Tips to Help Your Child Wear Their Glasses

So your child has glasses….now what? It’s time to wear them! After over a year of having a child in glasses, we’ve learned a few things that hopefully will help you get your child to actually wear those frames!

 

1. Let your child pick out their glasses. This may seem simple, but letting them pick whatever frames they want is a huge key to helping your child not only wear their glasses but also LOVE their glasses. Now, this was not simple for me. I’m pretty controlling when it comes to what my kids wear….and when we learned for the first time that my (at the time four year old) would need glasses, I was 100% not prepared. In my mind, she would pick a simple, pale pink pair of glasses that would coordinate with her entire wardrobe. But I pretty quickly learned I was totally wrong. Because picking out glasses should be fun! And exciting! And when you are a four year old little girl that means picking out the loudest, brightest, most special pair of glasses there ever was. So my advice to you is just let them pick. You (and the person helping you) can be picky about fit and size but the actual color and patter of the frames should be 100% up to your child. You’ll know they’ve found the right ones when they act like Sadie is acting in the photo above. Her first pair of glasses were bright pink with bright flowers all over them. She squealed when she put them on! They were not what I would have picked. But they made her SO happy. And she totally knew better than me. Because they turned out so cute.

 

2. Shop around if need be. You do NOT have to buy glasses from your eye doctor or the first place you look! The first time we picked out glasses we totally lucked out and found a pair my daughter loved that day. But I have since learned that it’s not always that easy. Do not settle for a pair of glasses your child doesn’t really love. Shop around, go to other doctor’s offices to try on pairs and overall advocate for your child. I’ve been to places that bent over backwards to make sure Sadie was happy, and I’ve also been to places that acted like their hands were tied and they didn’t really care to help us find the perfect pair. It’s okay to leave!

 

3. Shop online! There are so many options available online for children’s glasses. We are huge fans of Jonas Paul Eyewear. They will send your child a box of several pairs of frames to try on from the comfort of your own home! Sadie loved doing this and I was really happy with how easy it was to order her glasses. The pair she’s wearing above are the Jonas Paul “Maddie” frames in the “grape tortoise” color.

 

4. Cheer them on. Once your child’s glasses arrive, now is the time for you to become their biggest cheerleader. Encourage them and praise them when they wear their glasses….even if it’s just for a few minutes a day. When your child is learning to wear their glasses, it for sure will take some time for them to get used to them. Start of with a small goal, like wearing glasses for 10 minutes at a time. If they need a break, that’s fine! Just lots and lots of positive re-inforcement when they wear their glasses, and try not to make a big deal about it when they take them off. Teach your child to put their glasses in a case when they aren’t wearing them so that they don’t accidentally get stepped on or lost. Taking them off and putting them in the case is fun for little kids, so just let them have their fun. Eventually the novelty of the case and glasses will wear off. And eventually they will start to understand that they see better when they wear their glasses. Be patient, it just takes some time! If your child is really young, I recommend a strap that goes around the back of their head to keep their glasses on. Your eye doctor should be able to recommend one to you. (Sadie was old enough to understand so we never had to use a strap, so I don’t have one to recommend to you, sorry!).

 

5. Read some books about glasses! When Sadie first got glasses we read a few books to help her (and her siblings) understand. We really liked I Can See Just Fine and Douglas, You Need Glasses!

 

6. Get a pair of glasses for their doll or stuffed animal. We got a pair of glasses for Sadie’s American girl doll to wear too and it was a huge hit! Having a doll that looks like your child is a fun way to help make the transition to wearing glasses a little be easier.  This is the doll pair we have (fits 18″ dolls) and this rose gold pair is so cute too!

 

7. If you, or anyone else in your family, wears glasses then make sure you wear them too! I do not wear glasses but my husband does. When Sadie first got her glasses, instead of wearing contacts all the time he wore his frames instead. We talked a lot about how her eyes were just like Daddy’s. They both need a little extra help to see better. And how her siblings eye’s were more like mommy’s. Both kinds of eyes are perfect and just how God made them, they are just different from each other. And it’s okay to be different!

 

8. Buy a back up pair. Depending on your frames and your insurance, you might have any replacement frames covered under a warranty, should your child’s glasses break. But I HIGHLY recommend having a back up pair of glasses for your child, should their glasses break. Sadie has been wearing glasses for about 15 months now and we are on her third pair! So a back up pair is so important!

 

9. Find a case that they like! Your glasses will most likely come with a case…but there are tons of cute ones online. Let your child pick out a fun and exciting case to store their glasses in when they aren’t wearing them. We have found that having multiple cases around the house is helpful for keeping her glasses protected. We keep one in Sadie’s room, one in our living room, one in my purse, and one in her backpack that she takes to school.

 

10. Remove glasses for rough play. This is a rule in our house, but depending on your child’s eyesight, this might be different for you. My daughter’s vision is decent enough without her glasses that she can take them off and still see, so we have her remove them for recess, sports, jumping on the trampoline, nerf gun wars etc. Check with your child’s eye doctor about this first.

 

11. Help siblings understand glasses are not toys. The rule in our house is that Sadie, Mommy, and Daddy are the only one allowed to touch her glasses. If your child’s sibling is jealous, I highly suggest getting them a pair of pretend glasses to wear too so they don’t feel left out.

I hope these tips help you!!! Drop any questions you have in the comments section!