Not much help currently, but when he gets a little older he may be able to wear contacts earlier than you think. We put my son in dailies (no cleaning, new pair every day) because between soccer, karting, and not MTB glasses didn't work very well. Talk to his eye doctor, has worked very well for him (after a few days of adjustment).
Kids Spectacles / (prescription) Glasses for MTB
My children really are the gifts that keeping on giving... This week`s discovery was one of my boys (6) really (really really) needs to wear prescription glasses riding or he will hit a tree (err...again). It would have been good if he had mentioned stuff was blurry up ahead when asked previously. Im thus interested to hear what other parents recommend/have bought. He is now the less than proud owner of two pairs of standard kids plastic frame/lens version which he can actually wear under a full face helmet (so they dont get hit when he goes down) but theyre not ideal for several reasons (including air flow) and many times he will only wear a regular trail helmet and Id prefer them not to crack on schoolboy error. He is too young for contact lenses...but equally his prescription will likely change each year to some extent.
Any tips? ... he is getting faster and seeing stuff would be quite helpful...
Any tips? ... he is getting faster and seeing stuff would be quite helpful...
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Zenni Optical. Cheap and good.My children really are the gifts that keeping on giving... This week`s discovery was one of my boys (6) really (really really) needs to wear prescription glasses riding or he will hit a tree (err...again). It would have been good if he had mentioned stuff was blurry up ahead when asked previously. Im thus interested to hear what other parents recommend/have bought. He is now the less than proud owner of two pairs of standard kids plastic frame/lens version which he can actually wear under a full face helmet (so they dont get hit when he goes down) but theyre not ideal for several reasons (including air flow) and many times he will only wear a regular trail helmet and Id prefer them not to crack on schoolboy error. He is too young for contact lenses...but equally his prescription will likely change each year to some extent.
Any tips? ... he is getting faster and seeing stuff would be quite helpful...
I've been ordering from them for myself for years.Zenni Optical. Cheap and good.
This is what I usually do:
- 1 primary pair
- 1 pair tinted for sunglasses with the same frame (something like 80% tint)
- A few frame spares. They don't make it super obvious but you can order just the frame and then have a backup to swap your lenses over to if the frame gets trashed.
Probably really good with kids, since you can get them some cheap sunglasses and they'll probably actually like wearing them (because they are sunglasses).
I was looking around for some sports glasses type .. ones with straight but grippy rubber inner arms that sort of stick to head better than the standard ones.. but wasn’t anything in the store kids size so will look online as suggested.. Seems optician(s) here also reluctant to make high index (thin) lenses for kids .. because of lack of scratch proofing I guess or cost or something else maybe.? . we didn’t really get into it as we just needed to sort some on the spot. Will enquire further but today at the play park they were fine for a while with a sports band retainer on -but I could see he felt restricted in some movement. They actually worked okay on the pump track with a trail helmet as he could keep the sports retainer on .. but actually the full face which he should have been wearing was useless with glasses as they needed to go on after the helmet and then without the retaining band. After a lap they were falling forward with all the head movement.
Liberty sport has a pretty extensive collection of kids sports glasses.
Find a good local optician that can order and fit them for you.
Find a good local optician that can order and fit them for you.
Zenni. Get all the prescription info including pupillary distance. Take measurements from the frames you got locally so you have ballpark idea of what fits. When searching for frames, under material specify TR. Make sure to get Polycarbonate or Trivex lenses. As noted above, it's a good idea to get one clear, one tinted, and buy at least one spare frame.
thanks.. maybe Im missing something but browsed all their younger kids stuff. All I can see are typical glasses which look similar to what he has... except 2 pairs of sports protective goggles which can only do a low grade + prescription and arent ideal anyway... . Shall look around properly on internet when a large xmas lunch prevents any active movement
I'm not sure exactly what you have in mind. Generally, clear glasses won't look very 'cool', and many frames will look cool with tinted lenses. These have the advantage of no metal hinge to break Gray Kids’ Flexible Square Glasses #2021412 | Zenni Optical Eyeglasses
Thanks. Cool is a non issue - all kids glasses are fine these days and he is young etc. Issue is those type can only take up to +3 which is way to low for his long sight
Got it, that's quite a strong prescription for a kid. It's possible that with a higher index lens they can do a higher diopter in that frame. Maybe ask their CS?
Edit: I see that the highest index impact resistant lens is polycarbonate, which is only a bit thinner than standard.
Edit: I see that the highest index impact resistant lens is polycarbonate, which is only a bit thinner than standard.
Thanks again
Yeah. Weird that we, he or his school didn’t notice… I mean somehow he learnt to read and not crash all the other times! I asked again today at the opticians who adjusted his new glasses and they said high index lenses may only get the weight down 20% when it’s a ’ + loads ’ lens, but that we should be able to get some other sports frames which they could then sort lenses for. Apparently HI lenses do scratch easily and kids can even need two prescription changes in one year (!?) at his age so didn’t recommend burning money on them. He is already scheduled for a check up at Easter…
Prob cheaper for me to buy him another full face helmet -but one you can take the jaw on and off like my old Bell one. That way he has the retainer on the back of his current glasses which is able to hold them on. Sigh. So that’s a lightly used Met Parachute in size small his mum can wear to the grocery store then…The minute he is able to wear contacts I guess it should be easier. Thankfully his mum wears contacts so will start showing him how to do it and maybe he will be up to it in 2-3 years.
Yeah. Weird that we, he or his school didn’t notice… I mean somehow he learnt to read and not crash all the other times! I asked again today at the opticians who adjusted his new glasses and they said high index lenses may only get the weight down 20% when it’s a ’ + loads ’ lens, but that we should be able to get some other sports frames which they could then sort lenses for. Apparently HI lenses do scratch easily and kids can even need two prescription changes in one year (!?) at his age so didn’t recommend burning money on them. He is already scheduled for a check up at Easter…
Prob cheaper for me to buy him another full face helmet -but one you can take the jaw on and off like my old Bell one. That way he has the retainer on the back of his current glasses which is able to hold them on. Sigh. So that’s a lightly used Met Parachute in size small his mum can wear to the grocery store then…The minute he is able to wear contacts I guess it should be easier. Thankfully his mum wears contacts so will start showing him how to do it and maybe he will be up to it in 2-3 years.
High index vs Polycarbonate is typically a wash in terms of weight, depending on a lot of factors. High index is a very dense material, but we need less of it to make the same Rx in a given lens.
I like high index for a plus Rx as the curvatures can be a lot less extreme and thickness can come down. This results in less of a "bug eye" look for the wearer, less distortion and having a Pt look through a whole bunch of polycarbonate is rarely a good idea. In my experience, polycarbonate is a junk material and I haven't fit it in years. the only ones that like polycarbonate are labs and insurance companies as it is a profitable material for them.
As for scratch resistance, polycarbonate is BY FAR the easiest to scratch lens material. Without topically applied scratch coatings they would scratch insanely easy. Scratch coatings help, but since the polycarbonate substrate is so soft, they are still the easiest to damage lens surfaces. They also tend to stress fracture and be very chemically sensitive.
High index lenses are a significantly harder lens material, this makes them a lot harder to scratch.
When fitting high index lenses, I also strongly suggest anti-reflective treatments as they can have higher surface reflection rates. A good anti-reflective sounds foolish on kids glasses, however we typically get significantly better scratch warranties from the labs when using a quality anti-reflective (I use Hoya EX3+ or Recharge), our lab gives a 2 year scratch warranty with our treatments.
I like high index for a plus Rx as the curvatures can be a lot less extreme and thickness can come down. This results in less of a "bug eye" look for the wearer, less distortion and having a Pt look through a whole bunch of polycarbonate is rarely a good idea. In my experience, polycarbonate is a junk material and I haven't fit it in years. the only ones that like polycarbonate are labs and insurance companies as it is a profitable material for them.
As for scratch resistance, polycarbonate is BY FAR the easiest to scratch lens material. Without topically applied scratch coatings they would scratch insanely easy. Scratch coatings help, but since the polycarbonate substrate is so soft, they are still the easiest to damage lens surfaces. They also tend to stress fracture and be very chemically sensitive.
High index lenses are a significantly harder lens material, this makes them a lot harder to scratch.
When fitting high index lenses, I also strongly suggest anti-reflective treatments as they can have higher surface reflection rates. A good anti-reflective sounds foolish on kids glasses, however we typically get significantly better scratch warranties from the labs when using a quality anti-reflective (I use Hoya EX3+ or Recharge), our lab gives a 2 year scratch warranty with our treatments.
A great help. Thanks a lot. I’ll see if there is any change by Easter in the prescription and then see what can be sorted. Current lenses are CR39 whatever that is. .. quite thick but quite clear optics or something. Likely the cheapest as they are free for kids which is fine while we sort something decent. Indeed my wife always has HI for her back up glasses so it was my thought to go to for my lad (until put off). There is something in UK about online issuance of prescriptions for kids (legality etc) I’ll figure out also but sure can sort.
Ask his eye doc about contacts. I've fit kids that young before for medical necessity. You'll have to put 'em in and take 'em out though. It's definitely not something any kid can do (and many doc's would probably shy away as well), but I'm often surprised how amazing kids can be.
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