My seven year old daughter had an eye exam today. The doctor says she is near and far sighted and reccomends bifocal glasses for her. He says they will teach her how to use them and how to adjust her to life wearing bifocal glasses. Does anyone have any experience with their young child wearing bifocal glasses. I am concerned that she will be tripping and falling due to the lower magnifying section of her glasses.
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They can probably answer this question for you :)
My 10 year old nephew uses them and has no problems with them. For some reason I think my sister said it was right after he turned 7 and was entering 2nd grade, and she said she was told he would have an easier time transitioning than an adult which seemed to be the case.
I've worn bi-focals for years. It does take a bit of time to get used to them. She will be aware that there is a difference and will adapt, naturally. She won't trip and fall because she will sense that her sight is a bit off.
My oldest daughter (almost 4) has had bifocals since she was 9 months old. Yes 9 months! She was diagnosed with strabismus (crossing of the eyes). She would cross her eyes to adjust. She's been wearing a +5 on both lenses since she was 9. She is down to a +3 now, but she has also had 2 eye surgeries too. She is going to be getting another here this year or next year too. Fortunately, the glasses help her from tripping and falling.
I would test her on some bifocals since she is 7 and can tell you if it helps her see. If it doesn't, I would get an opinion from a different dr.
Good luck.
Bifocals are tricky to get used to. At least they were for me. After a while, you don't really even notice. You just automatically use the part of the lens that you need for what you're looking at.
I would imagine your daughter would be less likely to trip and fall after getting corrective lenses.
Good luck!
If she needs bifocals to see, you get her bifocals.
You might ask about progressive lenses to see if that might be an option. The only difference with those is that you need to learn to point your nose at what you want to see. I think this is harder for adults to learn than it would be for kids.
YMMV
LBC
I was given bifocals when I was 13. It took a couple of days to adjust to them. The first day I felt dizzy and a little nauseous. By the third day, I didn't know I had new glasses. Tell her to be very careful on the stairs while she is adjusting to them.
My son had bifocals from 3-5 and again starting at 6 (the yearnoff was after his eye surgery to correct his strabismus). He seemed to adjust well. I definitely see a difference when he's doing his homework. Good luck!
My daughter used special glasses for reading (for farsightedness plus strabismus), so when she later needed regular glasses for nearsightedness, she ended up with two pairs. I thought she would be constantly losing glasses and forgetting to switch, but she adjusted just fine. I think whatever the kids get, they quickly adjust - probably better than we parents do.
I have multifocal lenses which I love, and never went the bifocal route personally.
My 8yr old daughter has had bifocals for a few years now, I think she was around 5, and she had no problems adjusting to them. No problems with walking or tripping. Only problem she had was convincing kids that her glasses didn't have a crack across them, lol. Kids are much more resilient than adults are, your daughter will be just fine.
