How to get your child to wear glasses?

Are you struggling to have your children wear and enjoy their glasses? Don’t worry; you’re not alone.

In fact, seeing as myopia now affects so many children in school-aged years; many parents are faced with the not-so-fun challenge of getting their kids to wear spectacles inside and outside.

Here are our favorite tips to help your kids wear their glasses.

How can I get my child to wear glasses?

Going from a bare face to glasses can be an adjustment for children. Here are some tips to get them to like and wear their spectacles.

Let your kid pick their frames

If they’re old enough, a first good tip would be to let your kids choose the color and style frame they want to wear daily. This will create some enjoyment during the purchasing process, which could help your child see their glasses as a style accessory instead of a burden.

Take small steps

Adjusting to a new pair of glasses can be challenging for some kids. Set small goals for them to achieve and build up their habit of wearing glasses. Set a small reward system for when they wear their glasses correctly, and chances are, they’ll grow more and more used to them.

Identify glasses with characters or celebrities they like

Make glasses cool!  Show them pictures of their favorite actors, singers, or fictional characters, such as Harry Potter, who wear glasses, and create a positive association in their minds.

Make sure the glasses fit

Wearing glasses that are not the proper correction or size can be uncomfortable for children of any age. Make sure to change their glasses as they grow to adjust to the width of their head. Besides, remember to schedule regular exams with an eye-care professional to ensure their eyesight issue has not progressed, warranting a new pair of spectacles.

Get them glasses designed explicitly for their vision troubles

If your child has myopia, which is predicted to affect 50% of the world population by 2050, not just any glasses will do the trick.

What are the solutions for myopia management?

While myopia can’t be cured, there are several ways that you can try to manage your child’s myopia.

The first step is to schedule regular checkups with an eye-care professional. It is best to do so every year during childhood, as their vision can progress quickly.

Besides, myopia can be a progressive eye issue, which means that even if your child already wears glasses, they may need to be changed to correct their vision in a year or so. Keeping up with their eye checkups is, therefore, a necessity.

The second step is ensuring your children’s lifestyle supports healthy vision. Indeed, myopia is caused by an elongated eye shape, which prevents the light entering the eye from focusing on the retina correctly. But this elongated eye shape isn’t just a random occurrence. Instead, contrast theory has linked it to a particular lifestyle, specifically to time spent indoors working at near, studying, and reading, in front of screens, i.e., in high-contrast environments.

Getting your child to play outside may be highly beneficial in slowing down myopia progression. Also, according to the American Optometric Association, you should also ensure that they eat a nutrient-rich diet, leading to a healthy body and, therefore, a healthy vision.

Finally, if your kid does develop myopia, you should get them fitted for prescription glasses. This will ensure they can see properly

This solution, however, will not prevent the progression of myopia. To help slow the progression of myopia, you could aim to fit them with our Diffusion Optics Technology™ (DOT) lenses – designed to correct myopia and slow future progression.

Diffusion Optics Technology™ (DOT) lenses

Available in selected markets, Diffusion Optics Technology™ (DOT) lenses have been clinically proven to help slow myopia progression in children aged 6-10 (1).  Indeed, they are fitted with tiny DOT particles which diffuse the light when it enters the eye, softening contrast. This, in turn, reduces overstimulation of eye growth, slowing down myopia progression.

Besides, Diffusion Optics Technology™ (DOT) lenses are easy to wear, well-accepted by children, and have had clinically proven¹ results in children aged 6-10.

Conclusion

Getting your children used to a new pair of glasses can be challenging. However, there are several techniques to excite your little one for their new pair of lenses, especially if those can help reduce myopia progression, such as our Diffusion Optics Technology™ (DOT) lenses!

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1. Joe Rappon, Carol Chung, Graeme Young, Christopher Hunt, Jay Neitz, Maureen Neitz, Thomas Chalberg: Control of myopia using diffusion optics spectacle lenses: 12-month results of a randomised controlled, efficacy and safety study (CYPRESS)