does your teen wear contacts

[genington]

Dc (14) is keen to switch to contact lenses. He has been wearing glasses since year 7 and they annoy him especially playing football but in general he doesn't like them.

If your younger teens are using contact lenses, how responsible are they with them own terms of hygiene and are they able to pu them in and out without help? My eldest child tried contact lenses when he was 15 but freaked out over the idea of having to insert them and the training session at the optician got him nowhere so he stuck with glasses.

Just wondering how other young people manage this.

My 13 year old wears them. At the beginning i was putting them in but now they have the hang of it. I've stressed the importance of hand hygiene when applying them and removing them of course. Also explained not to wear them in the shower and when swimming. He understands and no problems thus far!

Mine started wearing lenses in the summer before year 7. He had tried my daily disposable so I knew he’d be find inserting and removing. No issues at all, but also no cleaning required as he has dailies. He’s actually far more fastidious than I am about hand hygiene and wearing them in the shower.

I have worn them since I was a young teen. They were difficult to get the hang of at first but fine after a while. Get him daily ones so he doesn’t need to worry about cleaning and storing them. Do try to make sure he has a few contact lens free days a week and takes a break in the mornings/evenings, as I’ve had other issues arise from wearing them daily morning to night.

I’ve had them since I was 13, no issues once I got used to getting them in and out. That’s the tricky bit! As others have said, dailies are probably easier than cleaning them - I’m still on monthly ones but I’ve also got decades of experience in looking after them now!

My DS has worn them since he was 14. He's 25 now and laughs about how worked up and frustrated he used to get when trying to put them in in the early days. All was fine, never had any issues with hygiene or other problems. He has always had monthly ones.

I’ve worn contact lenses since a teenager. I started with dailies and then moved to monthlies before going back to dailies,

id try dailies as he’ll get used to having to take them out every night. Yes it’s weird at first putting them in but it soon because a second nature

My daughter started wearing contact lenses about that age, and it has been fine, though agree with others and recommend going for dailies if you can.

I have had to wear glasses since primary school and it made such a difference to move to contact lenses when I was a teenager, so there wasn't any debate from me!

I used to work in the contact lens department of an opticians, we had pre/young teens onwards.

depending on prescription, dailies would probably be better.
stress hand hygiene.
and he should be able to insert and remove them himself, with no help from you. We never used to allow a trial to take place if they couldn’t.

My DS has had them since 14. He got them from specsavers, they do as many training sessions as it takes for someone to be able to put them in and take them out independently. They didn't issue the contacts until they had seen him do it confidently a few times, he must of had at around 6 teach sessions with them and when he said he must have needed the most sessions he was told he wasn't and it was pretty standard. I've had no involvement with the contacts, I'm very squeamish about eyes so couldn't assist him. He has got on absolutely fine doing it by himslef for 4 years now.

I had contact lenses when I was 14, a very long time ago. I managed the care of them myself and I recall the optician telling me about the importance of cleaning them. I struggled with putting them in and out so I had gas permeable hard ones rather than soft and took them out with an orange little suction tube thing. No idea if that's still an option. Or perhaps try a different optician this time? Some people are better at explaining how to do things than others.

I moved to them for a long time.

I had daily ones. I think they are much better re hygiene. In all the time I wore them maybe about 5 years I never had issues with infections.

I did hurt my eye once not putting them in carefully. It was really itchy and unpleasant and I had to use anesthetic eye drops. Not an experience I am keen to repeat.

They can be unpleasant if they fall apart in your eye. This can happen if you accidentally rub your eyes and degrade them so they fall to bits.

They can get off your pupil and move around your eyeball into funny places. This does not happen a lot as the way they are shaped tends to keep them on the eyeball and they are actually quite difficult to move off as they dry out onto the eyeball.

They can be difficult to get out if your eyes are dry. The best way I found to do this is to wet your eye with water before you take them out, which gets them all mobile and easy to take out, but you should never do this before you put them in (normally you don't need to as the fluid in which they are packaged in acts as a lubricant). Of course this was with dailies that were thrown away. tapwater+contacts=bad. Maybe eye drops would be better.

Final thing is they are not supposed to be worn all the time. Check the oxygen levels they allow to get to the cornea, the more oxygen the better. But I found over time I wanted to keep them in for a very long time and didn't realise the oxygen issue. It didn't do me any damage but now I always look for the ones with the highest perm.

Pretty much the sum of my experience.

Yes DD started wearing them at that age, took some getting used to. The first try them on session the optician was a little impatient and she couldn't get it. She's autistic and squeamish about her eyes.
She tried again , the lady was more patient and she got the hang of them.

Used to take concentration /a mirror to put them in and now it takes seconds.

I was reluctant for for her to start wearing them but worked out fine and they were helpful for sports etc. She wears them most days now. No regrets.

Thank you everyone. I'll book an appointment for him.

My daughter has worn MiSight contact lenses since she was 11, as she developed progressive myopia during the Covid lockdowns. She did not want them, but they were necessary to stop / slow down the progression, and they have done so over the last 5 years very successfully. She has been very careful with them and had no trouble with her eyes as a result. She has checks every 6 months to make sure there is no damage to her eyes.

When she was first advised that lenses were the best option to slow the progression, she nearly passed out and refused to have them, as she has a bit of a phobia about eyes. She would turn white and be on the verge of passing out just from eye check ups and to be honest, I thought lenses were not a really a possibility for her. She has never allowed an optician to put them in or take them out for her, and we went through an embarrassing amount of lenses at the trial appointment for her to get them, but she managed it in the end. She has said that she couldn't be without them now, as they give her so much freedom. She is meticulous about the hygiene, because she knows how distressing treatment would be for any complications.

Good luck!

I've had contacts since I was about 11 and it definitely wasn't the best idea. I just wasn't mature enough. I left them in too long depriving the eye of oxygen. This meant I've had permanent blood vessels right at the surface. Also nearly 30 years on they're now uncomfortable in my eyes which the optician has told me is because they're not designed for long term use. If it was my child, I'd advise just for sport atm.

My DS started wearing contact lenses at 10. They are the myopia control lenses so are daily disposables which makes it easier hygiene wise.

It was a hard slog. There was a lot of frustration on his part as it takes a lot of practice. It's definitely a skill and I spent many hours sat in the opticians just waiting for it to click. He got there in the end and it was definitely worth it. Makes it much easier for playing sport and he likes that he can wear sunglasses now.

My DD 14 wears them and finds them fine. She had a ton of instruction at the opticians at her first contacts appointment and they wouldn't let her go until she'd put them in totally independently at least a couple of times.

Keeping them away from tap water such as to shower and swim is the most important thing; there's some bug in it that can turn nasty if it gets trapped in your eye.

My daughter wears them with no issues. It took a few appts to get them in. Its getting over that blink when you get near, but once she did it she was fine and now pops them in and out.

My dd had to wear them for football matches from age 9, no glasses allowed. Took her two sessions at the opticians to learn how, and it used to be a frustrating 20 minutes before matches while she struggled to get them in.

She was good about hygiene etc, but partly because she much prefers her glasses. So she only ever wears lenses when it’s that or not being able to see (rollercoasters and sport, basically).

Both of mine (and me) wear daily disposables. It’s fine. Took them a week or so to get the knack but they just pop them in and out now —and wear clear glasses over the top 🤦🏻‍♀️—