Children and contact lenses

At first glance, the words ‘contact lenses’ and ‘children’ may not seem to belong in the same sentence. However, contact lenses and children as young as eight often go together very well.

In general, as long they do not need contacts for medical reasons, doctors wait until children are teenagers; but the key factor is the child's sense of responsibility.

Children who can handle the responsibility of having and caring for contact lenses take to them very naturally. The reasons why include:

• Children adapt to new things quickly, including contact lenses.
• They tend to follow instructions somewhat better than adults.
• Children tend to have fewer complications of lens wear than adults! If problems do arise, children typically heal faster.

Is your child ready for contacts?

The most important key to safety and success with contact lenses and children is parents' accurate assessment of their child's sense of responsibility. Your child will need to:

• Be mature enough to tolerate contacts -- and recognise and want the benefit of not wearing glasses.
• Be responsible enough to follow the eye specialist’s instructions for contact lens use and care exactly, day after day.

So ... is your child the right age to wear contact lenses?

If you think the answer may be yes, first consider how well he or she handles other responsibilities. Ask yourself this: Does your child regularly do assigned tasks like making his bed, cleaning her room, or feeding the dog without needing to be reminded (at least not very often!)?

If so, then you have some assurance that a visit to the eye specialist for a contact lens evaluation for your child will not be in vain. If not, it may be too soon for the responsibility of having contact lenses. You can always reconsider at a later date.

How wearing contacts could benefit your child

For children, contact lenses can have these important benefits:

• Better optics -- for better vision -- than glasses. This is especially true of some types of contacts (for example, rigid gas permeable lenses).
• Better peripheral (side) vision.
• A possible slowdown of worsening vision. If your child is short-sighted, consider fitting him or her with rigid contact lenses. According to some eye specialists, this may help slow the progression of short-sightedness (myopia), which most often develops between the ages of eight and 16.
• Improve your child's confidence. Many children would rather not wear glasses at school. They may think they look ‘funny’ or ‘different’. Some children find themselves victims of other children's teasing. The change in appearance with wearing contact lenses can give a big boost to a child's self-esteem. This might lead to better school performance.
• Increased safety. Wearing contacts may actually be safer than wearing glasses for playing sports. All sports lenses should be made of impact-resistant polycarbonate. However, glass frames can break, hurting athletic performance and maybe the child as well.