Fitting the Young With Contact Lenses

Fitting the Young With Contact Lenses

A 12-year-old should be able to handle it

Medically speaking, contact lenses are an option no matter what your age. Babies can – and do – wear contact lenses after congenital cataract surgery. Today, even an infant as young as one week old can wear silicone extended-wear lenses, which are permeable and malleable yet hold their shape. Such lenses can be kept in the baby’s eyes for weeks. Parents can remove them when they need to be cleaned.

Older children are ready for contacts when they are old enough for the responsibility of taking care of them. If a child can’t pick up his room yet, he’s not a good candidate. Doctors recommend that children get daily-wear soft or rigid lenses, which require nightly cleanings but are less likely to pose trouble than disposable or extended-wear lenses that are kept in the eyes longer.

The young contact lens-wearer needs to realize the importance of proper lens care. If eyes look red or hurt, for instance, a doctor should be consulted.

A boy. Photo: Elena

When to Test Children’s Eyes

A baby’s vision at age one is a good predictor of eyesight later in life

Does the fact that you wear eyeglasses doom your child to the same fate? Not necessarily.

But when it comes to vision, poor parental eyesight does up the odds that a child will also need glasses, too. Recent studies found that in families where neither parent is nearsighted, the chances of a child being myopic is less than 1 in 10; if one parent is nearsighted, the odds increase to more than 1 in 5, and if both parents share the condition, the odds rise to over 2 in 5.

What’s more, the M.I.T. researchers found that when a baby is nearsighted at age one, that’s often a good predictor of whether the child is likely to be nearsighted at a later age. Infants who are nearsighted usually develop normal eyesight between 1 and 5 years of age, but between 6 and 12, their vision often weakens, particularly if the parents are nearsighted.

While there is no known way to improve the odds that a nearsighted infant can escape nearsightedness at an older age, the American Academy of pediatrics nevertheless recommends that infants be checked for visual problems during their first half-year of life and that eye tests be done at least once a year during their preschool years.

Such examinations not only allow doctors to diagnose rare problems (e.g. cataracts), but also help them identify muscle problems that might cause a child to use only one eye. Early testing can also enable doctors to fit children suffering from extreme cases of nearsightedness with corrective lenses. Early intervention can spare such children frustration can spare such children frustration, ensuring a smooth transition to school.

Waiting until a child starts school to have his or her eyes tested is too late. Experts say, because certain eye problems, such as strabismus or anisemetropia, if left undetected till the age of five or six, can become permanent. If they are detected earlier, however, they are easily remedied.