HawthorneVillager.com

Good afternoon all,

Quick question for parents with <2yr old with glasses. One of our twin boys just received his first prescription today. My question is, how did you get your child to wear glasses? He is near sighted, so from what the Ophthalmologist said his vision in his right eye needs a correction of -5.5 and -1.5 in the left. I myself have a correction of -1.5 so I can only imagine the sight struggle this little guy is having. Glasses are ordered and will be ready in a week, but he won't even where a hat so I don't know how we can get him to wear glasses. Suggestions?

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Kelly
Amesbury

Growing up, I lived a couple of doors down from a family who had twins with eye troubles. The used the elastic head gear things to keep the glasses on. Kind of like the sport band thing, but I think they were a bit thicker/stonger.

My best friend just went through this in the fall with her 2.5 year old daughter who has a similar problem as your son. She ordered some fun chains (like the granny chains) to hold the glasses around her daughter's neck with fishes, teddy bears, trucks, etc. to make it more fun.

Here are some examples:
http://stores.ebay.com/EyeWearStraps/Ch ... 2078055011

Also, my friend had everyone in their lives who would see her daughter at a party or come to their house wear glasses if they had them. Their optometrist said that if she saw important people in her life wearing glasses it would enforce that it was "cool" to wear glasses.

The optometrist also said that once her daughter saw how wearing the glasses could help her see better and make that visual connection, she would wear the glasses (and keep them on) of her own accord.

Of course all that being said, she wears them about half the time. She is a toddler after all with a determined mind of her own.

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Been there, done that -- spent a mint on kids glasses.

Our son is almost 3 and has been wearing glasses since 1 yo so I can completely understand what you are going through. He's between a -6 and -7 so even worse.. its amazing the kid can see without his glasses and you'll soon see how comfortable they can be with glasses. Our ophthamologist works out of sick kids and credit valley so we go to CV to see him. Being a boy and a rather destructive one at times, we've had to flip through 2 different models.

Something like this is what he wears now.. probably from 18 months or 20 months onwards. They are super light, super strong (titanum) and freaking expensive:
http://www.viziooptic.com/designer-eyeg ... 15448.aspx

I don't know the exact model.. but its close to that.. costs $450 or so bucks but worth it. They also come with 2 year warranty so if your son twists them into origami, they will just pull another frame off the shelf and swap them out.

Before that, we were using miraflex, which we still use as his backup pair:
http://www.miraflex.info/catalog/basic/guideNew.htm

They are more like $250-300 range, only have 1 year warranty but the best part of them is they have a strap. To me, they are the perfect learning glasses. Pretty strong being plastic and will stay on their heads. Also they come in bright colours so if he/she drops them, or in our case flings them off, you might have a hope in finding them. Only downside is they don't have nosepieces (good when really young, not great when 2+) and they are thick and heavier than the Lindbergs

We were fortunate that we can hit insurance on my and my wife's insurance. Also check your policy.. hers is something like $300 every 2 years. Mine is like $250 but it is every year for under 18. This is a huge plus as they grow.

We found with the miraflex, he was keeping them on regularly after about 1-2 months. After probably 8 months, he kept them on 24/7. Now at almost 3 and for the past 6 months he is very careful about his classes -- folding them nicely away when he goes to bed, making sure the glass is up not facing down.

We love the Lindbergs.. but dang are they pricy. Tried to see if I could find them for less $ but ended up still going back to Credit Valley optical mostly for the good service.

http://www.creditvalleyoptical.com/

They have a good colour selection of both and can order in off a swatch if you don't like what they have in store. You can also do two tone on the Lindberg (I think we have blue/green on this pair). I only deal with Lily there, she is amazing. In fact I'll call to make sure she is working the day I am coming -- I literally ask for their store hours and if she isn't answering (she says her name when she answers the phone) I call back the next day.

If you have any questions, let me know.

Sounds like we see the same doctor! Also ordered the lindberg glasses. We are hoping to just put the glasses on him and then distract him with his favorite show bubble guppies and play with toys so he doesn't focus on the glasses. Expensive, you damn right, $350 for frames and $140 per lense, but did get a $170 discount which helps. I have coverage for $300 every two years, which is better than a sharp stick in the eye.

Thanks for your thoughts, if I have any more questions as we go, I'll make sure to post.

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Kelly
Amesbury