Small Children and Their New Prescription Glasses

How Do I Make My Toddler Wear Her Eyeglasses?

Eyeglasses are tough to wear at any age but especially tough for a very young child wearing prescription glasses for the first time. These children quickly discover that wearing eyeglasses really puts a damper on the day's activities. Their new pair of glasses not only pinches around the ears and nose, it makes the world look a little strange and definitely gets in the way of play time.

When our toddler was fitted with eyeglasses to correct her emerging cross eyedness, the novelty of the new eyeglasses wore off after about an hour. I wheedled and begged and even bribed, but nothing would convince our daughter that the eyeglasses needed to stay on her face. She was just too young to understand that her eyeglasses were meant to be worn and not just another toy to be flung around the room. After spending almost a thousand dollars in replacement frames and lenses, I eventually wised up and figured out how to make wearing eyeglasses much more fun for our toddler.

If you are a parent of a young child who is now having to wear corrective eyeglasses, chances are you're probably experiencing this same problem right now. To encourage your child to wear her eye glasses, one of these tips just may work for you.

Let her choose her own glasses

There are thousands of adorable eyeglasses on the market, but not all of them are right for your child. Instead of letting your child loose in the eye wear section where she'll end up picking something she can't have, it's best for the parent to narrow the choices to those eyeglasses that meet your standards for durability first. Once the field has been narrowed, your child can choose an eyeglass frame that she'll enjoy wearing. A child is much more inclined to wear her glasses if she's allowed to pick a favorite.

Decorated cases

We discovered that there are two types of eyeglass cases available for children. One variety is the soft sided cases that are decorated with colorful print and cartoon characters. While these cases are totally fun, they aren't designed to protect glasses that are accidentally dropped or sat upon.