Nm

[Drama Llama]

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Edited October 27, 2021 by Nothingtoseehere

[PeterPan]

We have a swank optometrist in the big city that carries all those things. It's a pediatric office. So if yours doesn't have them, call around. 

Really though, you might get most of the way just with the warranty from Walmart. They replace them, frames and lenses. Let's just say we've used the warranty a little, lol. My ds' last pair I got through our optometrist because they swore they had a good warranty. Well now they're like ok just the frames, not the lenses. Walmart just does it. And you can't beat the price and convenience. You just take your scrip in and they'll fill it.

[PeterPan]

And walmart is FAST on their glasses, handy when you realize your kid is getting headaches without them. 

[busymama7]

We use Zenni for cheap but well made glasses.  You could at minimum have backups from them.  I will never pay hundreds for glasses again though. 

[Drama Llama]

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Edited October 27, 2021 by Nothingtoseehere

[Drama Llama]

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Edited October 27, 2021 by Nothingtoseehere

[busymama7]

37 minutes ago, BaseballandHockey said:

How do you know what size to buy?  Is that in the prescription? 

Any thoughts on the sports goggle thing?  Can I just send him to school in those? 

ETA: like this, could I send him to school and practice in these:

https://www.zennioptical.com/prescription-sport-goggles

 

 

You have to measure the pupillary distance but they have directions and I have done it many times (4 kids and myself) and it's never been a problem.

 

I don't know about sports ogglrs are all. We have done glasses and prescription sunglasses. But these are cheap enough to have spares for losing or breaking 

Edited July 17, 2021 by busymama7

[East Coast Sue]

For a light prescription, I haven’t ordered sport glasses or goggles with prescription; however, for the kid who literally can’t see anything without glasses- I order swim goggles online and I’d guess you could do the same with sport glasses. They aren’t expensive and my kid says they work beautifully. 

[Junie]

I would ask around your area for a good optometrist and get glasses there rather than online (especially for the first pair).  You will want your son to try on lots of frames to find out what style he likes and what looks good on his face.

As for sports glasses/goggles -- for me it would depend on the sport and how strong the prescription is.  If he's playing baseball where someone is pitching a ball near his face, I would absolutely want to make sure he can see that.  For something like football I might not bother.

And for woodworking?  -- I'm not sure.  It might depend on whether he is nearsighted or farsighted and what kind of work he is doing.  He might be able to wear regular safety goggles over his regular glasses.  Again, this would be a question for an optometrist.

[Lecka]

I would not trust sports glasses to substitute for safety glasses.

It will depend on his subscription and his preference if he needs them or not.  
 

Some kids do like to wear sports glasses all day.  Others do not.  It is a preference.  

[Tanaqui]

If his prescription is relatively minor and his sport doesn't require a lot of clear vision then no, I wouldn't bother with sports goggles at all.

[Drama Llama]

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Edited October 27, 2021 by Nothingtoseehere

[Shoeless]

We bought a pair of Rx regular glasses and sunglasses for DS13. When he does woodwork projects with DH, he just puts adult safety glasses on top of his regular glasses. 

10 minutes ago, BaseballandHockey said:

I think we do need sport goggles, based on what he plays, I am more wondering if he can just wear them all the time.  

He could, but I wouldn't. Goggles have an elastic band to go around the back of the head and fit kind of snug. There's no medical reason why he couldn't wear sport goggles all the time, but your choice in frames is going to be more limited and they look...well, like he's wearing goggles. They look sort of goofy, and I'd be worried about getting a headache after wearing the strap all day. 

I wouldn't get glasses via the optometrist because they are going to be expensive. If your kid is clutzy, get them through Zenni or make the drive to Walmart.  Walmart has a good guarantee and Zenni is dirt cheap.  If he breaks a Zenni pair, it's no big deal to just buy a new pair.  If neither of those places are an option, go to a 1 hour eyeglass place.  They'll be cheaper than anything the optometrist has in stock. 

Edited July 17, 2021 by MissLemon

[Annie G]

We’ve always just worn safety glasses over our eyeglasses, as have our kids.  Dd got her master’s in chemistry and never had prescription safety glasses.

I’d get regular glasses plus sports glasses. That way if the sports pair gets broken he’ll have another pair until they can be repaired.  Our grandkid’s sports glasses are heavier than his regular pair and he doesn’t like wearing his sports glasses off the field. But maybe that’s not true of all sports glasses.
 

[Lecka]

When you say “send him to school in sports glasses” — do you have any idea what other boys at his school?  Sometimes I will see little clusters of boys who all wear sports glasses to school for a while.  Then sometimes it’s more like 1-2 boys in the entire grade.

I have an impression it’s more common to wear sports glasses in 4th-5th grade?  I don’t know if it’s popular or parents tired of broken glasses.

Some kids are prone to breaking glasses a lot and it can be a reason a parent could push the sports glasses a bit more.

My 16yo son has broken 3 pairs of glasses through sheer stupidity.  

[Lecka]

I will also say — I knew at least one parent whose son around 4th-5th was playing basketball at recess and couldn’t manage to change into sports glasses at recess.  He would forget or he would lose his regular glasses.  Then if he forgot to put on his sports glasses he might break his glasses.

There’s a lot of personality and preferences involved, because some kids the same age would have no problems with switching glasses.  

[Junie]

1 hour ago, MissLemon said:

We bought a pair of Rx regular glasses and sunglasses for DS13. When he does woodwork projects with DH, he just puts adult safety glasses on top of his regular glasses. 

He could, but I wouldn't. Goggles have an elastic band to go around the back of the head and fit kind of snug. There's no medical reason why he couldn't wear sport goggles all the time, but your choice in frames is going to be more limited and they look...well, like he's wearing goggles. They look sort of goofy, and I'd be worried about getting a headache after wearing the strap all day. 

I wouldn't get glasses via the optometrist because they are going to be expensive. If your kid is clutzy, get them through Zenni or make the drive to Walmart.  Walmart has a good guarantee and Zenni is dirt cheap.  If he breaks a Zenni pair, it's no big deal to just buy a new pair.  If neither of those places are an option, go to a 1 hour eyeglass place.  They'll be cheaper than anything the optometrist has in stock. 

This is a good point about the price.  When I mentioned getting glasses from the optometrist, we have vision insurance that pays for most of the cost of our eyeglasses.  6/8 of us wear glasses, so the insurance is worth it for us.

[Lecka]

There definitely ARE boys who wear sports glasses all day.  There is no way to know if your son will like or hate them, or think they look cool or look stupid, until he does try them and until he does see what other kids are doing if that is something he cares about.

You can also see if he takes good care of his glasses and what your tolerance is for broken glasses.  
 

My tolerance is low when the level of stupidity is high and it would have been easy for my son to just take his glasses off before wrestling with his friend.  Also why were he and his friend trying to hit each other with sticks, when his friend hit his glasses with a stick and broke them?  And why did he leave his glasses on the couch even though we told him it was a bad idea?  
 

And this is a lot fewer glasses incidents than some kids, though a lot never break their glasses at all.

Edit:  I know why they were trying to hit each other with sticks, they were playing sword-fighting.  

Edited July 17, 2021 by Lecka

[catz]

We had great luck with the pediatric optometrist.   Yes, it was a bit more expensive but those glasses were fit much better and they had very good breakage, mid year Rx modifications, and losing follow up deals that we took full advantage of.  So you may want to investigate in your area.  And yes, my kids have had zenni glasses as well.
 

both my busy kids started wearing contacts about age 10 or 11 so if glasses aren’t working for sports, etc.  and that was also great at this optometrist.  They had a boot camp and both my kids came out of it 100% independent with their contacts.  
 

eta we do have some vision coverage.  

Edited July 17, 2021 by FuzzyCatz

[Lecka]

To be honest — it is good he is excited.  
 

But if there is any chance he might not always want to wear them when he should, I would look to try to pick what he likes.  It can make a big difference with actually wearing them.

 

Edit:  if he can get by without them.  My son can get by, he doesn’t *have* to wear them, and he has had phases where he just won’t wear them.  They don’t last long because he does know he needs them to see.  But he has done it for a few weeks here and there, for parts of days or all day.  
 

He also refused to wear a coat a lot.  I really can’t make him wear a coat or wear his glasses, sigh. 
 

He has outgrown this stuff now, thank goodness! 

 

Edited July 17, 2021 by Lecka

[Syllieann]

Sports glasses are good for sports, but they are much bigger and heavier than I would want my kid to wear all day. The wider lens size on the sports glasses means they use a larger blank to cut the lens, which makes it much thicker.  We used miraflex from 5-7, and now at 8 use tomato glasses.  Nano-vista is a great, durable option too.  Please, please, please make sure you don't get glasses that are too big.  If you can't find a shop that carries either of those you can order online and have them filled at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club.  I've ordered backups and sunglasses for myself and multiple kids through zenni and only had a good experience, but they don't offer aspheric lenses so we don't use those for the everyday glasses for the 8 yo.  He also has a dedicated pair of sports glasses from Wal-Mart to use for sports.  Any lenses you get should be polycarbonate.  I would personally just get cheap, wear-over safety glasses for woodworking.

Edited July 17, 2021 by Syllieann

[Shoeless]

31 minutes ago, Junie said:

This is a good point about the price.  When I mentioned getting glasses from the optometrist, we have vision insurance that pays for most of the cost of our eyeglasses.  6/8 of us wear glasses, so the insurance is worth it for us.

We have vision coverage, too, but it only pays so much toward the frames and lenses, and only for one pair per person. The optometrist has fancy, designer frames from Coach and Calvin Klein. I take kiddo there for the good medical care and get the Rx filled at the one-hour place because I am not paying $300 per pair after insurance at the optometrist. The "two pair for $99" place is just fine by me!

[Junie]

10 minutes ago, MissLemon said:

We have vision coverage, too, but it only pays so much toward the frames and lenses, and only for one pair per person. The optometrist has fancy, designer frames from Coach and Calvin Klein. I take kiddo there for the good medical care and get the Rx filled at the one-hour place because I am not paying $300 per pair after insurance at the optometrist. The "two pair for $99" place is just fine by me!

I think that ours usually end up being about $35-50 each.  The bifocals might be more though.

[Drama Llama]

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Edited October 27, 2021 by Nothingtoseehere

[SKL]

My eldest got her first glasses before her 3rd birthday.  She has always been a sportsy girl, and she was doing tot gymnastics at the time.  So when we went to order glasses, I had her do a tumble with the glasses on, to see what would happen.  They stayed on.  In all the years she wore glasses while doing various sports, she never had an issue with keeping them on, except when they had gotten loose and needed adjustment.  (I do have a video of loose glasses flying off during a gymnastics performance.  :P)

I asked the optometrist whether he recommended sports goggles, and he said yes, for sports that involve balls flying into faces, to protect the eyeball from broken glass.  I never did take the step to get them though.  (Kid started wearing contacts full-time at age 13.)

If I had it to do over, I probably would have done the Walmart thing, so it wouldn't be a big cost to buy multiple pairs.  Not that we needed it, but we could have.

[wathe]

We're going through this right now with DS12's first pair of glasses.  He's also weirdly excited about them.

We've bought a very robust set of frames from Costco.  They'll be ready for pick up next week.  

For safety glasses, we're using the kind that go overtop of regular glasses, like these.  

We haven't considers sports glasses, because his sports don't really need them, I don't think (gymnastics, swimming, volleyball, cycling).   We'll consider them only if the regular glasses are a problem.

Has your DS read Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians?  This book series makes glasses super cool.

 

 

[LucyStoner]

We rely on warranties.  My older son has a very strong prescription (the kind that nearly $300 at the “$99 1 hour glasses” places) so we haven’t been able to rely on finding anything cheaply.  I just took a chance on Zenni for backup glasses and sunglasses.  Our last attempt wasn’t successful and my husband hasn’t had good luck either.  For my son’s prescription it was still more than $100 a pair on Zenni.  It’s been a long time since we ordered from them and the price difference is so great that I figured we’d try one more time but only for backups.  

We haven’t done prescription sport glasses. I do see some kids wearing them all the time, but that’s usually younger kids.  I’m not sure an older kid would go for it.  
 

Edited July 17, 2021 by LucyStoner

[Drama Llama]

9 hours ago, SKL said:

My eldest got her first glasses before her 3rd birthday.  She has always been a sportsy girl, and she was doing tot gymnastics at the time.  So when we went to order glasses, I had her do a tumble with the glasses on, to see what would happen.  They stayed on.  In all the years she wore glasses while doing various sports, she never had an issue with keeping them on, except when they had gotten loose and needed adjustment.  (I do have a video of loose glasses flying off during a gymnastics performance.  :P)

I asked the optometrist whether he recommended sports goggles, and he said yes, for sports that involve balls flying into faces, to protect the eyeball from broken glass.  I never did take the step to get them though.  (Kid started wearing contacts full-time at age 13.)

If I had it to do over, I probably would have done the Walmart thing, so it wouldn't be a big cost to buy multiple pairs.  Not that we needed it, but we could have.

My kid’s preferred position in multiple sports is goal keeper.  So balls are flying at his face every day.

I really wish Walmart was an option, but I don’t think I can make it work.

[Drama Llama]

12 hours ago, MissLemon said:

If neither of those places are an option, go to a 1 hour eyeglass place.  They'll be cheaper than anything the optometrist has in stock. 

I am confused by the difference between the 1 hour place and the optometrist.  Aren’t they the same thing? The optometrist we went to is in the glasses store.

I think for the first pair we need to at least try them on in a store.  I wish Walmart was an option but I don’t think I can make it work.

[Drama Llama]

. . .

Edited October 27, 2021 by Nothingtoseehere

[Acorn]

My kids get new glasses every year. About every 2 - 2 1/2 years, I update the lenses in their sports glasses. Their prescription doesnt change enough to affect playing soccer so we stretch those out.  For soccer, I really think sports glasses are important. However youth glasses today are no longer actual glass like my childhood, so everyday frames are safer than they used to be. They are not as durable though, so shop around for replacement guarantee. 

Prescription swim googles can be ordered from Amazon or swim outlet for crazy cheap. It isn’t an exact prescription match but better than nothing. 
 

I would fully support my teens if they wanted disposable contacts but they are not interest. Most sports families I know have their children use contacts.

[Lecka]

You can also get a strap or band for regular glasses.  

They can go a long way if there is a smaller amount of bouncing or sliding.  
 

There are also little rubber strips that slide over the ear part, my sister gets those or she will cut them off of straps.  She doesn’t like straps but needs the rubber strip sometimes.
 

OP — it definitely sound like you need sports glasses! 
 

Edit:  but if he wants to wear regular glasses when he’s not at a practice or a game, he might like a band or strap, or grippy thing.  No one in my family would wear a band or strap, so the grippy things are a good option.  

Edited July 17, 2021 by Lecka

[Drama Llama]

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Edited October 27, 2021 by Nothingtoseehere

[wathe]

38 minutes ago, BaseballandHockey said:

I am glad mine isn’t the only one!  Does he have a reason that makes sense?

 

Yeah those sound more doable with regular glasses.

We will check it out! 

Really no logical reason.  It's weird.  Alcatraz Smedry's awesomeness?

[Lecka]

Both my kids who wear glasses said that, about it being cool to look like a nerd and look smart.  
 

 

[SKL]

My kids liked glasses too.  I don't get it.  I was legally blind and the first "four eyes" in my class.  I hated glasses so much.  I mean, yeah, they were cool at first, until I started having constant pain on my nose and ears, couldn't see in the rain, couldn't come inside in winter or cook without them getting fogged up, had to constantly clean them or push them up ... I have no idea why my kids didn't have all these complaints.  😛  Hopefully the technology of glasses has improved over the years.

[Lecka]

Lenses are much lighter than they used to be.  

[hippymamato3]

My daughter is super excited for her glasses while she's waiting to get them every year. But...she almost never wears them. 

[Tanaqui]

Lenses *are* lighter than they used to be.

I had a book as a child - I actually read it to the kids when they were young - "From Anna", by Jean Little. Anna's eyesight is canonically *better than mine* - she can barely see the E at the top of the eye chart, and I haven't been able to see it without squinting since middle school, but her vision is considered so poor that she has to be in the special "kids with poor vision" class since it can't be totally corrected with glasses.

Because between WWII and today, our technology has improved such that the bad eyesight that was only partially correctable with very heavy glasses then is now totally correctable with much lighter glasses today.

[Shoeless]

8 hours ago, BaseballandHockey said:

I am confused by the difference between the 1 hour place and the optometrist.  Aren’t they the same thing? The optometrist we went to is in the glasses store.

I think for the first pair we need to at least try them on in a store.  I wish Walmart was an option but I don’t think I can make it work.

No, not the same thing necessarily. Some one hour places have a doctor on staff, but the one by me does not. You take your prescription there, pick your frames, and they cut the lenses. They operate more like an Rx glasses pharmacy.

My son sees a stand-alone eye doctor that is not affiliated with a  chain frame shop/1 hour place, (like Lens Crafters).  The optometrist has some frames there, but a)super expensive and b)they don't cut lenses there. They send them out somewhere, so it takes 2 weeks to get them in.

DS13 has a thin spot on his retina, so I want him evaluated by the same doctor each time we go.  If I go to a 1 hour place, (there's one in another town, but they are rude there), I just get whatever staff doctor is there that day.  Staff doctor would be fine for my eyes that need reading glasses only. Not fine for kiddo's eyes that have an issue that needs monitoring and continuity of care. 

Edited July 17, 2021 by MissLemon