Are there any problems with children wearing contact lenses?

Many children are comfortable wearing spectacles and some actively enjoy the opportunity to accessorise. That said some feel self concious and / or find they interfere with everyday activities such as sport or active play.

For adults contact lenses have long been a solution, however concerns about eye health and hygenene have discouraged use in younger patients in the past.

These concerns have now been addressed and the current generation of lenses allow for very long wear times with minimal discomfort or itching. Children are also fantastically good at learning and very quickly adapt to sticking little clear discs in their eyes (unlike adults who can take quite some time to get used to the idea).

For periodic use such as for sport disposable contact lenses are worth looking at. There are no cleaning routines to follow and if the lens is lost (say in a pool or a scrum) the cost is minimal.

Should a child wait until it can read to have its first eye test?

Any eye test for a child who is too young to read is very useful. In particular it is useful to pick up a condition called ammlyopia, where one eye works much better than the other. The child can and does see through the one good eye, but the poor eye is neglected.

This is a particular problem in early years when neural pathways are being established in the brain. The developing pathways will not include information from the poor eye. As such the child will not have the advantages of stereo vision, which leads to less effective motor function for the child. Also in later life should the child damage the good eye, there is no ‘spare’ eye to fall back upon. Amlbyopic children are three times more likely to end up on the blind register.

Early life treatment is important, but to be effective it must be carried out in the early years while the neural pathways are immature. Treatment beyond the age of about seven is rarely effective.

Given the importance of monitoring children’s eyesight, NHS funding is available for ALL children (and is not means tested).  Children includes;

• All children under 16
• Children under 19 in full time education

At Thomas Carter Opticians, NHS funding will cover a comprehensive eye examination and retinal photography.   This will involve a half hour consultation with the Optometrist (another word for Optician).  It will allow for questions to be asked and will allow the child and /or parent to have a look at the retinal images (back of the eye).

NHS funding is also available for spectacles should they be needed.  At Thomas Carter Opticians we provide a range of spectacles completely funded by the NHS.  We also have some more fashionable/ designer glasses available for a small surcharge of  twenty or forty five pounds.