Glasses for children

LEJC

I wore glasses from the age of 18 months...and had several operations to correct what was termed as a lazy eye the last one being at the age of 18...I never felt let down by my parents...I now dont need the glasses full time only for reading...childrens glasses are far more advanced in terms of style than they were in my day and my son tells me it now "cool to have glassses at school"..its accepted as part of life...thats the way you need to look at it...my son now wears a brace top and bottom on his teeth...again something which when I was at school a child would have been laughed at for having...but now apparently "thats cool too"....stop worrying about it and your son will become much more relaxed too...

mishkanorman

the drops arent pleasant, they dilute the pupils which allows a more accurate test, your child will become sensitive to light and will have blurry vision for a time afterwards. they sting a little when they first go in aswell.

try and get your head around the idea of him wearing glasses, your child WILL pick up on your feelings towards the situation.

Ive worn glasses since i was 7, wouldnt be without them now - i love the way i look in them.

As a previous poster has so bluntly put - theres so many more hurdles in life that really matter dont waste your time on this one. ESPECIALLY as you dont yet know if he even needs specs !


mishka


PS specsavers do the best range of kids glasses, my ds currently has some pretty funky garfield ones. Dont think its necessary to blow £100 getting him designers ones to balance out the massive disappointment of needing them, you will only re-enforce any negative attitude towards them - you will also end up paying several times over when they get broken !

gill_hc

DD1 aged 7 told me last week that she can't see properly when she is reading and the words are blurry. Cue trip to opticians for standard eye test which showed nothing so then she had to have the drops where they still couldn't find anything wrong which is another morning off school/work. Then I find out that one of her best friends has just got glasses and she wants some too !!

yummymummy1987_2

How did you DD seem with the drops Gill? That made me smile about your dd wanting glasses because of her friend. The children all copy each other so much at school!!! Good and bad
Mishka- I know there will be tons of hurdles but this is our first yet so it did make us upset.
We have been told its approx 10 weeks for a appt to come through so a while away yet!!

Kayteehee

I've worn glasses since i was seven, my teachers and parents made a fuss about how they made me look really intelligent, I was very chuffed to wear them! There's a lot of parents who god forbid find out their kids have life threatening illnesses and thankfully like you say your son is very healthy and well so you should be happy! :-)

tori.k

My boy was 2 yrs old and i felt rotten when the hospital optician said he couldn't see text the size of his hand at the time and his turn was so bad he needed an operation
but putting in perspective non of the doc's and health vistor's noticed anything wrong with him either and it wasn't untill he got to 2 that his turn became really apparent.
Just look at the positive side with him being 6 you probably wont have the nightmare of trying to keep a pair of spec's in piece for longer then 5 mins tho my advice would be to avoid the designer route untill he's keep's a pair in one piece for 12 months, the free frames look really good and the will be repaired/replaced for free, designer you have to pay for, and boy's will be boys could end costing an arm and a leg

Upyonder

Hi, my son is 5yrs old and in year 1 at school. The school nurse referred him to the hospital for further tests like your son. He had the eye drops in, there wasn't much too it, but their eyes can be sensitive afterwards as the pupils are dilated, so it may be more comfortable for your son if you take along sun glasses for him to wear after he has had the drops.
Like you I was initially upset that I hadn't picked up myself that my son needed glasses, but I was soon fine with it, and we really bigged up glasses and how great/cool he would be in his glasses, he was really excited about them. There are some lovely glasses out there that don't cost you a penny, we were issued with a prescription from the hospital and took it to our local optitions, we chose the glasses together, they really suit him.
My son now wears a patch 2 hours a day, as he has a stigma which this will hopefully correct. He is not too keen on it, but the boxes of patches come with stickers, so he can chose a sticker to put on his patch each day and this seems to make wearing the patch acceptable for him.
I hope all goes well at the hospital, maybe take along a lolly or something as a treat for after he has had the drops in, have fun choosing glasses that will suit him

mumps

Try not to worry. I noticed my son had a problem when he was two and he had two operations and lots of hospital visits until he was finally discharged at 11. He wore glasses from four or five, and he was in bifocals at six. He also had patches for several years, eventually he became allergic to the adhesive on the patches so that was fun. He also had drops daily for about a year. He came out of glasses at about 14 or 15 and now in his 30s and still doesn't need glasses. He was very sporty and broke glasses constantly, his consultant always said he didn't mind giving him extra prescriptions as he obviously wore his glasses.

I understand how you feel, I was upset too and to be honest it never helped me when people said other children had far worse things, this is your baby and you want everything to be perfect for him, it is natural. In a few weeks you will wonder why it worried you so much, I know it is hard now but it will settle down and you will think how cute he is in his glasses. Good luck with it all.

jackomdj

Link into an old thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1708247

Both my DD's wear glasses, started at 2 & almost 5. The youngest (now 3) is under the hospital & has drops a few times a year. Our eldest had one hospital appointment, but they are happy for her to be seen via the optician. Both of them have been fine with drops, although they can make the eyes a bit sore, I think because we don't make a big fuss they are happier about it. We did take sunglasses when she had it at the height of summer as the sun can effect their eyes.

Don't take it personally or get upset about it. It is just glasses & they can be quite trendy now. Our youngest has really bad eyesight as well as a bad quint if her glasses are off (actually at them moment we have just had an extra appointment & are waiting on new glasses as the squint has got worse & her glasses were not correcting it) but we make a bit of a joke about it & call it her "party trick" as her left eye goes right under her nose if she does not have glasses on.

Once your child has glasses you will notice just how common they are!

*onlyme*

My DD (aged 9) has worn glasses for 2 years and she was actually really excited about getting them as to her, they are a fashion accessory. You can get nice frames on the NHS or we paid some extra to have designer ones that she really wanted. She didn't want them cause they were designer, but she really liked the frame, colour and they suited her. We also bought her a 2nd pair a few months later so she can pick the ones she wants to wear.