Signs that Show Your Child is Ready for Contacts

Contact lenses offer a number of positive benefits when compared against prescribing glasses and improved peripheral vision is just one of the plus points, but before you move over to contacts, you need to be sure that your child is ready for wearing them.

Natural resistance

The traditional response from many parents when they are told that their child needs help with their vision is to consider ordering a pair of glasses and there is a natural resistance to choosing contacts instead. Whilst this is perfectly understandable, there are actually a good number of situations where your child would be better wearing contact lenses over glasses, you just need to evaluate if they are ready for the commitment involved in wearing them.

Taking responsibility

Some younger children may be considered too young to be able to take on the responsibility of wearing contact lenses but it is well worth asking yourself a number of pertinent questions as their parent, to see if they could handle the situation better than some people might give them credit for. A general guide as to their state of readiness would be whether your child could be entrusted to wash their hands before touching their eyes or the lenses, if they can take out the contacts every night before bed, can be taught how to store and sterilise contacts effectively and display competence in being able to take out the lenses whenever they need to.

Daily disposables

Contact lens specialist Lenstore UK consider that using daily disposable contacts for your child is an excellent option for younger children as it removes the chore and responsibility of storing and disinfecting the lenses, as you would simply discard each set each day and start again with a new set the following day. This makes it much easier for children to cope with contacts and if they are using daily disposables, they soon learn the knack of removing and inserting them.

Dealing with problems

There are occasional issues that need addressing when wearing contacts and another good indication of how well prepared your child is can be taken from their ability to understand when there might be a problem. Your child needs to have an awareness that will lead them to take out the lenses immediately if their vision becomes blurred of their eyes start to hurt for some reason. Some children are more prone to eye infections than others, but it is their ability to recognise the need to take remedial action that is a good indication of their suitability and maturity for handling the wearing of contacts.

Improved confidence

Growing up can sometimes be a difficult process especially when a child feels self-conscious about how they look, especially when they have to change their appearance by wearing glasses. Contact lenses allow a child to retain more of their original identity and this can help then with improved confidence when they are prescribed contacts rather than glasses.

Only you as a parent can really know if your child is ready for contacts but many show great maturity and understanding when presented with the task of wearing contact lenses, so be prepared to give them a good opportunity to demonstrate their suitability.

Chelsea Miller is an eye care specialist that enjoys working with children of all ages. She mainly writes for children’s eye care and health blogs.

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