re: Question for people that wear contacts

Started wearing contacts in 3rd grade

Was the youngest kid my doctor ever started on contacts

I now wear dailies. Had monthlies first a while. They aren’t high maintenance like others are making it seem. Put them in the case at night. And put them in when you wake up.

I was a legitimate child in contacts. I could put them in my eye black out drunk on a rollercoaster now.

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I am surprised you can wear them with astigmatism in both eyes. I've know two or three people with it in just one eye and contacts drove them crazy. My sister tried them, and couldn't stand it for more than a few minutes.

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Never had a problem with Acuvue Oasys. Recently tried a trial run of the daily disposables and they were awful.

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Never had a problem with Acuvue Oasys. Recently tried a trial run of the daily disposables and they were awful.

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Oasys are the best I've ever worn. I have been strictly glasses for a while now, and need to get back and have my eyes checked.

I would get the breathable soft contacts if they have the option and you can leave them in for extended time as well. I can't think of the name I wear right off the top but I had a hang up at the very first with putting them in...by the third day, I was a pro. SO much better than glasses honestly. FYI...going on year 30 wearing contacts.

I buy my dailies from contactlensking.com for $160 every 6 months. I definitely agree with the recommendation to only purchase 6 months at a time, especially at first. My 14 year old just got contacts a few months ago, and it only took her a few days to get the hang of it. Good luck!

I order mine from 1-800 contacts. It cost me about $130/year and I pay with my HSA.

Been wearing hard contacts for 50 years.

Go disposables. Your kid isn’t going to swap out or clean non-disposable contacts like she is supposed to and she will get eye infections.

For what it's worth, I have some advice for you, since neither you nor your spouse have experience with contacts:

I'm pretty nearsighted and I started wearing contacts when I was 13. My mother wouldn't let me get them any earlier than that because she wanted to be absolutely sure that I was willing to wash my hands every time I needed to handle my contacts. Daily disposables helps with that, because she won't be required to disinfect them and it'll keep her from doing careless things like reusing solution. When I got contacts, mine were one pair of soft lenses that I'd wear for about a year (taking them out every night) before replacing them with another pair once they started to get thin and became less comfortable.

I don't know about vision requirements, but I'm a bit surprised they'd recommend hard lenses for an 11 year old. They're definitely less comfortable than soft lenses and even the best gas permeables don't let as much oxygen through them as modern silicon hydrogel soft lenses do. But I'm sure there are good reasons why they recommend them, I'd just want to ask why and make sure I understood their reasoning.

Aside from good hygiene, please make sure she understands that she MUST take her contacts out every night. Even if they're extended wear lenses, don't risk it. I had to stop wearing contacts in December, probably forever, due to something called Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency. My LSCD is partially caused by having too many blood vessels in my eyes from when I was a teenager and thought falling asleep in my contacts overnight was no big deal. I was definitely wrong. And now, 22 years later, I'm back to wearing glasses.

Here's what my right eye looked like when I had cloudy vision due to LSCD, which meant that my cornea was not able to repair itself like normal. Thankfully, my eyes are now healed and my vision is back to 20/20. I'm just stuck wearing glasses because I'm not a good candidate for LASIK and scleral contacts are risky and expensive.



Cost-wise, I was paying about $180-$200 a year for 12 pairs of monthly lenses from my optometrist's office (Cooper Vision Biofinity and earlier, Proclear). That was without any eye insurance discount. I checked 1800Contacts and their price was slightly higher than what my optometrist charged.