Helping DD with contacts for the first time

[Gigi22]

I found it was easier to manipulate contacts when my fingernails were short. Longer nails seemed to make it harder somehow.

 

[lovetoscrap]

Thanks. She is determined and talked to some friends at school today, plus I told her about what you guys have said. She feels much better about having difficulties since she knows it is pretty normal for it to take 2-3 weeks.

She got one in tonight! I think she has found a hand position that is going to work for her, which is of course not even close to what the dr showed her. She was close with the other one but just couldn't get it off of her finger!

Then she couldn't get the one that was in out. She was pulling it down and got pretty close to getting it out but her eye was just getting too irritated. She decided she wanted it out quickly so I pulled it out.

She is less frustrated today. Knowing that this will take time and it is normal to not be able to get it right away really helps.

 

[mandy200587]

It took a while for me, I put the contact on my middle finger I think and put it in that way and if I need to make sure it's in just right, I look up then down then a bit sideways.

For the few weeks she's getting use to them and she's got irritated eyes, when she doesn't have contacts in, use Thera tears or some form of saline. I've been off contacts for almost three weeks because I scratched/irritated my eyes badly and that was the only thing outside of prescription drops that made it tolerable till the drops kicked in

 

[mrodgers]

Different brands also are different. When my DS first got his the lens was very flimsy. I asked for a different brand and it was just a tiny bit thicker. He had an easier time with those. Make sure she has no nails and is putting it on the very tip of her finger, just barely there. I wet my eye a tiny bit and make sure my finger is dry. It will stick to the wetter environment.

It really does just take practice. Good luck!

The dry finger seems to depend on the contact. My old contacts, I had to ensure my finger was very dry and the contact was very wet on the opposite side.

My new contacts, I couldn't get to come off my finger and onto my eye. I filled the contact more with saline and it overfilled and ran over wetting my finger. Contact came right off and sucked right onto my eye. Complete opposite of my old contacts.

Took me hours when I first came home with them. Within a week, it was a 3 second 1 hand procedure. Same went for my daughter. A week and she was able to do it with 1 hand.

Make sure when she is trying to hold her eyelids open, eyelids and the fingers used to hold them open is very dry so that they don't slip when she involuntarily tries to blink.

 

[Imzadi]

a tacky contact sticks to your finger. And put some rewetting drops in your eye before you remove them!

THIS EXACTLY!!!
Put a drop of saline solution ON the finger before putting the lens on it. She will figure out how much is enough. Too much and the finger just slides over the lens. Also put some drops in the eyes before putting them in and taking out the lens. If her lenses are too dry, they will be too hard to remove off the eyeball. I have dry eyes, so I had to do this a several seconds before removing the lenses. They need to be re-hydrated a bit.

I always had long fingernails. When taking them out, I was afraid my nails of my finger & thumb would either gouge my eye or the lens. So I actually used the flat pads of my first fingers of BOTH hands, like a pair of tweezers to gently squeeze the lens together, break the suction from the eye, and pop it out of my eye. I put saline solution on both fingers before touching the lens. My Dr. thought that was an odd way to remove them. But, it worked for me.

 

[ADisneyQueen]

I got them as a teen and my girls were 11 and 13 when they got theirs. I had them practice just keeping their eye open with their fingers and getting the contact near the eye ( or just a finger if you don't have a contact to use at home). Keep practicing over and over until she is so used to it she will not blink. Once she can do this practice getting it in for real. This really worked for my daughters to practice it in a few steps. Good luck!

 

[bluezy]

My son had a terrible time with the "slide to the bottom corner of the eye" method for getting his contacts out. After struggling with it for a few days (and taking 20+ minutes to get them out each day), I showed him the way my eye doctor taught me to take mine out 35 years ago. I use the edge of my index finger to hold my top lashes/lid open and the edge of my thumb to hold the bottom lashes/lid open. Then I slowly pinch/slide the thumb and finger towards each other while gently touching the contact in the center of my eye and it folds and pops right out. It took my son 1 try to get it using that method. He said, "That's way easier than the way my eye doctor showed me. I'm doing it that way from now on." He never had a problem after that.

 

[lovetoscrap]

THEY ARE IN!!
Took her about 10 mintues to get the left on in (she started with the harder one) and then got the right one in on the FIRST TRY!

Never thought this would be about as exciting as her first steps! Of course now she has to get them out later. So far no success on that.

 

[Happy Snowman]

I had our kids practice touching their eyeballs before they got their contacts so they would be used to the sensation. They seemed to pick up on it pretty quickly but there were days early on that they needed help. I have to have my finger just slightly wet, have to use both hands to keep my eyelids open and then just lightly touch the contact to my eye. The kids can use one had to put in/take out their contacts but I can't.

 

[Ambroses]

I'd take her back to the optometrist for additional teaching. Maybe you can schedule an appointment

 

[Pea-n-Me]

My DD (finally) got new contacts in the mail the other day and when she put in a new pair, she was like, "These feel so great!". I asked her more about it, thinking about this thread, and she said that, for the monthly contacts, they just start feeling uncomfortable toward the end of the month, and the new ones feel much better. It seems to me they should feel "better" all the time, so I might try to help her figure out what other options there are. I wish I knew more about them. All I really know is that my best friend growing up wore them, and they always seemed like a pain. She was always having to take them out or fiddle with them, or losing one and we'd have to look around for it, etc. The eye doctor told my DD that at age 21, her vision problems can be corrected with laser surgery, so that's something we'll definitely look into then.

 

[Imzadi]

It seems to me they should feel "better" all the time, so I might try to help her figure out what other options there are. I wish I knew more about them. All I really know is that my best friend growing up wore them, and they always seemed like a pain. She was always having to take them out or fiddle with them, or losing one and we'd have to look around for it, etc. The eye doctor told my DD that at age 21, her vision problems can be corrected with laser surgery, so that's something we'll definitely look into then.

The reason they start feeling worse towards the end of the month is that calcium from the eyes, naturally start building a slow film on the contacts over time. With traditional lens (versus the monthly lens) one has to use a calcium cleaner once a week to remove the calcium build up.

DD can still do that, like at the end of week 2. Take them out overnite and soak in the calcium remover made for soft lenses. Then pop them back in in the morning. She might have drier eyes and tight lids, like I have, and the calcium builds up more and faster than other people, who are able to make it though the whole month. She can also take them out occasionally and just clean them. (I used to have to take them out once a day just to squeegee off the cloudy calcium film. ) She can also check with her Dr. to see if she needs some moisture drops made for contact lens wearers. Or she might need something like Restasis, a prescription drops for very dry eyes.

As for getting Lasik, I finally got it done. I had extremely bad vision. I could have been declared legally blind. Be VERY careful who you go to. I ended up going to a chop shop who didn't correct my eyes quite right. The Dr. was recommended to me by two co-workers, one of which hadn't told me HIS eyes weren't corrected quite right either. I was verbally told at the time of the surgery that if I needed it, the Dr would tweak my eyes afterwards for free. BUT, I didn't get it in writing. So he would have charged me full price again to get ONE eye done again, which was all he was going to do. Grrr!

I can see a LOT better. I do not need glasses for most things. But, whereas before, I used to see perfectly close up, and for an artist who needs to see very fine details, that is crucial, I NOW need reading glasses to anything close up. But, I get those from the dollar store now, instead of the $400 it used to cost for prescription glasses, or the $80 every couple of months for the disposable contacts.

Make sure DD gets Lasik or any eye surgery done at a young enough age. I was just on the cusp and probably should have been cut off. Again part of the problem of going to a chop shop was was doing it for money. Eyes are muscles, and like ALL muscles, they lose elasticity over time and it takes longer to recuperate. I needed eye drops every couple of hours for close to a year, as my dry eye problem was exacerbated after the Lasik surgery.

 

[lovetoscrap]

Tonight she got them both in and both out! I am very impressed with how quickly she is figuring this out -- of course all DIS kids are gifted so mine must be gifted in sticking her fingers in her eyes!

I did move her follow up appointment. Didn't see any point to going in on Friday since tonight was the longest she has worn them and that was only a few hours. She is going to keep practicing every day and her goal is for her to be able to wear them to school on Monday. Hoping to get it to 10 mins or less to get them in. She and I are NOT morning people so she doesn't want to have to get up super early. She is motivated and determined, but not enough to wake up before 6:15!

 

[AustinTink]

I've been in contacts for 30 years. Two years ago I started daily lenses. Best decision I ever made. The comfort level is dramatically different.

 

[Drnifer]

Practice, practice, practice! That's great that she's able to do it on her own now, even if it takes a while. Every time she does it, it will get easier. The most important thing you can do is resist the temptation to do it for her. I know it's tough, but she has to be able to know how to do it when you're not around. I've had too many patients with contact lens overwear problems because they're not comfortable with insertion/removal so they just keep the lenses in. She'll find a technique that works for her eventually

 

[goofy4tink]

So glad she's getting the hang of it. It took my dd a week or two before she got really good at it!! She was beyond frustrated at the eye doctors office. Turns out that she needed to change her hand position....once she did that, it was a snap. The doctors will give you what works for most people, but each person is different. Seems your dd has found her technique!!!

If her eyes tend to dry out (mine do) be sure she wets her eyes before removing the lenses. Made a world of difference for my dd and myself. My dd has weekly lenses. She takes them out each night and after a week, changes then for another pair. Not much build up that way.

 

[Pumbaa_]

I 'blink' my contacts out at night. Hold eyes open and blink an dout it pops. Easy peasy, i cannot squish the lens and pull it out. Ick