In a world that’s obsessed with looking the part, it’s no wonder that children are beginning to ask to wear contacts at earlier and earlier ages. This gives way to parental concerns about whether or not their child is old enough for contact lenses.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a patent answer for that. Much like the question of when is a child old enough to stay home alone, the answer varies from one child to the next – often even within the same family.
As parents, you know your child better than anyone else does. Only you can determine if there are enough signs present to indicate that your child is or is not ready for the responsibility that comes along with wearing contact lenses on a daily basis.
Signs Your Child May Be Ready for Contacts
For the most part, the contact lens question doesn’t arise until children are in their teens or tweens. As they get into more competitive sports and find that glasses obstruct their vision or feel pressured by friends to ditch their glasses in favor of contacts, older children and younger teens typically begin bringing up the contact lenses question.
To some degree, the fact that they’re showing interest is a sign in itself, albeit a small one. When they broach the subject, make sure you ask why your child wants to make this change, and listen to the answer. If it sounds reasonable, it may be a sign that your child is mature enough and ready to wear contact lenses.
The next step is to further assess the maturity factor. Is your child mature enough to follow the doctor’s instructions about the proper wearing, cleaning, and care of contacts from day to day? Failing to properly care for contacts can lead to infections, vision problems, and lost or torn contact lenses.
WebMD recommends that parents consider how well their children handle other responsibilities as an indicator of how well they will respond to the responsibilities of wearing contact lenses. Does your child handle his or her responsibilities well without being constantly reminded to do them? If so, contact lenses might be a good solution.
Potential Benefits of Wearing Contact Lenses for Children
There are actually several benefits children who wear contact lenses experience over those who do not, including: better for sports, no fogging when entering buildings on rainy or cold days, improved self-esteem, and better peripheral or side vision.
In some cases, when students are taking off their glasses at school to hide them, wearing contact lenses can also lead to improved concentration in their classes.
Choosing the Right Contacts
Once you decide to go with contact lenses for your child, the next step is to choose the right brand and lens. The process of daily removing and cleaning of contacts might be difficult to children first adapting to the new demands of contact lenses, which makes daily disposable lenses like Dailies Total 1 an excellent choice.
Daily disposable contact lenses like Dailies Total 1 do not require messy contact solutions, complicated cleaning processes, or massive fears over losing an expensive lens. They can be thrown out each night and your child can start over with a new pair each morning. It’s even a simple matter to carry around spare pairs of lenses so that there’s no need to return home when lens mishaps occur.
From a parental perspective, there’s much to be said about going with a gentle disposable contact lens like Dailies Total 1. Among them is that it’s gentle enough for teens to wear comfortably all day long and the disposability and daily changes mean fewer risks to the eyes of children and teens who are wearing them.
Contact lenses might be a worrisome choice for parents to make for their children and teens, but taking the time to decide if it’s the right choice can make a world of difference for your child, and possibly help to establish a lifetime of positive eye care habits and routines.