Our son will be playing Jr. High Football and.....?!

Our son will be playing Jr. High Football and.....?

He has to wear eyeglasses all of the time except when he goes to bed at night or when he showers. (It's been this way since he was in the second grade.)

This is his first year playing football and he's so excited! We have his yearly eye exam set up for this Wednesday and I'm wondering what to expect as far as what kind of eyewear is available to a kid like him who loves the idea of playing a contact sport like football but will have to wear something besides the typical pair of eyeglasses to be able to see at 100%.

He has played baseball for years and wore his normal eyeglasses for that, I never inquired about any other option.

I have luckily never had to deal with eye/vision problems myself growing up and nobody on my side of the family has either, so I don't know what to look and ask for in regards to our son.

Has anyone else out there had to deal with this kind of situation? PLEASE GIVE ME SOME ADVICE!

1 week ago
One of his eye problems/diagnosis a few years back was astigmatism. I know each year we have went back for the exam to this same eye doctor, his prescription had to be stronger and thus a NEW LENSES PURCHASE ($$$) for our son.

The doctor says that this is completely normal while he's growing and getting older. I worry that he'll lose his vision entirely at the rate he's supposedly going before he gets to be of adult age.

There are a number of ways of looking at this. Depends, sort of, why he's wearing glasses. My guess, since it took till the second grade to get him an Rx is that he has a fair amount of nearsightedness or myopia.

This means his eyes are really strong for the length of his eye, so he wears those minus lenses that are thick on the outside and thin on the inside or center.

If he's going to be in contact sports, just get him some sports goggles. They're used for racket ball, handball, etc. where the plastic is really tough, and the lenses are made of impact resistant plastic. He wears these under his helmet in football or just on his head, when in basketball, baseball, wrestling, tennis,...Not only to protect him, but to make it so he can see.

Seeing is very nice in sports.

They have thick elastic strap going behind the head, and very firm fixed temples (go next to the head back to the ear...part). Most optometrists can fit him fairly easily for these protective things. Yes they look 'funny'...not as funny as a black patch does.

Contacts? well......have you seen how many of the questions in this part of the yahoo answers are on contacts? Does that tell you something?

Do you see many eye doctors wearing contacts? (nope)

Some do. These can be a saving grace for lots of people. Soft ones for football unless a leeeeeetle piece of dirt gets under one. ouchy.

Vision is very nice. Protection from damage, a lot better. I can't tell you how difficult it is to repair a ruptured globe (eye) if the damage is from blunt trauma. (sharp injures are a lot easier, more straightforward to fix...cut here, or hole there,....close it up...go home, eye usually does pretty well...nice. Blunt trauma: not so nice.)

Sports goggles...he'll use them in gym, sports, water skiing, snow skiing, all those things. You can get them dark polarized for outside too.