We have yet to be able to teach Sam not to push his glasses up by putting his fingers on the lenses. The result is that they are pretty much always spotty, even 5 minutes after I’ve cleaned them. Last night, he pushed on them right after eating an ice cream sandwich. Result= two chocolate fingerprints right in the middle of the lenses.
I’ve also noticed that the supposedly scratch resistant lenses already have scratches in them. My glasses do, too, and they have the uber expensive, all the bells and whistles type lenses in them. They had a scratch within two months of me getting them. That’s about how long Sam’s had his now, too, and they have a couple of little scratches on them.
We’ve had our first trip to have Sam’s glasses adjusted, too. My husband was concerned they wouldn’t be able to straighten them and we’d have to buy another pair, but there is a reason that kids’ glasses are made out of titanium.
He’s been ordering books for the kids lately, too, and quite by coincidence ordered an Arthur book that is about D.W. wanting to get glasses, too, so she can be like her big brother. It hadn’t occurred to me before to look for books were someone where glasses, but I thought that as he gets older Sam might enjoy reading books were the kid has glasses, too. The Harry Potter books come to mind, but those will obviously be quite a few years down the road. Anyone run across books for toddlers that feature a character with glasses?
For Little Eyes 
Eliza’s glasses got a huge scratch on the lenses the first day she had them. In fact, I got a call from her daycare that she had broken them within hours of leaving the glasses store! (I was really not shocked by this. We hadn’t had time to explain about only grown-ups putting them on/taking them off her, etc.) I complained to the glasses tech that maybe the scratch coating wasn’t worth it, but she said they’d be even worse without it. She said some people get their lenses replaced every month. The doctor pointed out, though, that they have to be pretty badly scratched before it will interfere with her vision. For some reason my own lenses are not scratched at all.
Regarding books…we went out and bought LOTS of eyeglasses-related books as soon as Eliza got her specs. My big problem with most of them is that they’re all about how much the kid doesn’t want to wear his/her glasses. Eliza was excited to get glasses, so I didn’t want to make her feel like it was something she should be feeling bad about. The books I like most are Agapanthus Hum and the Eyeglasses, which addresses the issue of how to keep the glasses on/safe while being active, and Glasses, Who Needs ‘Em? which is a very silly book about all kinds of creatures that supposedly wear glasses. Love the artwork in this one, too.
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I gotta tell ya…the Nerd Strap is the way to go. Franklin doesn’t wear his everyday and I can totally tell the difference by how dirty his lenses are. We decided to let his hair be longer over the summer to hide the darn thing. 🙂 Isn’t Sam’s hair longer and curlier too?
Also, I posted a list of kids books about glasses on the site…look for the link on the right hand side of the page. I also like the “Agapanthus Hum” book, as well as “The Patch”, but that one deals with kids who need to wear patches more than the glasses. I haven’t seen all of them, but you can read reviews on amazon at least. Good luck!
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I’m always amazed by just how dirty Zoe’s glasses get, even when they’ve just been cleaned and she hasn’t been eating or anything. And after meals, it’s like she’s looking at the world through yogurt-tinted lenses.
Katherine, I’m glad you heard the same thing I did about the scratches, that they don’t interfere with vision unless they’re really bad. I was kind of skeptical of the scratch-resistant coating, but it probably does help, and I shudder to think just how scratched Zoe’s glasses would be if she didn’t have it.
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D’uh! I totally missed the book link.
Where does one find the nerd strap? Any optical store? I don’t remember seeing any at Target’s optical store.
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I bought our Nerd Strap at the eye doctor’s boutique. I asked about them and the woman gave one to me from behind the desk. It made me feel like I was buying porn, but whatever. I haven’t seen them too many places myself, but I’m sure you’ll find one if you ask!
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Re: children’s books with a main character who wears glasses, there are the Arthur books by Marc Brown. They have fun peek-behind-the-flaps “find’em” board books, too.
http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/authorsillustrato/a/marcbrown.htm
when your child gets older there is Harriet the Spy — my all time favorite book!!
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