He’s devastated he has to wear glasses

[Clearinguptheclutter]

yes it’s really not that big a deal I know but how he feels.

ds2 (9) was recently told by optician he is short sighted and needs to wear glasses, ideally all the time. This came as no surprise to me or dh who had a similar story as a child and ds1 has also been wearing since he was 8. All of us wear almost all the time now.

it might as well be the end of the world for ds2 (very well behaved kid generally but quite sensitive). We didn’t make him wear them a lot in the holidays but now are saying he needs to wear at school (I’m fine with him taking them off for break times and sport). He’s only got a slight prescription at the moment so thinks he can get away without which is technically true but of course that will just hasten further deterioration.

anyway we are somewhat flummoxed because he’s just crying his eyes out after school now because we told the (lovely) teacher to remind him to put them on. And cried himself to sleep last night. This morning he is refusing to take them to school. I’ve told him he can have contacts and even laser surgery when he’s older but for now he just needs to get used to it and I’ve promised it’s fine once you do get used to it. But he’s just not having it.

any advice appreciated.

(Ps lots of his friends wear glasses too so he def won’t be the odd one out)

A friend told me about this. Sounds expensive but will look into it

My son was 6 when he first got his and absolutely refused to wear them at school at first.

We just made sure he took them with him and made him wear them at home for TV etc.

He soon realised that it was better to wear them and did it off his own bat. He started wearing them all day before too long.

Both my kids have the contacts, my daughter's prescription is stable from 11-13 has not really changed. (Half a step in one eye). She would not wear her glasses at school (secondary school) and kept having them on and off . I know specsavers say they have much younger kids use them, it's very well monitored x

Thanks for all the responses. He is much happier today since we have agree that, for now he just wears them when he needs to for distance (going against the optician’s view) which today happened to be not at all. I think we are just going to have to ease him into it gently, especially at home as he seems a bit less self conscious about that.

encouraging to know that some children ended up not needing at all when older and others’ prescription has remained stable, I thought it was a given that his eyesight would worsen. Not necessarily it seems.

He will get over it….both my boys wore them from age 8 ….they quickly got used to them…..my DD was very upset that she didn’t need them ….I think she thought she was missing out

I’d do some research into another optician locally who you can a) get some more advice from, and b) let him choose some glasses and be spoken to about it all by the optician.
I think if he really hates them then just leave him be. I have glasses and hate them and it’s fine. I don’t wear them and it’s really fine, It sounds quite normalised in your family. Give him some slack now at this age- I doubt very much he needs to wear them all of the time, probs my not comfortable and feel awkward. I also definitely don’t think not wearing them makes anything worse!!! Get him some contacts as soon as he’s old enough and they’re really required. It’s quite a personal thing and they’re not for everyone.

My DS was 7 when first prescribed and although he wasn't crying and didn't admit he didn't like it, it was obvious he didn't as we went through a lot of difficulties. He kept 'losing' them conveniently or breaking them. He's very active so would toss them about, have no care for them and we have been through about 12 pairs in 3 years! He knows now he should wear them and he goes through phases of wearing them and then phases of us having to remind him constantly. He needs them for reading, screens and classroom learning which in one way makes it more difficult as it's the taking on and off and thinking he's 'fine without them' because he doesn't need them when playing sports or just being out and about. Don't be too disheartened, many young kids go through this but it's important to encourage a lot of the time and point out lots of others who wear them.

My son’s friend is 8 and just started wearing contacts- he is a full time glasses wearer as he is very short sighted. I was surprised as I used to wear daily contacts before I got my eyes lasered and thought 8 would be quite young for them but he tolerates them really well and finds it so much better for sport. So that could be an option although I think he would need to get used to his glasses too so he has both choices

Why don’t you just get him contacts?

If your child is short sighted you can get contact lenses which prevent it from getting worse. They're called MSight lenses and it might be worth talking to the optician about them. He can also have daily disposable lenses www.visionexpress.com/contact-lenses/children-and-contact-lenses

I think you haven’t either read or understood it.
the paper talks about the progression of myopia at differing ages with just 13 individuals, there is no comparison with people who have been under/ uncorrected.

There have been a lot of studies on undercorrecting myopia and it enhances progression. There are a lot of papers, but this meta-analysis shows the majority of them if you scroll down to refs,
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7752985/

Yes. As I say, it’s clearly very badly worded. The conclusion of this paper, as written, would lead me to believe that “delaying correction” ie delaying wearing glasses “will delay the myopia linear decline” ie delay your eyesight from getting worse, “resulting in less final myopia” ie resulting in better eye sight.

it’s odd that they’ve written it in this way, when as you say, it doesn’t mean that at all.