Alright, so reading the comments recently, it sounds like we’ve got a number of people with different experiences with the different sunglasses options. I’d like to write a round-up post that talks about the pros and cons of the different options: transition lenses, prescription sunglasses, clip-ons, (am I missing any other options? I suppose you could do non-prescription sunglasses.). So this is where you come in. If you’re child is using one or more of these options for sunglasses, would you either leave a comment with a brief comments on what you liked and didn’t like? Or email me – ann@shinypebble.com – especially if you wouldn’t mind submitting a picture. Also, if you’re willing to share what you paid for them, and where you got them, I’d love to include that as well.
Thanks!
Here is a picture of Elliana’s clip-on sunglasses.
For Little Eyes 
We bought the smallest pair of clip-ons available at our OP and had them adjusted (bent the bridge into an upsidedown v). See the picture in the post above. They are shown snapped onto Elliana’s glasses. They were $18 with the case and are very easy to snap on and off. Since they didn’t fit the best on our 2nd pair of glasses, we also tried Zenni and ordered a super cute pink pair (also under $20) They are not cable temples, however, and so Elly refuses to wear them. We are trying the framehuggers head strap to keep them on, but she has been in a mood this week!
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Our son, 4 1/2 yrs, was diagnosed with amblyopia 1 month ago, and has glasses and a Perfect Patch reuseable patch. He was used to wearing sunglasses, so to help him wear the new glasses more of the time, we got him some clip-on sunglasses. About Cdn$50, we found them in Vancouver while on vacation – chosen because they fitted his frames and are polarized. We are still working on getting him to wear the glasses full time but the clip-ons help.
He will wear the patch for 4 hours in the morning…unless he’s going to daycare…so we’re getting there. I just hope we see some improvement at the next appointment to show him that it is all worthwhile!
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Thanks Emma! Did you find the clip-ons at a specialty shop?
Good luck as you continue with the patching and glasses!
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It was just a regular optician shop, but advertised that it carried a fair selection of kids’ stuff, and they happened to have clip-ons that fitted. Otherwise we would have had to get our local store to order in clip-ons to fit.
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We had our local shop tint a back up pair of Bennett’s glasses, it was $15. His prescription was changing so quickly that the sunglasses were outdated within a few months. Now he’s a bit more stable and we’re looking at ordering some sunglasses from Zenni. He does have a pair of current prescription that are slightly tinted and we try to use those for outside for now, though with his light sensitivity the doctor wanted them tinted just for around the house, too.
I ordered regular glasses and sunglasses from Zenni for myself before I ordered any for Bennett – I wanted to see how accurate the prescription was. I like them both – I think the tinting was an extra $5.
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My daughter was diagnosed with farsightedness and strabismus in January, just a few months past her 4th birthday. She’s always worn sunglasses in the summer so I knew I’d want to do something for her when she got her glasses. I opted for transition lenses, mainly because the cost of pair of prescription sunglasses on top of her regular glasses was so much (that was before I found this site and read about Zenni). We got her glasses from Wal-Mart optical – if for any reason during the first 60 days we decided we did not like the transition lenses we could have taken them back and they would have put regular lenses in her frames and refunded me the difference. I thought that was a pretty good deal, so we gave the transition lenses a try.
So far we have been happy with them – my Emma has not had any trouble going from outside to inside and they seem to darken enough for her. And it’s really nice not to have to switch back and forth between glasses and sunglasses. If I have one con about them is that for her, I think at times she would really like to have sunglasses that look like sunglasses – you know, the thicker plastic framed sunglasses like she used to be able to wear.
I honestly can’t tell you how much it cost – I can’t remember and my receipt doesn’t separate it out – sorry!
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Thanks for all the great feedback on the sunglasses! It’s very interesting to learn more about the different options.
Having to keep track of, and switch out, 2 pairs of glasses is definitely one of the drawbacks to the prescription sunglasses.
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Hello,
Our little girl wears perscription sunglasses. We also have her regular glasses and her back-up pair too. They were a little more expensive then her regular glasses. She has accomodative estrophia with strabisimus.
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