting, an optician is happy to do

Online sellers can not measure the PD, or check the frame fits correctly. They can not adjust the spectacles if needed.

I was incredibly short sighted from an early age. I also had a very controlling mother who forced me to wear glasses...while she was around. As soon as I was through the school gates the glasses were off and in my pocket until 3.30pm.

Not being able to see was a great improvement on being bullied for being 'speccy foureyes' or 'Joe 90'. It did hold me back academically, I was considered special needs for a long time when in fact I now know I am clever , but it was worth it to me at that stage of my life.

I was told by an ophthalmologist if your child won't keep their glasses on either the frame is uncomfortable (pp have commented on them slipping off or being loose or breaking them) or the prescription isn't right (either the glasses are making the vision more blurry or not clear enough).

Once you get the frame and prescription right the vast majority of the population will wear their glasses without complaint.

Experience has told me this is the case when my dc haven't wanted to wear their glasses they've either outgrown the frames and so have become uncomfortable or their prescription has altered.

Yes my DD has a risk of going blind and cant see in one eye becsuse she couldn't do patching.

bluePeppers

im not talking about glasses there to correct the position of the eye etc... but glasses need to see clearly.

Thank God it didn't have a negative effect on your education!

Honestly, your post is a wonderful example of why children should wear glasses.

Cross post re bullying issue could be style of frame still a frame issue.

It depends on the child I think. My daughter has had hers since she was toddler and was always fantastic at wearing, for the simple reason she can see better. We did struggle with patching to start with ( she was only 2) she does no problem now as she can understand it will help her eyes, having put one on to help encourage I can see why she didnt want on as disconcerting. We know a few children who break or 'loose' glasses quite alot as they dont like though. I think it helped she got to have princess glasses and she sees myself and her dad wear glasses so not a huge deal

some children are just more stubborn than others, is that so hard to understand?

I am thankful ds2 doesn't need glasses as there is no way I could make him wear them. He was given a hearing aid that not even the audiologist managed to insert ONCE, he was so non compliant.

My daughter has needed glasses from age 4. She has always worn them without any issue, and would never be without them.

My son was prescribed glasses at age 12 and told to wear them for everything except PE/sports. He is incredibly disorganised/forgetful and has lost or broken 4 pairs in the last year. Because he is at school much of the day (7.40am-4.30pm) I am not there to enforce glasses wearing. I know he takes them off and is almost never wearing them when he comes home. At weekends he plays lots of sport so only wears them about half the time.

His optician has explained very clearly to him how his eyes will continue to get worse if he doesn't wear his glasses every day. Hubby and I tell him every day to put his glasses on when he is at home, and he then will. But it is at school when he needs them most, and we simply aren't there to enforce it. He either won't wear them or takes them off after PE and then forgets to put them back on, or leaves them in the changing room/on the sports field/on the bus. So his eyes get worse. At secondary age (year 8) it's not up to his various teachers to police this - he needs to be responsible for himself. He isn't, but as I am not there, I'm not sure how I am supposed to fix it.

I wore glasses as a child in order to correct a squint and lazy eye I don't ever remember it being optional-nor were the patches or eye drops. I now have excellent vision requiring no glasses at all.

It isn't an option so don't bloody make it one! Otherwise you'll end up like my dad who can't see sweet FA without his glasses and he had the EXACT same prescriptions as me as a child.

Depends on the age of the child

Ds1 has worn glasses since he was 3

And yes he wore them when i was around

When he was at school i had no control over him

My DD is extremely stubborn but due to a squint she has needed glasses since the age of 3. Without her glasses she goes cross eyed and has terrible headaches. She was bribed with chocolate buttons.

maybe glasses are easier to enforce when the need is greatest

All children are different. DS2 will grumble but do it, whatever 'it' is, with enough encouragement/ insistence/ outright threats. DS1 will say no and mean no and will make whatever the issue is, the hill he is prepared to die on. DS3 is 2 so I have no real idea yet as to which way he will go.