The ABCs of Contact Lenses
Kids can be finicky. They always want to be entertained, whether it’s done by the brand new toy on the market or by ice cream and pizza. It’s almost impossible to keep them sustained for a few hours without stopping them from getting attracted to another trend or fad. However, one product that has caused a lot of talk over whether kids should be able to use it is contact lenses. We all know that contacts are portable and easy to maneuver, but can kids use them? Is there any type of validated “age requirement” to use contact lenses?
The biggest thing, as parents, to always ask yourselves is whether your kids are personally responsible and individualistic enough to own a pair of contact lenses. A lot of time, patience, and effort is required to own a pair of contact lenses, so kids who do own them need to be extremely personally responsible. A good way to test your child’s level of responsibility is to evaluate how they perform menial household tasks, like taking out the garbage or doing the dishes – do they complete chores efficiently or do they take their own time and procrastinate, sometimes forgetting to perform the task altogether? You can then extrapolate those results to determine whether they are ready to own their own pair of contact lenses.
Contacts do come with many benefits for your children. Most importantly, if your child is involved heavily in athletic events and activities, contacts increase their overall peripheral vision, enhancing their performance at the activity. Imagine an 8 year-old with huge glasses trying to see the rest of the field when playing football – it’s essentially a lost cause. Contacts, therefore, do come with important benefits for someone who’s really involved athletically.
However, it’s important to acknowledge proper etiquette when dealing with contact lenses for children. If your kids often play with other children in parks, playgrounds, or even at school, you need to ensure that they do not share their contact lenses with anyone else. This is important because doing so causes corneal infections since each contact has the respective wearers’ individual microorganisms.
To sum up, you, as a parent, can evaluate your child’s level of personal responsibility by extrapolating their performance on menial household chores. Since this “assessment” is performed on a case-by-case basis, it is up to your subjective judgment to determine whether they are ready to own the product or not. Of course, it’s also important to weigh out the pros and cons of using contact lenses in the first place, so doing research to fully identify yourself with the product itself will guarantee a well-informed decision being made.
