Is your child ready for contact lenses?

Looking for a specific age that your child can start wearing contact lenses? It’s important to understand that it’s not really about how old your child is. While age is certainly a consideration, it’s more about the needs of their eyes and how responsible they are. For example, pediatric eye doctors may recommend contact lenses for myopia management, which can start at age 8 or sometimes even earlier (though they would need a lot of help and supervision from a parent). For children who simply need their vision corrected, if you think your child can take good care of contact lenses, including maintaining proper hygiene, it’s time to ask their eye doctor what they’d recommend.

1. Eye health needs

All kids’ eyes are unique. To see if contact lenses may be a good option for your child, an eye doctor needs to conduct a comprehensive examination. This will check the shape and size of the eye, the presence of any refractive errors like myopia or hyperopia, and overall eye health.

2. Level of responsibility

Can your child follow instructions for putting on and taking off their lenses? Can they take care of themselves? If they can’t remember to do their homework or brush their teeth yet without being reminded, they might not be ready for daily contact lens care. That said, as a parent it’s also important that you’re committed to helping them with their contact lens routine to whatever extent they need it to help keep their eyes safe.

3. Personal hygiene

This is the most important element of safe contact lens wear for children. Kids will need to wash and dry their hands thoroughly before they touch their eyes or the lenses, every time. If they don’t pay attention to cleanliness, it can increase the chances of an eye infection. Eye infections can be dangerous—if severe enough they can lead to vision loss. If your child is interested in contact lenses, helping to teach them good lens handling habits is extremely important for their eye health.

4. Interest in contacts

If a child isn’t interested in wearing contact lenses, they’re less likely to be concerned with safe wear and care. A good candidate for contact lenses is excited to wear them, wants to learn to use them and wants to consistently take good care of them.

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Pros

Vision benefits

Contact lenses don’t have frames like glasses do. Frames can sometimes become distracting and/or get in the way of peripheral vision, while contact lenses move with the eyes to help provide clear vision wherever the child looks.

Good for on-the-go kids

If your child is active, contact lenses can provide a great alternative to glasses that won’t fall off and break or slow them down.

Potential self-esteem boost

Studies show that contacts can help some kids feel more confident with their bodies. It’s a sad truth that wearing eyeglasses sometimes opens children up to bullying, and contact lenses give a more natural look.

Cons

Cleaning and care required

Contacts require a lot of care. If they wear reusable lenses, kids need to remember to clean them, store them properly, and replace them as directed. Regardless of lenses, they need to practice good hygiene skills.

More expensive than eyeglasses alone

Contacts can vary widely in cost depending on the lens you get, but any contact lens wearer will always still need glasses, regardless of whether or not they wear contact lenses as well. Even so, the benefits of wearing contact lenses, like freedom of movement and a potential self-confidence boost, are often worth it.

Safety risks, especially if care instructions are not followed

One study showed that the risk of certain common contact lens complications may be no higher for children than they are for adults, and younger children may actually have a lower occurrence of “corneal infiltrative events” than their teenage counterparts. In part, this may be due to behavior and parental involvement. Following the instructions your eye care professional provided is crucial for helping keep your child’s eye healthy.

Help teach proper care

When you take your child to the eye doctor, follow along with their contact lens care instructions and take notes. Go over them together and be sure to discuss what it means to really wash and dry your hands well. Stress the importance of hygiene and how it helps keep their eyes safe and healthy.

Supervise until you both feel comfortable

At home, it may help to chaperone your child as they put on and take off their lenses until they get it down. If they wear reusable lenses, be there for them as they clean their lenses and store them safely to ensure they’ve got it down and feel comfortable being independent. This can help catch any mistakes before they become a real problem. Be sure to check in from time to time once they seem to get the hang of it to make sure they’re still following instructions and no bad habits have crept in.

Take them for regular eye check-ups

Don’t skip appointments with our eye doctor. Regular eye exams can detect issues before they become serious and ensure your child’s eyes stay healthy.

Watch for signs of trouble

Teach your child what to do if they experience discomfort or redness in their eyes. They should stop wearing the lenses and talk to you or their eye doctor right away.

Your child’s eye doctor is the best person to determine what contact lenses would be best for your child. A few of the most commonly prescribed lenses include:

Daily disposable soft contact lenses

Many eye doctors recommend daily disposables for kids, especially those under 12. With these lenses, a child typically wears them for a day and then throws them out, eliminating the need to clean and store reusable lenses. With daily disposables, parents can worry less about germs and infections. Special types of daily disposables may also be used to manage a child’s myopia.

Reusable soft contact lenses

If you and your child’s eye doctor believe your child can safely care for their lenses, their eye doctor may recommend reusable soft contact lenses. These are a more economical option, but they require daily cleaning and storing of lenses.

Orthokeratology

This refers to lenses that are worn overnight while the child sleeps. Orthokeratology lenses reshape the cornea so that the child can enjoy clear vision during the day without the need for glasses or contacts. It’s commonly used for children that have myopia (nearsightedness).