Pale Pink Spectacles | Teaching A Toddler To Wear Glasses

November 8, 2018

when our sweet daughter turned one year old, her pediatrician discovered a slight astigmatism during an eye exam at her one year check up. after being referred to a pediatric optometrist, whom we’ve grown to really like, we were told she would be in glasses at 2 1/2. and as happens time and time again, a year passed in a blink of an eye (pun intended) and we were picking out her first pair of glasses this fall. the excitement of getting glasses lasted a day or two, before the real struggle of teaching a toddler to wear glasses began. i wish i could tell you there is a magic secret, but really it’s a journey of success and set backs.

with her doctor wanting her wearing glasses for 7 hours a day, we started off small and gradually made our goal after a month. in the beginning, it was all about slipping on her glasses while she was distracted…like watching a tv show, or eating. once they were on, she would forget about them and would only become aware of them should someone dare mention the word, “glasses.” in the early weeks, we banned the word from the house…as it was a little bit of a sensitive topic. my dad light heartedly called them her “facial ornaments” whenever talking about them, which had us all laughing. we had reached the point of talking in code.

we tried it all. we all wore our glasses to encourage and support her. we secretly slipped them on. we bargained. we bribed. we celebrated her success.

we did good for a week or two, wearing the thing that shall not be named for a couple hours a day. then we had a week where she wanted nothing to do with them: a tiny step back. exactly one month after bringing her new glasses home, mama put her foot down and resorted to simple communication about the glasses. i simply told her when she woke up that we would be wearing our glasses all day. i used phrases like, “we need to put on our glasses first, then we can go play with our friends” or “first, we need to put our glasses on and then we can play in the playroom.” seems so simple, yet it was the ticket that worked! not only was it our secret to success, but we taught her order of operations in the process!

from that monday morning on, she has worn her glasses from sun up to sun down, averaging well over the 7 hours of recommended wearing and are actually doing more than 8 hours a day! we are now finishing our second entire week of all day, effortless glasses wearing and can even say the word glasses, without her wanting to take them off. she even asks to put her glasses on right after she gets out of bed in the morning, which seriously warms our hearts. i am not sure if it was a month of glasses introduction that did the trick, the clear communication or both…but we are celebrating this as a parenting win. teaching a toddler to wear glasses is easily one of our biggest challenges as parents and it is so nice to have that hurdle behind us now. every child is different, but i think repetition and communication was our life saver.

and prayer. i am not going to underestimate the power of simple praying about it. a little prayer, patience and a toddler who took the transition with grace got us to wearing our glasses easily. and she is oh so darling! i can’t imagine her without glasses now!

for a complete guide on how I photograph my baby girl’s first year, be sure to read the first twelve. and to learn how i document our everyday, be sure to read the everyday photograph.

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