Thinned out lenses.

January

Hi all,

My 4 year old daughter has worn glasses since she was 9 month's old. It's crept up and up and she is now on +5.00 lenses in both eyes. She was +4.00 last time around.

What I'm wondering, is would the thinned out lenses be better for her or would normal lenses be ok? The optician recommended them, but I'm not completely sure?

Daisies

January wrote: »

Hi all,

My 4 year old daughter has worn glasses since she was 9 month's old. It's crept up and up and she is now on +5.00 lenses in both eyes. She was +4.00 last time around.

What I'm wondering, is would the thinned out lenses be better for her or would normal lenses be ok? The optician recommended them, but I'm not completely sure?

For the weight alone, I would thin them out. They will be light, look better and will also give your child more natural vision as they won't magnify everything as much. It's worth knowing that you can get an extra allowance from the HSE for thinning lenses but I can't remember what the prescription needs to be.

blackeyedpeat

I would recommend the lenses are thinned out for a +5.00 prescription.
Your optician should be able to give you good advice on choice of frames and should be able to keep the cost of the lenses down.
Unfortunately the HSE only give an additional grant when the prescription goes over +6.00.

Daisies

blackeyedpeat wrote: »

I would recommend the lenses are thinned out for a +5.00 prescription.
Your optician should be able to give you good advice on choice of frames and should be able to keep the cost of the lenses down.
Unfortunately the HSE only give an additional grant when the prescription goes over +6.00.

Thanks for that, it's been nearly 3 years since I worked somewhere that I dealt directly with HSE allowances.

RiseToMe

At four years old her frame size will still be quite small, ask your optician for surfaced 1.6 aspheric lenses.

This is the absolute max a children's rx needs to be thinned to.

Anything thinner than this would not be noticeable to you or your child.

To be honest if it was my own child I would just be using the standard index but surfaced and aspheric.

endplate

Pick a small full metal or plastic frame and ask for minimum diameter 1.5 index lenses. By far the cheapest option. I would not recommend any high index as you are putting high expense on yourself and you could be changing the lenses every 6 months.

Standard lenses are 65mm in diameter before cutting, a smaller diameter lens contains less lens material and are therefore thinner

January

Fantastic advice, thanks all.