Sensitive to light/the sun

[Marne]

Dd2 is covering her eyes more and more whilst outside, nursery asked me to send her in with sun glasses as she spends the whole of play time walking around with her eyes covered.

How do i get her to keep sun glasses on? i have tried normal sun glasses and the stay on for 2 minutes, i have ordered her some kidz banz (with elastic) but i'm not sure if she will tolerate the elastic around her head .

She loves playing outside, is there another solution or do we just keep trying the glasses?

I was going to suggest a hat with a big brim at the front, but that is probably inadequate.

That could work Fliight, i think she is more likely to keep a hat on rather than glasses. I will have a look at hats.

The optician prescribed tinted glasses for DS1, i think they are more comfortable than regular sun glasses because he wears them, and requests them now. He wears them indoors too as artificial light also causes him problems. He also insists on a hat and long sleeves.

dd2 used baseball caps as she had px glasses. she even cried when we went to the supermarket as the tube lights irritated her eyes... but it took until she became verbal for us to work out the cause lol. it was fairly obvious outside, so we put a hat on her, but we had no idea it was the supermarket strip lighting that was upsetting her...

she has a whole variety of baseball caps now - but the pink gap one is her favourite.

Worth looking at wraparound sunglasses/ones with a grey tint rather than brown (or vice-versa if you've tried brown and that's no good). I find it really scary to wear sunglasses as I get a bright outside bit to cope with round the glasses, then everything brown-tinted in the middle through the actual glass/plastic. My eyesight can't figure it out. Wraparounds in grey work better for me as it's more natural and you can't see round them.

I also tend to stay in the shade, but had to really think about that for years - it just never occurred to me to try it as a way to be outside but not get overloaded by the brightness of the sunlight.

Thank you,

Amber- the ones i have ordered are wrap around (so they don't let in any light around the edges), i will give them a go and see if she will keep them on. I guess once she understands what they are for maybe she will keep them on rather than cover her eyes.

I do think that, marne, DS1 really uses his well to help himself. His sleep has also really improved since he started wearing them. maybe worth asking your optician? We got a free pair (they are £36, I bought an additional pair to have a spare.)

I have never taken her to an optician , how do they do an eye check on a ASD child? I have always been to scared to take her, maybe i should book her in for next week.

The knack is to let us see where it is first, and meet the person who will do the test, and watch how it's done/practise it ourselves e.g. optician allows us to use a teddy or a doll and put glasses on them.
Letting us feel the frames before they touch our skin is hugely important sometimes too - otherwise it's ice cold really heavy hurty metal on my face and I have to remember not to panic and run.
And they need to be really really clear with instructions, otherwise "what can you see" will mean we list out the optician, our parent, the chair, the door, the light...

Really clear rules on what not to touch, too.

So, trial run, lots of pictures/practise, patient optician with understanding of ASC, let us try stuff first.

Thanks Amber, luckily one of dd's obsessions is Numbers and letters she will happily name letters when we point to them, it just depends what mood she is in on the day, she maybe more interested in looking at other things in the room or she might just switch off (which is what she often does when in a strange place), maybe they could test my eyes first so she can see whats happening before its her go.

Getting her hearing tested was a night-mare she spent most of the appointment screaming because it was in the same building as her nursery and she thought she was going to nursery .

dd2 found the optician terrifying. do warn her if they are going to turn the lights off

these days she goes no bother, but as we are there aevery three months it's water off a duck's back...