Share your top tips on getting your child to wear their specs with Specsavers: you could win a £250 voucher NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

The team at Specsavers know all about fitting specs and getting the correct prescription but would love to know from parents how you go about ensuring your child wears their specs when they need to.

They say "At Specsavers we have great deals on glasses for kids: all in our kids’ £64 and teens’ £85 ranges are free with under-16s’ NHS funding. And now, Specsavers will give you a second pair from the £64 or £85 range, free. Both pairs can come with SuperTough Trivex® single vision lenses with a scratch-resistant treatment. Or you can choose to have tinted prescription lenses and UV filter free in your second pair. We also have a fantastic range of children’s glasses to choose from, with fun designs including Moshi Monsters, Disney Princess, Star Wars, LEGO®, The Simpsons and many more.".

So, whether you have a spec wearing toddler, teen or any age in between please share on this thread your tips to ensure the glasses are on their noses when they should be!

Share your thoughts and everyone who does will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £250 voucher from here

Please note Specsavers may use your comments - anon of course - on their pages on MN, on their social media or possibly elsewhere - please only post if you're happy with this.

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

We've never made a big thing out of wearing glasses. They've always been able to choose which glasses they like and told why it's important to look after your eyes & vision. Probably helps that we both wear them as well.

Mine don't wear glasses but I do know that the best way to get them to do anything is to let them be actively involved in both the selection and purchase of any item. They love to be listened to and their opinions taken into account.

my niece has peppa pig ones which she loves and is happy to wear.

We watch a lot of Harry Potter dvds!

I wear glasses too so when my daughter sees me wearing mine and feeling confident, she is happy to wear hers too.

Let them try on as many frames as they want, don't rush them and let them choose. Girls like to know they are trendy so some pics of celebs in their specs might also help.
My little girl has had to wear specs all her life as she has severe eye problems and is actually partially sighted. She sometimes loves her glasses and sometimes hates them. The only way to keep her happy and wearing them is lots of positive encouragement and compliments and giving her choice to take them off when she has really had enough.

My youngest had to wear glasses from about age 4. He had to wear a patch over one eye as well for a while but he was always very good and never really complained. My husband and I both wear glasses so maybe it wasn't anything different for him.

Let them decorate the frames with stick on embellishments. It's better than them not wearing any and it's fun for them. Only cheap-ish plain pairs of course :)

It really helps when celebrities wear their specs in public, most kids want to be like their hero, so come on celebs help us out ; )

My DS has had to wear his since he was 2 (now 6) as his eyesight is really bad. He has no problems keeping them on but we have problems with other kids at school taking them off and twice now them have been broken beyond repair. Specsavers got us replacements very quickly though.

A cool colourful pair and I wear mine, so my son sees them as normal.

Two words: Harry Potter

for us it was fairly easy as DS realised he was struggling to read the board in class. The only thing we did to smooth the process was to point out how well some of his friends/relatives looked wearing their specs. By the time his arrived he was comfortable with the idea and slipped into wearng them without any issues

let him choose the glasses and make him or her feel good and special "wo they look so good on you" oooh youll be the swavest boy in school. things like that.let them choose the glasses and give them confidence when they are doing it.dont make it seem like a medication or a bad thing.right from the start just play it as someting they do because they do.
play it by ear.be aware perhaps though if people have been teased at their shcoools for it and they are or might be worried by this.

DS1 wear his religiously. maybe being ASD helps, he knows he needs to wear them for a reason. hes worn them full time since he was 3. I wear mine full time though, and feel comfortable in glasses, like him, so maybe its a family thing.

however ds2 is a nightmare. hes had reading glasses for 2 years. he wont wear them, he makes excuses, and tbh the school give up pushing him now. hes due another eye test soon where I hope he either needs them full time or not at all. wearing them part time seems tk be the issue and im keen tomread the comments here for ideas! we tried the spiderman etc, but tbh the up to ten range in specsavers just dont come up big enough. hes 6 and finds them tight and ds1 has been in the teen range for two years aged 8. means that they want moshi monster etc but they just don't fit. maybe specsavers could look at this?!

buy them stylish ones x

Ds1 has/had glasses*. He was desperate to have them so getting him to wear them wasn't a problem.

However the optician told him he needed to wear them when he was looking at the board at schooL, but not for reading and writing. Of course he took this literally and would put his glasses on, look at the board, take them off and write a few words, put them on to look at the board again etc etc. This was all taking rather a lot of time and his teacher told him to keep them on so he told her the optician said only when je was looking at the board.

When he next had his eyes tested they said he didn't need glasses anymore so the problem was resolved.

*The reason I say had/has is because he has had his eyes tested again since then. Despite his prescription not changing from when he was told he didn't need to wear glasses anymore, they once again gave him some, telling him to wear them if he needs them. At the age of 9 he said he never needed them on and hasn't worn them in over a year.

Oh just to add (sorry) I let him pick his own glasses (with a little help) and gave him lots of compliments about how handsome he looked :)

My 8 year old son has had to wear specs since he was about 5, I never had a problem with him wearing them which was a surprise as i thought he would just take them off, I think the key is to not make a big deal out of them, my 6 year old son wishes he could wear them too but he does not need specs so probably makes my 8 year old son feel like he has one over his younger brother hehe

It´s been said before but getting a pair that they really like (aka the more expensive ones) seems to be the way to go. I was desperately looking for cheaper version of the chosen ones on the shelves but admitted defeat. She does wear them though. Getting her to keep them in the case when she is not using them (she is longsighted so uses for school and TV) is another matter..,

Glasses are pretty "cool" nowadays, many of the kids in my family actually want glasses! My son is 11 months old and he doesn't wear glasses yet, of course, but I do and he loves when I mine on him for a second. So much so that I have popped the lenses out of my old pair so now he likes to.play with and wear the frames

My 7 year old has been wearing glasses for 2 years now.

We went for a bright pair of blue and green pair of ray bans.

They are super cool and everyone comments on them. He's really proud wearing them, as he get lots of attention.
My advice is get something Fun and bold that no one has. Don't always go for cheap and fragile as they break easily.

Your child has to be happy wearing them.

One very happy Mummy

DS1 and DS2 have always been a bit hit and miss with wearing their glasses. As they've got older, they have just got better at wearing them, as they realise they make life easier.

DS3 has to wear his glasses all the time and does so willingly, partly because he can barely see without them (he takes them off last thing at night and reaches for them as soon as he wakes up in the morning) and partly as he is a huge Harry Potter fan. Lots of strangers have commented that he looks like Harry and of course this thrills him. So, thanks J,K. Rowling

Getting a new item of clothing they like at the same time as the glasses so they just think its a shopping day and the glasses are just something like pants they put on everyday!

Told him he looks like Harry Potter!