August 22, 2013 
There are different opinions about when is the perfect time to apply contact lenses due to age. On the other hand, carrying them is in no way limited by years…
Successful contact lenses wearing depends more on responsibility and attitude , rather than someone’s age . It is important that parents of a child get well- informed with the specialist for contact lenses on the strengths and weaknesses of various types of contact lenses .
According to the experience of most ophthalmologists and optometrists , parents usually listen to experts and then everything depends on the specialist , who will recommend a specific type of lens for a particular situation .
Help with complicated eye defects
In general we can say that young children use contact lenses mostly for medical reasons , for example, with complex eye defect that are in most cases resolved surgically. However, for very young children sometimes surgery can be a problem .
A classic example is child aphakia . It is the absence of the eye lens in the eye . It’s a birth defect , but fortunately relatively rare. Considering that child’s eye is constantly evolving and growing , it is not possible to substitute the lens with an artificial internal variant .
In these cases it is possible to use a contact lens , which allows to the so damaged eye a proper development of its other healthy parts. The other possibility of using contact lenses is in the treatment of amblyopia . In this case, contact lens replaces occlusion .
Sport and cosmetic reasons
In preschool and school children correction contact lenses are used primarily for small athletes. With adolescents it is mostly for cosmetic reasons .
Parents teach children how to take care of contact lenses
Preschoolers and schoolchildren mostly have their parents put contact lenses on and take them off. Therefore, the specialist should teach them how to use contact lenses and to take care of them . This responsibility is gradually transferred to the child . Already in pre-school age we teach children to safely insert and remove contact lens themselves and we teach them the basics of maintaining lenses.
While younger children may have problems with contact lenses , especially their discipline in terms of hygiene and taking care of lenses is often not what it should be , the ideal choice for them are daily lenses. Only in the case of therapeutic lens we choose another type , such as an annual lens.
Choice of lenses in older children
In older children it is possible to use planned replacement lenses , but it is still important to emphasize basic introduction to the problem of cleaning and wearing regimes.
The main problem of contact lenses in these children is not the application of lenses , but the requirements of caring for them. Parents need to devote enough attention to explain to children about handling lenses.
” Patience must be first “
It is better to devote more time to the child at the beginning and so forestall possible complications. If the lenses are not specified for everyday wear , but for example only for sports , we recommend daily lenses.
For most adolescents it is best to apply two-week lenses , sometimes monthly , because it is mostly about replacing corrective glasses.
Doctor’s advice , but parents decide
As mentioned above , the majority of parents trust the opinion of an eye specialist and choose lenses that are recommended to them . However , the final decision on whether the child will wear contact lenses or glasses is always up to parents. This is because they know their child best , and can also assess whether the child would have problems with wearing lenses .
Ideally we take into account the opinion of the parents , the child , the type of defect that needs correction and foremost maturity of that same child . If the child is able to take care of the lenses and use them correctly , there is no reason not to use such a correction.
Taken from: www.kontaktne-lece.hr