My Ds (7) has came home from the optometrist tonight with a prescription for glasses. I didn't take him to the appointment Dh did as I didn't think he would need any, I made an appointment last week when he told me he couldn't read the whiteboard, but I am in shock to be honest.
So, Dh is a bit sketchy on the details, he is short sighted and needs to wear them in class at school, when watching t.v, at the computer etc. What about sports? he plays soccer, do kids wear their glasses to play sport?

And anyone got any tips for what kind of glasses to get? Dh did not get any as he felt it was out of 'his jurisdiction' so I will get them with Ds tomorrow. He was tested at the optometrist and Dh said they were VERY pushy about buying them them there and reluctant to give him the prescription, but he got it from them. I am not sure where it is best to buy them? We have insurance for a 75% rebate up to $400 so I am not too worried about how much them cost.

Hi there

Our DS (4.5) wears glasses for a medical condition and he's had them since he was 2. They would have been pushy because they want the sale, you can go anywhere to get your script filled.

We use specsavers and I only have good things to say about them. they fix DS's glasses for free all the time and they've been great to deal with. They also have good specials on like 2 for 1 regularly. I've heard good things about the branches in NZ too.

When you get them you can ask if he needs to wear them just for close up work or all the time. I'm a bit surprised they didn't explain that at the time?

If he only needs them for reading etc. then I would say it will be fine for him to keep them off for a game of soccer. Check with your optician though.

DS wears his 100% of his waking hours and he'll be in them until at least his early teens, probably his whole life. They seem way more common on kids now than when I was little and no-one really seems to notice them or comment on them. Hopefully your DS will be OK with having to wear them. Just oooh and aaah over how cool he looks

There are some cool frames out there for kids now too!

Oh and totally normal for you to take a bit to get used to the idea. I struggled with having something on my baby's face and not being able to really "see" him but you get so used to them, you won't even notice them after about a week.

DD has had Glasses since about 7 too.

TBH If we had specsavers then I would have gone there as you can get two pairs for just about the same price as buying from a "proper" optomertrist!
DD lost her pair within a week so having a spare would have been REALLY handy (thankfully i managed to find them!

She also is only meant to wear them read, watching TV, computer etc, She should NOT wear them for sports, but she's ALWAYS wearing hers, He just puts them on in the morning and takes them off at bedtime

That said. ANY questions go in and talk to the optometrist. If you are unsure on anything they should explain it to you no problems You just might have to wait till he's free from a patient.

I went with a friend and her kids when they wanted a 2nd opinion of frames. What we ended up doing was going to the city and went around 7 or 8 firms trying on frames and we used the phone to take photos of the frames on the kids in each shop. Then went home and put them on FB for everyone to comment on. It meant more trips but they are pleased. The kids frames we looked at ranged from just over $100 to more than $800! Be careful as some prices were marked including lenses and some were plus lenses.

What we were told to look at were nose pads rather than the frame resting on the nose and flexibility of the frame and hinges. My friend ended up at specsavers on the 2 for 1 deal for the kids but they didn't really have great frames for my friend - she has a wide face and most of the womens frames there were for narrower faces but she got an awesome deal at another optometrist. We were planning on writing down frame models etc and hunting them out for cheaper online, but after the second shop we gave up on that idea. Don't get bullied by one shop, we found most of the shops had limited ranges of kids frames and found only a few models that were in more than one shop, so there is plenty of selection out there.

DD has glasses, but she gets CDA (for another medical problem)and therefore has community services card, so she gets subsidy for eye checks and glasses, it might pay to check it see if you qualify for it also.

oh yeah, this for us as well. they have stuck arms back on for us and fixed nose pads and bent them back into shape, i have really found them totally awesome to deal with. dh gets his glasses from there as well and they have always been good.

Thanks some great advice everyone

Pudding I am sketchy on details because I sent dh with him really not expecting glasses as the outcome so all my info is thru him! He can not see distance I got it a bit wrong at first, so does not need them for reading or computer, but to see the board, t. V etc. To be honest I feel really crappy it seems so obvious in hindsight, he practically sits on to of the tv to watch it and struggled a bit with soccer, like he had a 5 second delay at times on what was going on. Should have known as dh and all his family have problems and he got his first glasses at 10, at least I know now to get the other two tested!

With sports, you can get really snug straps, that hold your glasses tight to your face. Ask if they have something like that when you go in to look at glasses and whether he should wear them for sports or not. Although if he can't see during soccer... Going by what Katerin said, it would pay to check.

And definitely Spec Savers. Two pairs for the price of one! And would be much better for a child (in case he's a bit rough with them or has an accident, then he has another pair).

Duncan has had glasses since he was 4. He wears them all the time...he didn't wear them for rugby, but probably should! He has been through a couple of pairs cos their little faces grow quite fast. Currently he has an expensive pair but they have been great, not broken yet, as opposed to his last pair which broke a lot.

With kids they take a lot of care in making sure you get the right frames for their face and they spend time getting them sitting perfectly (well ours does).

As for what frame to get.. for his first ones we got cheap frames that were flexible and strong because he was a 2 year at the time and we expected them to get wrecked. He was actually really good with them. Our latest ones are a bit funkier and more expensive because he has bifocal lenses that transition to sunglasses outside. Part of his eye disease is light sensitivity so it was important to have them darken in the sun, that's been a life changer for us - no more crying DS all summer long refusing to open his eyes!

These are the new ones, I was happy that the bifocal isn't obvious. You can barely tell that there's a line there. (Those are cats ears he's wearing BTW!)

I see you have health insurance so maybe you should see a specialist eye dr as you will also get your sons eyes checked by an orthoptist and you will know for sure what is going on. My dd has been in glasses for 3y and I use a specialist kids only store for the glasses: poppet optics in remuera auckland:)

My boys got glasses at age 4, twice we got expensive Memoflex ones - like $600 a pair and they only lasted a year each time. Last year we went to Specsavers, got 2 pairs each which was covered by the subsidy and they have lasted better than the expensive ones!

Having two pairs is a must, the amount of times they misplace a pair or they need to go in for straightening up, our boys wear glasses all day so they couldn't afford to be without them for a day let alone a week.

Interestingly, their Specsavers glasses haven't needed to be repaired at all over the past year, if they hadn't started to get a bit small for the boys they would easily have done for another year. We will only shop at Specsavers from now on

Yes two pairs are a must! DS's old specsavers glasses are still in great condition, the only reason we upgraded was because of him needing bifocals.

I went to my local optometrist, because I wanted to support her (local business etc) so probably paid more.

Ds (10) got some adidas ones - he doesn't need them for sport, as he needs them for close work mostly, but if he did need to wear them for that, he could. They are very flexible, and they have plastic lenses.

They make sure they are fitted properly, to the point of bending the arms/frames for a correct fit to the face etc.

I would go back to the optometrist and discuss it - I asked all the questions like that when I was there. Even ask if s/he can call you to explain.



Good luck.

Thanks everyone really great advice here. I ended up going to Spec Savers, the lure of getting two pairs was too hard to resist We picked them up tonight and he is happy with them. He has to wear them all the time, the optometrist said basically anything more than arms length away is just fuzzy blur. Was VERY cool picking them up, he was a bit blown away by how different things looked.

Great to hear I found it a bit funny getting used to seeing DS in glasses but I don't even notice them now. Fantastic that things look nice and clear for him with them on. You'll find that he'll want to wear them because of that.