Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh ...... Glasses/specs at 12 months .... how on earth are you supposed to get them to stay on???

[TheRealGabster]

Basically, there's not much more to it than that. My DD1 is 12 months old and has been prescribed glasses. We have been trying for about a week but she just pulls them off within a few seconds. It's driving me nuts!

Longest they have been on is for about 90 seconds so far and that was using the old "distract" technique .... which involes DS1 running around and making stupid faces (which keeps him occuppied too so it's win win!) or walking her round the garden.

I offer them to her first and if she clearly doesn't want them I haven't pushed it as I don't see the point in pinning her down/don't want to make an negative associations (IYKWIM).

I wear glasses as do my parents (who we see regularly) and lots of friends we see on a daily basis.

Has anybody got any first hand experience type suggestions on what to do/how to motivate her to wear them? Not sure bribery really going to work at this age and I am all out of ideas now :-(

The only experience I have is with sun hats, which involves putting it on when she doesn't notice (eg when she's concentrating on climbing up steps or something) and keeping her busy for a little while immediately afterwards, but I suspect as they are in her field of vision it might not work.

Apparently you can get bands that secure the glasses to the head.

I've only seen babies with bands around the back of the head to keep them on.

My ds had them from 6months.

We used a sports band to secure them.

You can also get ones with special arms that curl around the ears, but that didn't work with ds.

Curled sides or a sports band.

www.whattoexpect.com/wom/toddler/getting-my-1-year-old-to-wear-glasses-was-harder-on-me-than-it-was-for-her.aspx

My youngest had glasses from 13 months. It took a good 2 weeks of the constantly taking them off all the time. I just kept putting them back on and distracting all day every day. If she cried then I left it 15 mins or so. Give her something really really fun to look at and hold like your phone and put the glasses on once she is looking at it.
After 2-3 weeks when I was starting to lose hope she would ever keep them on we went to the zoo and she kept them on for a good chunk of time as we were looking at animals. From then on the time gradually increased each day until only a couple of weeks later she was wearing them all the time.
I got my older boys fake glasses off amazon to wear for fun which helped too.
Now my daughter is 3 and she puts her glasses back on at bed time as soon as I leave the room, she loves them :-)

DS had these from about 15 months ( he is 36 now) the sides ended in loops that we had th thread elastic through. From what I remember it took a couple of weeks for him to realise that he could actually see better with them on !

My dd wore them from 10 months. We used sports bands and/or hair bands. The worst thing was when she realised she could drop them from the buggy if she felt aggrieved - like getting in buggy, not being allowed unlimited sweets, etc. Me and the two DS spent hours retracing steps looking for them including a memorable day at Tintern Abbey visiting gift shops, cafés, etc leaving our contact details and then finding them abandoned just by the car. Also once she hated her new glasses - took me 1 day to realise that the optician had reversed her prescription. Right eye on her left and vice versa IFYSWIM. Poor thing couldn't see anything. Good luck

Awwwwwwwwww!!!! I would LOVE to see a photo of the glasses on! Babies in glasses is just adorable!!!

Just remembered. I also gave up contact lenses and went back to wearing glasses so she could be like Mummy.

shapebandit that's fantastic to hear, thank you. Gives me courage to just keep on at it.

Thanks everybody who mentioned bands - but the optician was adamant that the band he gave me is NOT for keeping them on, but to stop her chucking them out the buggy when she wants to. In fact when I put the band on it makes her more determined to detach it and then show me how clever she has been! lol. She's been much more receptive to them when I leave it off.

And the glasses have curls on the ears to keep them on ... in fact I think we have done everything.

Oh grannycake poor DS with the prescriptions reversed! well done for spotting it. And yes, my DD has already worked out she can "chuck" them and they don't come back. Clever little thing.

Thanks everyone who replied .... I feel I have the courage to persevere now. And I suppose I have another 2 weeks to go by the sound of it so I need to suck it up then! lol.

Can I ask how you knew your baby needed glasses? I got glasses when I was about 5 after headaches and getting into trouble at school because I couldn't see the work. I'm rather assuming my DS will need them (everyone in my family has dreadful eyesight) but wasn't sure when (and how) you test infants' eyesight. He's 7 months.

My DD (youngest child) didn't follow me with her eyes and often rolled her left eye. I was referred to the Opthalmology department and they discovered she had a macula haemorrhage in one eye and was very long sighted in the other. The macula haemorrhage is quite rare in children so for a few years we used to visit the opthalmology training clinic in the university (Cardiff) for students to practice diagnosis. She used to love that as they rewarded her with raisins. They also paid travel expenses

Forgot to say they had many ingenious ways of checking the sight - using toys, looking at pictures through machines, but she will be 30 this year so it seems a v long time ago. Still go with her to choose new frames as she can't see herself properly without the prescription lenses (prob end up paying as well!)

I had contact lenses from 3mo to 18mo....you can imagine the fun my parents had with those!

Oh Mouseymum that doesn't sound anything like fun!

But to answer Splendide .... my DD has congenital cateracts in both eyes and I also noticed one eye seems to close slightly and roll and I have a strong family history of "lazy eye" ... so she has regular checks and eye tests at the Eye Clinic at the Hospital to monitor them.

They watch how interested she is in a succession of pictures and cards, then they put drops in her eyes to dilate them and measure the refraction using different lenses .... a bit like the eye test we all have but they actually look at the back of her eye instead of asking her to say "better" or "worse" lol!

The Consultant has now decided the one eye is definitely getting strong than the other and her eyesite generally isn't developing so we are hoping the glasses will help, otherwise I am assuming we will have to patch or operate .... and I am dreading the other probably future diagnosis ... that both cataracts will need to be removed. It's a worry so glassess and definitely lower impact at the moment!

Anyone got stories about those two operations whilst we are on the subjects?????

As a child I had glasses from 18m and they had curled ends on to hook around the ears... Like these....