How to help your child transition from glasses to contact lenses
Contacts can be a great option for children between the ages of eight and twelve years old. Whether your kid is practicing a bicycle kick at soccer practice, peering down at the sheet music as they play the violin, or learning how to whip up a warm pot of gumbo--contacts may be the more flexible eyecare option. As does anything else new, transitioning from glasses to contacts comes with a bit of a learning curve. Below are six tips to help your child transition to contacts with confidence!
Start with the basics
The basics of contact care are easy to overlook but are vital to contact-wearing success. Your child's eye doctor should go through these steps, but it's good to regularly review them with your child.
- Wash your hands before handling your contacts--we love singing the choruses from Sweet Caroline or Shake it Off to ensure a 20-second wash.
- Never wear your contacts to sleep, swim, or shower. We repeat, never wear your contacts to sleep, swim, or shower. One more time? Never wear your contacts to sleep, swim, or shower.
- Store your contacts with fresh solution after every wear. It's like fresh sheets for your contacts <happy sigh>.
- Change your contacts for a new pair as recommended by your doctor. No commentary needed: listen to your doctor's counsel.
Take it slow
Switching from glasses to contacts can take some getting used to--kinda like learning to balance on two wheels instead of four. We highly recommend keeping your child's eyeglasses handy as they'll likely still use them for a little bit. For example, we don't recommend your child's first day of wearing contacts be on a school field trip day. They may only wear their contacts for a few hours on the first day and that's great! Slowly but surely, they can transition from a few hours of wear to most of the day.
Supervise
In the beginning it's best to be with your child as they put in and remove their contact lenses. Ensure they're taking proper care of the lenses and getting the hang of the processes. Our personal favorite videos on YouTube give great instructions on putting contacts in and removing them.
Be patient
Wearing contacts can take some getting used to. They take some practice putting in and taking out, and your child might feel them in their eye when they first start wearing them. Just as patience perfects that golden roasted marshmallow, it's also extremely helpful in making the glasses to contacts transition more pleasant.
Try daily disposable contacts
Daily disposable lenses are a great option for children. Dailies ensure kids get a fresh, sterile pair of contacts every morning without having to worry how well they cleaned them. Instead of storing the contacts after wear the contacts go straight into the garbage--so long solution and contact cases! Ask your eye doctor if daily contacts are good fit for your child.
Have your eye doctor on speed dial
Jokes. You don't need to have your eye doctor on speed dial, but we do recommend meeting with them once a year as your child's vision may change with age. Contact lens tip: if your child's prescription changes and you still have unopened contacts, give us a call and we'll happily take those back and send you replacements with their new prescription.
Good luck with the switch and in the words of Nacho Libre, "You can do it."