Choosing Your Child’s Glasses – A Mom’s Guide
Any parent that has ever had to choose glasses for their child runs into one common issue more or less right away. And that issue is a disagreement with their child over style. While children may be indifferent to your opinion over sensible oval glasses or rectangle frame glasses, what they do have opinions on is colour and size. Namely, they want their glasses to be big and they want their glasses to be super colourful, with flashing LED lights around the rims if at all possible. This is where a little diplomacy and attention to the basics is going to come in useful. Let’s check out the things you need to consider when purchasing glasses for your child.
Colour is your friend
Having mentioned colour already as a sort of negative aspect, you may find that giving in to your child’s choice of colour is the fastest way to get them on board with the whole glasses wearing thing. Many children do not want to wear glasses. Just in the same way that many children resist the use of inhalers - they see it as being different, and children don’t want to be different. That’s why showing your child a few options in a few different colours can help them to make the psychological leap from not wanting to wear glasses to thinking more along the lines of “now, hold on, these red glasses do look rather awesome…” - use this to your advantage.
The right lens shape (height / width)
In terms of lens height and width, your child’s spectacles should be large enough for them to see in all directions. Although there is a trend in adults’ glasses for slim frames without a reduced lens height, children need to access their entire field of vision for several reasons. Primarily, children need to be able to see what they are doing for safety reasons. Secondary to this, they are far more likely to leave their glasses on their faces throughout the school day if the right lens height and width means they can look down to write in their school books and look up to see the teacher without having to move anything but their eyes.
Avoid issues with the temples and nose bridge
Your child will likely be none-the-wiser when it comes to whether the glasses fit properly. Much in the same way that they cannot tell if school shoes are a comfortable fit until it’s too late, they will tell you that their glasses are fine because they don’t know what they’re talking about. You need to ensure that the bridge of the nose is a good fit, meaning not too tight and not too loose. You also need to ensure that the arms are not too close fitting on the sides of your child’s head, as this can cause issues with pinching at the temples. This will take a little parental patience as you cycle through your options, but it’s completely worth paying attention to these things at an early stage before you buy!
