When’s the right age for your child to have an eye test? What about wearing lenses or sunglasses? Share your thoughts with Specsavers - you could win £250 NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

Back in November, Specsavers commissioned a survey of MNers with a child aged 2 to 12 to find out what age parents thought children should have their first eye test.

The average age given by MNers was 3. Specsavers advises children have their first eye test at age 3 – because "Learning difficulties can sometimes be caused by uncorrected vision problems, so the earlier they can be detected, the better the chance of correcting them" say Specsavers.

The average age given by MNers was 15 for first wearing contact lenses – in fact Specsavers say they can be worn from age 10 - "we often find children quickly enjoy the many benefits of wearing contacts from a young age."

And for sunglasses – MNers thought they should be worn on sunny days from age 2 – Specavers says "many people aren't aware of the dangers UV rays can have on the health of your eyes - we'd recommend all children wear sunglasses on a sunny day!"

Please share your thoughts on the above on this thread - would you let your pre-teen have contacts, have you taken your school aged child for an eye test and how do you keep sunnies on your toddler when they are having fun in the sun!?

Add your thoughts to this thread and you'll 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

as regards contact lenses- my child had them from age 15 thanks to Specsavers.

I think around 3 is a good age to go for their first eye test and for lenses I think between 11 or 12. My little one is one when I tried to put some cute toddlers sunglasses on but she wasn't having it and kept taking it off, so for sunglasses 3 or 4 if they will keep it on.

Even 3 is a long time to wait when you know that your child's eyes need correction.

i would say aged three upwards and make wearing sunglasses on a sunny day normal

From experience, I would say it is never too early & don't rely on the school visit to be good enough.
My son had his eyes tested, with the rest of his class in school when he was 5. We were told he had no problems Over the next year or so, we became a little concerned that he sometimes squinted his eyes. We took him to SpecSavers & they told us that his eyesight was very bad & he would need glasses his whole life.
We collected the glasses a week later, he immediately put them on & never had an issue getting used to them.
He came home from school the next day giddy with excitement. Mummy I can SEE the whiteboard!! I was heartbroken, I never knew that he couldn't see the whiteboard.
Get your childs eye tested as soon as you think they are capable, don't put yourself through the guilt that I did, waiting till he was six & then being horrified that I had missed this

I would suggest 3/4 years but the sooner the better my son had his eyes tested at school and everything was fine. However 2 years later I took him to the opticians and now he wears glasses for life.

If you have any concerns definitely go sooner rather than later. My brother has been wearing glasses since he was 18 months old as my mum noticed he was bumping into corners of furniture when toddling about the house.

I would say age 3 for eye tests. Sunglasses should be worn from very young, baby banz are great for young babies. I wouldn't recommend contact lenses until teenage years

We took both ours at 3 years old and in both cases (different) problems were spotted, which were then sorted out. These were both problems that would have been harder to deal with if they had waited until later.

It meant they started school, reading, and all the other things that happen at that age with glasses/other treatment already sorted.

We now all go annually, without fail to make sure all is still good. My MIL's life was saved by going for a routine eye check up, so the whole family is quite twitchy about ocular matters!

I am a life long glasses/lenses wearer so it was fairly high on my radar to check them out anyway as young children. This wasn't something offered either by NHS or School, we had to do this for ourselves. I wonder how come there isn't a standard pre school eye type check for children?

I didn't realise that children's eyes could be tested at a young age until at the age of 4 my son was struggling to read & astigmatism was diagnosed!
Had I known it could have been diagnosed & treated sooner.

Just saw the bit about sunglasses.

I feel eye tests should be done as soon as possible about 6 months or even earlier if there are concerns. If no concerns then do it at age 2.

Contact lenses I wouldn't start before age 13 and then too depending on the maturity of the child.

Sunglasses well if the baby allows it on their eyes then from as soon as they are out in sunlight. Mine won't let any on her face and she is just turned 1. I would wait for 2 years. I avoid sunlight and make her wear wide brimmed hats.
(No sun atm so it is moot point)

Both my daughters had eye tests early (1 or 2 maybe), the sort the HV does because I wore glasses young. But for a proper eye test the eldest had one at 4 just before she started school. My youngest (now 4) will have one at Easter.

For keeping sunglasses on again 3 or 4 is about right, but we still get through a lot of pairs. My children can be a little rough!

I think contacts are probably ok to use from 15 or 16. Personally I prefer to wear glasses.

I think just before school is a good time for a first eye test if there haven't been any obvious issues beforehand. Learning to read and write is hard enough without having to deal with a vision problem too.

Neither of mine have had their eyes tested yet! :-/

DD is 4 and DS is 7, both are very advanced with reading etc. I suppose I always thought it would seem obvious if they had sight problems because they would struggle... thinking on it, we may just pop to the opticians this weekend! :)

My son started wearing sunglasses at age 2. He is now 3 and has yet to have an eye-test, but may have it done when my husband and I got in for our eye tests.

I would say about 3 years old, I personally can imagine it would be very difficult to get a child to wear contacts but luckily I don't have to think about that just yet

I took mine from about 4 years old, and even then my son had a condition they failed to spot, and now at 18 he is practically blind in one eye, so very important that you go sooner rather than later

I have 2 DDs aged 2 and nearly 4 and haven't taken them to opticians yet. I think I will take the older one soon. 2 year old refuses even to have her feet measured so might wait until she is a bit older. I had a squint as a child but neither of them have one. This thread has reminded me to take them though.

Must add my older DD wears sunglasses and likes wearing them. Younger one wont wear them at all.

my son had an eye test at school in reception age 5 and they found a problem with his right eye. it is slightly weaker than the left and he has to wear glassed to correct it. i think it is good to get their eyes tested young and wish i had done it myself sooner. he now goes to the optician every six months for a check up and sometimes new glasses.
I think 10 is probably the earliest i would let my child have contact lenses as i would worry about them keeping them clean or losing them. He likes his glasses now and looks forward to choosing new frames.

From personal experience I would say earlier the better, not sure if I could put an age on it, but if it wasn't for us taking 2 of our daughters very early they wouldn't have had their eye problems picked up quick enough to treat, from very early when my first daughter was drinking fluids we noticed she had a problem with her eye but it was in fact the opticians who noticed and mentioned that she had 3 eye problems, one of which was Marcus Gunn Syndrome (jaw winking). We were able to get her glasses to do with her other 2 sight problems and she had her glasses patched to help with sight in one eye and then hospital appointments followed, not only did she have marcus gunn but also our last daughter too which is very rare in siblings so hospital wanted to do a case study on them, if it wasn't for the early eye tests it would have been picked up a lot later, so I would back a very early age for them to get their eye tests done after all not just eye sight problems can be picked up but other stuff too.

I'll just add here that if you are worried about your preschoolers eyes or there are family members with strong glasses then you should always ask your health visitor if orthoptic screening is done in your area. Specsavers should not be the first port of call for a preschooler!

I took my son for his first sight test aged 2, mainly because I wanted him to get used to going at a young age before fears start to creep in. It worked very well. :)

I have extreme myopia which was only picked up when I started school and the teachers realised I couldn't see the blackboard (this was in the 1970s). I started wearing contacts at the age of 10 or 11 - in the days when hard lenses were the only option (nothing breathable or disposable back then). To be honest I don't remember having any problems putting them in or taking them out, although I do remember having problems with soft lenses in my 30s because they were so damn big! I went back to hard lenses which is what I've stuck with.

It is clearly a genetic issue in my family (a cousin had similar issues), so I have had my children's eyes tested from age 3 or 4, although I have always been aware of the potential problem so was aware of what they could and couldn't see from an early age.

Oh, and I agree with what barleysugar says - my children have always been seen by my own specialist independent optician.