How we found the right glasses for our son

The oldest was three when he got his first pair of glasses. We went to the clinic and it was immediately clear that his eyesight was poor. Since I have an eye disease myself and we were going on an extended trip pretty soon after the doctor’s appointment, we were allowed to see the eye doctor right away. Here he turned out to have +2 and +6.

We went looking for glasses. Meanwhile he is ten and we are experts in buying glasses.

Already seen

How young he was, I did have the idea that he didn’t see it all that well. How? He always sat way too close to the television site for me. Now more children have this, but our oldest really got into the picture tube.

When he was three and we came to the doctor at the consultation office, he was tested. He could see fine with one eye, but with the other eye he really couldn’t see text on the wall. Because I already had glasses myself at a young age and turned out to have an eye disease with puberty, but also because we were going on a seven-month trip right after this appointment, we were allowed to go straight to the ophthalmologist.

A glasses and sticker

Here it became immediately clear that he had poor vision. With his ‘good eye’ glasses had to be +2 and with his ‘bad eye’ +6. He also had to have a sticker on his eye for several hours every day.

Buying glasses

In good spirits we went to the glasses shop. We decided to go to a cheaper glasses store, because we thought we would be fine here. And we did. There was a bit of a fight because we liked the red glasses, but the son insisted on blue glasses.

That he really needed them was immediately clear. As soon as the glasses were in the house, he put them on and only took them off when he went to bed. There was no struggle about it.

Which was very pleasant.

Cheap is expensive

Recently I wrote an article about the fact that I used to buy a lot of cheap shoes, but nowadays I go for the more expensive and better quality shoes, quality over quantity. In the first four years, four pairs of glasses went through. We went to the same glasses store every time and bought fine glasses.

However, the lenses were often dull and full of scratches after a year and the glasses were relatively fragile. Because the son had +6 glasses, these glasses were very thick, so the glasses kept slipping off his nose (top heavy). So he did not need new glasses because his eyes were getting worse, but because his glasses were getting really ugly.

Better new glasses

The eye doctor then advised us to go to another glasses store. We did this, bought expensive glasses, also chose expensive lenses. Glasses that were ground thin so that the glasses did not become top heavy, but also with a special coating on them so that they would not become dull.

He ended up wearing these glasses for over three years. Even now they are still good, but they have become too small and the strength of his eye has changed.

The glasses from 3 years old, the first 4 years he needed a new frame and glasses every year. He’s had the last pair of glasses for three years now

My opinion

Last Saturday we bought new glasses. We are now going for the ‘this one will last’trophy again although of course you never know in advance. We do go for a more expensive brand and glass again, because we are simply very satisfied with it. Of course this is something very personal and I certainly don’t want to say that one is better than the other. The son chose a smooth red one and this one looked very nice on him again.

This week we can pick it up and hope it will last a long time.