GWJ Parenting: Toddlers & wearing glasses
My 2 year old son was diagnosed with a severe astigmatism in his right eye and we were told he needed glasses ASAP to correct it. So, I'm a few hundred dollars poorer (bought a couple pairs, just in case) and now we have to figure out how to get him to wear them and not destroy them.
So, my fellow Goodjer parents... Have any of you dealt with a similar situation? Any tips or recommendations for handling a situation that I am dreading; a child who is obsessed with throwing everything from balls to hot wheels across the room?
As always, any help is greatly appreciated!
Also, I've already heard the "Staple/Glue/Weld/Screw/Nail/Duct Tape/etc them on" bit from all of my coworkers. 
Gamertag: RiverRatMatt
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Wow.. that's kind of a toughie for me. If you or your wife wear glasses, that's probably the easiest route to go; let the little one see you two wearing them very, very often, and hope that he'll emulate. As to keeping them from getting torn up, I've only had kids for a few months(my wife came with two, one 7, the other almost 4 now) but I'm fairly certain there isn't really a way to do that short of making consequences for breaking them unpleasant.
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I'd look into a strap for wearing glasses & playing sports. You may have to shorten it to make it fit. You may want to invest in protective gear as his aim may improve as well...
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I was about the same age when I got my first pair of glasses. It helped with me because my parents always let me pick out the frames I wanted. My smurf ones rocked.
I might suggest having just a strap - remove the earpieces, since they make good grabbing points.
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The obvious answer is a monocle attached with duct tape.
My friend's kid is about the same age and wears glasses. The kind she has almost look like swim goggles and have a thick rubber strap that runs around the back of her head to keep them on.
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Yep...and what Alien said. They look kind of cool/sporty with a baseball hat.
As any kid who grew up with glasses will tell you, this is no deterrent. Sure, you'll be terrified of breaking/losing your glasses. But it'll still happen. You'll just have a complex about it for the rest of your life.
The best way to get your toddler to wear his glasses - and, really, to do anything - seems like it would be to make wearing glasses seem like the most fun and awesome thing in all the world. Tell him how much fun it is to wear them, praise him when he wears them, let him pick out what frames he likes (although at 2, I bet he can only pick out colors); and so on. And I second the swim goggle version, at least for when he's playing outside.
Also: Don't spend too much money if you can't help it. He will break his glasses. And if he doesn't, he'll lose them. And if not that, he'll outgrow them. With particularly bad prescriptions, you can't avoid spending hundreds of dollars (tell me about it) on lenses. But no need to shell out for fancy frames while he's so young.
I wonder, perhaps your toddler might love throwing things so much--even more so than normal toddlers, it sounds--because he was frustrated that he couldn't see.
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My wife and I bought sunglasses for our daughter, who is currently a year old. They have elastic straps instead of normal stems to hold them on. The manufacturers make pairs for infants and toddlers.
We took her out for a walk around a lake near our house to enjoy the warmer weather. To our surprise, they actually worked. She kept the sunglasses on almost the entire time, and the time she took them off she also took off her sun hat so I don't know which one was irritating her more.
They probably make something like that for regular glasses. I know they do for adults, perhaps there's a toddler version.
I'm assuming you've already hit Google on the subject. If not, googling "keeping glasses on a toddler" (without the quotes) yields a lot of hits. One of the better suggestions I saw suggested letting the kid help pick out the frames, because then he'll be more likely to wear them.
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I think LeapingGnome has the best idea you're going to get.
You'd think if they were working he'd want to keep them on anyway. Having trouble seeing sucks.
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My wife and I bought this for our 2 yr old a few years ago: http://www.solobambini.com/ The frame is made of bendy plastic/silicone material that has lasted well. The lens got a bit scratched up after a few months of abuse and the lens has popped out once or twice, but we popped it right back in and the frame has withstood the abuse well.
As far as keeping the glasses on, the solo bambini came with straps as per other people's suggestion and it worked well for my son. Also our doctor's attitude is that if the glasses are really helping the kid, the kid actually wouldn't mind wearing it after the initial novelty wears off. This was not the case for my son. In fact, the doctor said since he never seems to be missing the glasses when they are not on, they must've not been very helpful for him so he took him off the glasses.
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My wife has a blog on this very topic. Technically I'm an author too, but I rarely post.
Our daughter got glasses at 14 months, and she's almost 20 months now. I find that she's surprisingly willing to wear them, because they really do help her see. She would never wear sunglasses. The biggest problem is her taking them off and throwing them as part of a temper tantrum. We just set them aside until she's done.
Zoe's glasses don't have straps. They stay on pretty well without them, and I expect she would be more likely to damage them and throw big fits if she couldn't get them off.
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Good luck to you. Both my wife and I wear glasses though I only started needing them 7 years or so ago (when I was 28) and our soon to be two year old loves to see how many different ways he can make the ear hinges go in any but the intended way.
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I am not going to lie, I didn't even skim the other answers...
1. Get plastic rims instead of wire. They won't break as easily, and if your kid face plants, as little ones tend to do, there is less damage to be done to his face.
2. There are sports straps to keep things on their faces. If he gets smart, he can still get them off, but it will take a while of really working at it. hopefully he takes after me and will give up rather quickly.
3. Talk it up like wearing glasses is the best thing in the world. Tell him how cool he looks with them on. Also, if they do help him see better, he is likely to really like wearing them anyway.
4. Always have a backup pair. Glasses easily get lost or broken until you are about 18. Even then it can be an issue. Don't spend a ton of money for ones that look cool until it is something he actually cares about.
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Here's a picture of my son wearing a pair of shades his mom got him. They have a neoprene strap with a velcro fastener. We gave them to him when he was four months old and he seemed to like them.
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Hey everyone, guess I should update the thread...
Aidan got his glasses on Friday and its been difficult keeping them on his face. We've had to watch him carefully because he's gotten into the habit of hiding them around the house. One of the lenses is already scratched as well. So, its been a struggle and I loathe the idea of a strap but I think we need to consider it...
One weird thing. Everyone's told us how much happier he'll be with them on, especially when he watches his favorites. Well, we tried watching Sesame Street over the weekend and he kept looking over his glasses rather than through. Not sure why... maybe a force of habit thing?
Gamertag: RiverRatMatt
Witchlight Cycle: Sithis of the Thelis'Thale Clan, Dragonborn Paladin of Moradin
Or maybe he's not used to it yet. When you first get glasses (particularly if they're strong) it makes your eyes feel really wierd. And everything looks so different. Those fuzzy green blurs suddenly develop leaves and stuff. He's so little, he may not realize it's "better" through the glasses yet.
As his eyes adjust and he gets used to what things look like in focus, the weird feeling should go away and then he'll settle down, I bet.
As far as the rest of it, good luck. I can't keep eyeglasses on my 17 year old daughter.
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When I was a kid, every time I got a stronger glasses prescription it felt like I was walking uphill all the time, and I had almost no depth perception. It got better after a week or so, but the first few days can really disorienting for a kid.
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It took a few days with Zoe, and she didn't have the astigmatism thing going on. I know that whenever I get glasses with substantially different astigmatism correction it takes quite a while for me to sort them out. Of course, she was substantially younger and less rambunctious, in addition to having gotten used to eye patches already.
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Speaking as someone with a rather strong prescription, what I see with my glasses on vs off is only similar in the general color combinations. It may be that he just doesn't know that the in focus images are what they are supposed to look like.
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This. I didn't get glasses until later on in elementary school, but due to the strength of my prescription back then, and having gone for so long without glasses, I was CERTAIN that things weren't supposed to look as clear from 40 feet away as they did from 4. After a couple weeks I got used to it, and over time my eyesight has gotten significantly better, but stuff still doesn't look 'right' without glasses on.
@Katerin: I don't mean unpleasant in a 'whoop the heiny' or a 'put em in timeout' kind of way, but in the manner some others suggested, and keeping with what I said about getting the little one to wear em. Let em know they look better with the glasses on, make it seem like the parental units enjoy wearing glasses and things of that nature. I've found it's a reasonably effective manner of dealing with things my son does I'd rather he not do. Like staying up until midnight or 1am, and then being cranky as all get out the next day. Slight derail, but that tack has been effective to the point of him wanting glasses like me even though my wife and I aren't sure that he needs em at all.
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