Are Contacts Safe
for Kids?

By Gary Heiting, OD

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Yes, contacts are safe for kids. The human eye can tolerate contact lenses at a very early age. In special cases, even infants are fitted with contacts, to overcome eye conditions such as congenital nystagmus.

A key factor in determining if contact lenses are safe for your child is evaluating how willing he or she is to wear contacts responsibly and take proper care of them.

Over-wearing contact lenses, especially sleeping while wearing contacts designed for daytime use only, can greatly increase the risk for contact lens-related eye problems.

Also, your child must demonstrate an ability to apply and remove the lenses without significant difficulty and to clean and disinfect the lenses with appropriate contact lens solutions after each use.

Often, a child's success in wearing contacts depends on how motivated he or she is to wear them. Even if you wear contact lenses yourself, don't assume your child wants to wear contacts. Some children are perfectly happy wearing eyeglasses and may not have an interest in contacts until they are young adults, if at all.

At What Age Are Contacts Safe for Kids To Wear?

Many parents with children who want to wear contacts wonder what is an appropriate age for kids to start. It used to be common to wait until a child was a teenager before considering contact lenses. But in 2008, the Contact Lenses in Pediatrics (CLIP) study found that children as young as 8 years old are mature enough to handle contact lens wear, and children ages 8 to 12 in the study had no increased risk of contact lens-related eye problems than teenagers enrolled in the study.

Also, 83 percent of children ages 8 to 12 in the CLIP study said contact lenses were easy to take care of, and 92 percent chose to continue wearing contacts.

Results from another study suggest contact lenses may have an additional benefit for young children — they may boost self-esteem.

A total of 484 children ages 8 to 11 were enrolled in the Child Health Initiative to Encourage Vision Empowerment (ACHIEVE) study and were randomly assigned to wear eyeglasses or contact lenses for a period of three years.

After the study period, all the children completed questionnaires that assessed their self-perceptions in a number of areas. Results suggested children's self-perceptions of their physical appearance, athletic competence and social acceptance are likely to improve with contact lens wear.

Proponents of contact lenses for children also point out that kids who wear contact lenses that block the sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays may have a significantly lower lifetime exposure to UV radiation, which has been associated with eye problems such as cataracts and macular degeneration later in life. So wearing contact lenses at an early age may help prevent certain eye problems later in life.

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[Page updated November 2009]