Buying Eyeglasses for Young Children

So, now you've been through the vision screening process with your toddler or preschool aged child. You've gotten a referral from the pediatrician, and visited with a pediatric ophthalmologist. And now the decision has been made that your child would benefit from eyeglasses. Where do you go from here?

It is crucial to identify and correct childhood vision problems as soon as possible. By the age of nine or ten, a person is said to have assumed visual maturity, and vision problems are much less likely to ever be alleviated or corrected after that age. For those children who suffer from the common forms of vision abnormality: nearsightedness or myopia; farsightedness or hyperopia; and astigmatism which causes image distortion, corrective lenses are usually prescribed.

The good news is, that early screening for more children has resulted in more children getting fitted with corrective lenses, and that means a wider selection of frames than were available twenty years ago. The bad news is, for toddlers and small preschoolers, the selection is still limited. And no amount of "cool" is going to persuade a toddler to keep eyeglasses on his face if he decides they are annoying, either. A wider range of eyeglass frames hasn't changed the basic nature of young children, after all.

But here are some proven buying and fitting tips from All About Vision to help you in your journey to a better-seeing child.

First, the lenses.

Most lenses, especially those designed for children, are made from polycarbonate. Polycarbonate is an impact resistance material that is also used in safety goggles. These lighter weight options to glass or plastic lenses also prevent the "coke bottle", making the glasses look better and feel more comfortable.