The short answer—absolutely!
Kids as young as 5 years old can safely and comfortably wear contact lenses. Of note, a child’s motivation, maturity and ability to responsibly handle contact lenses is more important than age alone. It is also important that your child has expressed interest in wearing contact lenses for best outcomes.
Arguably the most concerning complication of contact lens wear is the risk of microbial keratitis (MK), or infection of the cornea (front surface of the eye) due to microbes. However, the risk is only 1 in 5,000 for daily disposable soft CLs and approximately 1 in 2,000 for reusable soft CLs and night lenses.
Amongst 5,000 kids wearing daily disposable contact lenses, only 1 will get an eye infection.
Or if they wear daily disposable contact lenses for
5,000 times
they are likely to develop an eye infection only once.
Some kids and their parents prefer spectacles to contact lenses as they don’t want something “directly touching the eye”. However, special types of contact lenses have been shown to be far more advantageous than wearing regular spectacles. Not only do these contact lenses provide clear vision without the inconvenience of wearing spectacles, both research and clinical practice studies show that they also help slow down progressive vision deterioration that occurs with myopia.
Cost-wise, since your child still needs to have backup spectacles on hand, you can expect that adding contact lenses may be more costly. However, there are some benefits to contact lenses that could save you money. If your kid is very active and/or participates in sports where spectacles are easily damaged, you won’t be replacing those nearly as often. Also, a lot of kids have rapidly changing prescriptions as they’re growing. Ordering a three-month supply of contact lenses sometimes makes more sense than continually replacing spectacles.
