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

Dd1 was only 2 when she got her first glasses and the only child in the nursery with glasses. We had a word with the nursery and the staff were wonderful. She had a key worker who she adored who wore glasses and everyone made a big fuss of her. It helped that the glasses were Disney Princess glasses too! Friends and relatives all got their glasses out and wore them to show that it was a grown up thing to do! She quickly got into the habit of wearing them. We do still have battles but generally if you get them on first thing in the morning she forgets that they are there.

I've always made the selection of the actual glasses a really big event. A big build up, the decision on which glasses being my DDs and then we celebrate the choice afterward. I take a photo of my DD in them and show her while we are waiting for collection so she can get used to her seeing herself in them. So far she has been wearing them quite happily.

Just making sure they are comfortable and not too tight fitting.

We have made the whole experience positive, interesting, technical and allow him to see 'the world' effectively. It was a great delight to choose from the many frames now available, they are funky, superhero inspired with plenty of colour choice to make him look wonderful.
The modern 'opticians like Specsavers should be proud of their range'

Really try to get him to look at Harry Potter as a role model, well, probably a better role model than most! (Except from all the killing and stuff...).

I have 3 dc in glasses and they've all worn them from about 10ish months old. Never had problem with them wearing them think they realised that they could actually see! Their vision is really poor my oldest being the worst +12.75 but been that since being a baby and not got an worse so grateful for that. I did have a slight problem with oldest dd when she got them she had just learnt to walk and when she would fall over they would slip down/fall off. I solved the problem with a spec savers adjustable elastic sports band best thing ever invented in my opinion stops expensive glasses from getting broken. Since then a band has been worn at all times by all children even in the shower/bath lol.

We used Harry Potter as an inspiration

three of my kids have had glasess and one has now stopped, they love to go to have their eyes checked and choose new glasses, and they mostly wear them for concentration work but they are more than happy to go to specsavers for new glasses especially when broken or lost, I am quite amazed at their excitement!

We made a collage of bespectacled movie stars, cartoon characters & sports players! This showed him that LOADS of people wear specs, even superman! :)

To wear them for Santa so they can read who the presents are from!

Nowdays the specs you can get fro children are great try to find ones with a character your child likes and don't make it a huge issue, make it fun :)

I allow my daughter to browse and choose the style of glasses she likes best (even if I do not agree!) I give her the freedom to make her own choice - after all, she has to be the one to wear them. Being able to make that decision makes her feel grown up and she sees glasses as something that makes her mature and responsible as she knows she also has to look after them carefully.

Ok so my baby has a pair of sunglasses that I wanted her to wear on particularly sunny days. I found she pulled them off to play with them as soon as they were on her face - I found that by letting her play with mine she seemed to forget she was wearing some herself!

The best tips would have to be curly soft sides for tinies (my son wore glasses from 18 months) and then Spiderman (or other super hero) for everything else. When my son was very small, he didn't seem to realise that he was wearing glasses and we had no problems at all. Then he got a little older and they were always the easiest (and often first) thing to be thrown in a tantrum. Then from 3-5 he was easily impressed with superheroes - we had a variety. Now at 7 he's very definite in his likes & dislikes - I just go along to fittings to nod in the appropriate places - luckily he has good taste!

When my daughter was small, along with needing to wear spectacles, she also had a lazy eye.

To correct the problems, she needed to wear a patch and spectacles, and absolutely hated wearing both!

We tried patching her teddy and doll to encourage her to wear them, even tried putting specs on the dog! She was not impressed! Neither was the dog.

It was only when her best friend at school also had to wear glasses that she decided it was 'cool' to wear them, and there was no turning back.

DS doesn't need to be reminded to wear his glasses, he can't see much without them and certainly wouldn't be able to play the xbox. But I think a matter-of-fact attitude to the wearing of glasses from the family helps, and also the fact that it's not so uncool these days.

My son is a superman fan, we had to big up the fact that Clark Kent wears glasses so therefore wearing glasses makes you a superhero! Took a while but worked in the ebd

I do not think that there is a stigmatism attached to glasses like there use to be. Choosing a pair that they really like and that are robust enough is important ! Obviously the usual pics of celebs always helps to give the right image and for older children light reactive lenses help as they look more like sunglasses too

A three pronged approach - 1) Consistently reminding him that wearing glasses now means stronger eyes later in life. 2) Telling him how handsome he looks in his specs! 3) Finding a positive glasses-wearing role model. Graham Coxon in my son's case.

I would say try getting them to do so me thing they can't, i.e. If long sited then ask them to read something further away and verse verser, then when they can't do it ask them to put the glasses on and show them the helpfulness of glasses :)

DS had to wear glasses from when he was 4 and should really have had them from birth - he is very long sighted. He wears them as he is extremely logical and he was told to wear them so he does. DDs have both worn glasses since they were about 8 and have always been very good about wearing them as they can't see clearly without them. Both girls have wear contact lenses on the days they have sport/ballet/gymnastics but always have at least one glasses day a week.

My daughter is 12 and has worn glasses for the last year. To be honest I don't need to get her to wear them as she can see the differences with and without them.
Glasses are fashionable now compared to when we were younger so choosing a new pair is exciting for her.

Show pics and videos of other kids to make them seem its normal

No specs for my DD yet but I expect she may need some in the future as her dad and I both wear glasses. When the time comes, I'll let her choose a frame she loves, then it shouldn't be a problem.

never had an issue wearing them. Hes 7 so that may change. Helps that they are star wars and friends comment how cool they are.