Getting 5 Yr Old to Wear Her Glasses

Show her how grown up she can be. Let her take some of the responsibility of wearing them and taking care of them. Show her how to clean them and protect them. She will feel better and more like a "big girl."

My son started wearing glasses when he was 4 and has never had a problem BECAUSE he quickly found that he could see better with them on (our problem was him remembering to put them on in the morning and me not noticing until we were in the car going to school :-).

Patience is going to be key and pointing out the difference between her vision with and without glasses may help; as for keeping them safe, I put his eyeglass case in his backpack and he and I had a designated spot in his room where he puts them at bedtime. This helped him to get in the habit of putting them on in the morning

The whole wearing glasses thing is about making it part of her normal life. It will take time.

Good luck!

You have some great responses, and I'm going to need them too in about 2 days as my son is getting new glasses too. But when my daughter had to get them at age 3 1/2 I took my contacts out and wore my glasses. I dont know if you need to wear glasses, but showing my daughter that I wore them too, helped.

Another thing that has helped, is for your daughter to pick out the glasses that SHE likes. Even if they aren't the ones that you like.... if she likes them, she will be more willing to wear them. I just found REALLY cute ones at lens crafters that have a few different colors, and on the sides there are little flower cut outs. they are very trendy, but adorable as well!

Good luck (and wish me luck in a few days with my 4 year old son!!) :)

My 4 year old starting wearing glasses about 6 months ago. To keep her glasses safe we told her "On your face or in your case" and repeat it ALL the time! So far - she's only misplaced them twice (and I think it was on purpose!!).
As far as wearing them all day ... I was lucky. Her dr told me to make it a game - so that she will wear them for an hour each day & then build up. Luckily after a few weeks my daughter realized she could see so much better with them on & on her own starting wearing them all day. There are books out there that you can read w/her. As well I made sure that whenever we went anywhere = if someone commented on her glasses we made a big deal about them - how cute she looks, what a big girl ect.
Best of luck!!!

Hi A.,
Just a few suggestions:
~ To get her to wear them, how about the reward for previous day's wear being a small, sparkly, puffy sticker of your daughter's own choosing (which come in sheets)that goes on a safe place on the glasses themselves?
~ Her glasses case needs to "live" in a fixed area in her room; why not make a decorated "fairy house" for her glasses case(so the fairies can watch over them when they're not on) which stays in one place.This has the added bonus of being a "together project" for you both: glitter,glue,bits of shiny fabric,cardboard and ribbons will make it bright and fun!
Note:If you don't want to promote belief in fairies, it can just be a fancy house for her glasses, because they are so special.

I have a three year old almost 4. What I did to get him to wear his glasses is, have him wear them while he was watching his favorite movie. If you distract them and change their thought process, it helps. I was also able to sit with him while he was watching the movie and kept putting his hands down and telling him no he had to leave them on or I was shutting off the movie.
E. R

A.,

Girl, I have been there! My son has worn glasses since he was 10 months old! It's not easy - he didn't get used to them till he understood that when he wears them he can see better - which was around 3 and a half.

He learned to hide several pairs(which cost me God knows how much! LOL). But once he realized that he can see better, he wore them more.

We did follow the advice of our doctor who said to start out small: have him wear them for an hour or two a day, and gradually add an hour on each day/couple days. This allowed some time for him to get used to them. This might work for you.

You could also buy a special band that ran from on end of the glasses to the other, and that helped for them to stay on. It wasn't a huge hit with my son though...

The other thing I had to watch out for once he hit four or five was breaking them, both accidental (stepped on, etc.) and intentional (Temper tantrum style), OR the best one was "My friend at school and I were both bending our glasses to see if they made a squeak! Mine snapped in half trying, her's didn't!"

Advice on that - a lot of places have the "protection" plan that if anything happens they will replace them. That paid for itself MANY times over very quickly, and usually isn't more than $20 or so. It's money well spent. Our Optician knew us by first name.

Get her in the habit of putting them away in the same place, such as in her case, on the kitchen counter before going to bed works for us.

It will be a challenge at first, but it gets easier. Just have a sense of humor about it, and you won't get too frustrated. My son is 7 now, and he does MUCH better with them.

Good luck to you! Keep us posted!!

Ahh, the glasses gig!!

Our granddaughter who is now 5 going on six had to start wearing glasses and a patch when she was three and a half. We found the reward system worked. For every day she wore them, she got a sticker on a calendar and then a predetermined reward when she met the set goal.

We started small, Three stickers gets you the reward. (a new toy, book, trip to MacDonalds, etc.) Then increase it to five, then 8, etc. It worked. She now only has to wear the glasses a couple of hours a day.

A little about me. 59 yr old married RN grandmother. We are kinship caregivers to our granddaughter.