WAG Eye sight-glasses, contacts, adjusting...

[SurpriseGymMom]

So dd is mild/moderately nearsighted. She wears glasses in regular life but not at gym. She does a LOT of squinting when she's on the floor! In a week or so we have an appointment to see if she will be able to do contacts (which she really wants). I think that if she is able to get them, it would in the long run help her gymnastics. She's doing fine now but does complain about not seeing clearly which is completely understandable. Funny enough, her best event is beam which her optometrist was surprised by as she said there's no way dd can see the beam in focus, lol!
My concern is that we are in the middle of comp season and I'm worried that it will be a bigger adjustment than anticipated (if she gets contacts). Has anyone dealt with this and how did it go? Did you/your gymmie improve because of the better eye sight or were there things that became more difficult and had temporary setbacks because of adjusting? Was it no big deal at all..? I just don't know what to expect and would greatly appreciate input.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

it'll take all but 1 day to adjust to contact lenses.

 

[dynamicduo]

I'm in the same boat at you!! My dd has been wearing glasses in gymnastics for the past year (ever since we found out she was legally blind in 1 eye-oops)! She has tie backs that keep the glasses on during gym time and at meets, but we have an appt with her dr in 2 weeks and he too wants to try contacts! And, we are in the middle of the season too!! So, we can be on this journey too and hopefully give each other tips!!

Good to know, dunno!!

 

[Deleted member D3987]

just keep saline drops with her cause chalk 'flecks' can become a pain in the...eye. when the fleck gets between the contact and the eyeball. most gyms keep a bottle just for those kids.

 

[GymGirl's Mom]

My DD got contacts at 9. She sounds just like yours does- lots of squinting in the gym-- and everywhere. It took some convincing of the eye doctor as he "likes" to start kids on contacts at 13. My dd is a determined little gal though and he granted her a 2 week trial- after that time she had to come in and prove to him she could do it on her own. Challenge accepted! Dr impressed!

She really only wears them for gym, but I am hoping she will start putting them in every day as many school days she forgets her glasses at home. I also had to convince the Dr to give her daily wear- he was concerned they were so thin and harder to put in. They are- but manageable. I like that she wears a new pair every time.

ETA- DD's adjustment period was nominal to none. Maybe a day or two. She instantly loved them.

 

[gymgymgymnast08]

One of my old teammates wore glasses in every aspect of her life besides gymnastics. Vault was always her worst event. One day just for fun she wore her glasses on vault. Turns out her vault was never that great because she couldn't see the vault until she was basically on top of it. When she wore her glasses and later contacts on vault, she became a great vaulter. When she could actually see where she was hitting on the spring board, where she was putting her hands on the vault, and the landing, she was great at vault.

Even though she had very bad eyesight she only wore her glasses or contacts for vault.

Maybe she wouldn't have fallen off the beam so much if she wore her glasses on that too.

 

[Gymishome]

In gymnastics, contacts are definitely better than glasses. It won't take long to adjust and in my experience, like dunno said, the little flecks do get in between my contact and my eye. Eye drops will fix this though. No worries

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Thank you all! Interestingly enough, dds worst event is also vault... I think mostly because of her approach (coaches keep telling her to run faster/better) but it wouldn't surprise me if seeing better would help. Or perhaps it will hurt as she'll be able to see that she's running full speed at an object, lol!
I will make sure she keeps a bottle of eye drops in her tape bag at gym, that's a great tip and something I would have never thought of!
She won't be allowed to get them unless she can do it all by herself at the optometrist (put in and take out), we are leaning towards dailies but not certain what the dr will recommend yet. The lady we already spoke to says they do tend to recommend dailies for the younger kids.

 

[taximomma]

You described our situation to a "T"! My DD just turned 10 this Dec and has competed the last two seasons in a "fog" -lol. Her squinting started to worsen and her coach mentioned it to me. I asked DD about it, she acted like it was no big deal..... "the other side of the floor is blurry and the vault becomes clear as I run closer to it"

We went over Christmas break and had her fitted for contacts. SHE LOVES THEM!!! And the coach is happy!!! There was little, to no adjustment period. She wore them the next day to practice with no problems. She was just moved up a level and learning new routines when she got her contacts (about 1 month ago). Beam is also her best event...she scored a 9.725 this weekend! I can not claim the contacts helped as she has always done well on beam, and this was her first competition at a new level. She says she can see the beam better and that she can see her coach's face now. Poor child!

Like dunno suggested, we pack saline drops and an extra pair of lenses in her bag. She is also mindful when chalking.....closes eyes and looks away. We also chose to use the Daily Wear contacts because of the chalk and her allergies. She can just toss them if they get dirty and doesn't have to bother with trying to clean them.


Good Luck!

 

[Fliptwisttumble]

DD got contacts in the fall. She is 9 as well. Huge improvement - she had been wearing glasses but a combination of fogging up during workouts and her full twist into the pit and her glasses flew off, and the coaches came to talk about contacts.

She wears dailies, has solution and extra contacts with her at all times. It took her a week or so to get used to putting them in, but once in. No problems at all!

 

[Flipflopz]

Dd wore contacts for the first tome to a meet this week. And guess what? She got her best vault result in years. Coincidence?

 

[gwenmom]

Dd has contacts as well. Still to this day have no idea how she did beam with the double vision she had (thankfully now corrected).

It took DD all of about 2 seconds to adjust to contacts and finally get her BHS. The rim of the glasses kept her from being able to see her hands to connect to the floor.

We always have saline incase and her glasses as back up. I still have to put them in but she takes them out and puts them in their cases.

 

[my4buffaloes]

My dd got contacts a few weeks ago, in the middle of comp season. She said things were weird the first day of practice but after that it hasn't been an issue. Coach said that was normal. And yes, vault has improved. The funny thing is I had to make her get them after she kept getting in trouble for not being able to see things. She still would prefer to go without them, but wears them on gym days.

 

[Jen H.]

Mine got contacts last Wed., competed on Sunday, and got her best AA!
It took her from the eye Dr.s office to the gym (10 mins) to get used to them.
Oh, and she got her best ever vault score- still low, but improved!

She went straight to contacts- no glasses ever.

 

[gympunkin]

My dd finally got contacts after a couple of years of wearing glasses for gymnastics. Her doctor's standard practice is to have the wearer start out wearing them only a few hours a day and then gradually build up. So it was a slow process for us. DD was able to put them in by herself (and remove them) at her first office visit and suffered no discomfort. Two of her team-mates really struggled to get used to contacts though. Also, dd switched the type of dailies after a couple of weeks, to ones that she could wear for a longer period. So there was some adjustment for her. The switch from glasses to contacts had only a positive impact on her gymnastics. When she first got glasses , though, she was pretty distracted looking around the gym (Hey, look at those banners on the wall! Wow, look at that guy on the rings!) And she kept looking at me during her first competition (but it didn't affect her performance).

 

[iwannacoach]

I got my first pair while in between high school and college. I went to get them, put them in and had them checked for fit and correction. I took them out and put them back in to the doc approval, drove to the gym and did a full workout..... no problem at all.

 

[xrachx]

My DD has been wearing glasses since she was 3, so it's second nature for her. She tried contacts for a while last year, but she decided she prefers her glasses to do gym in. Luckily her optician is fab so has managed to get her glasses to fit perfectly so she doesn't need a band etc to hold them on. It's all down to personal preference

 

[rjb123]

I got my first pair of contacts at age 7-back in the dark ages. I was actually in a study to see if wearing them would slow down deterioration of eyesight. Yep, that doesn't work! LOL. anyway, now they are so easy to use with the disposable contacts etc, I would bet that she does really well. My dd is in glasses, but so far only for school. If her eyes get worse, I will insist on moving to contacts for her.

 

[MBJ974]

I had a similar post on CB about a month ago. DD is an 8 y.o. L4. She wore glasses to school for about 1 year, but not to practice. We went for her annual check-up and her prescription had increased quite a bit. I tried talking to her about wearing glasses to gymnastics, but to no avail. We went and got her fitted for contacts in December and haven't looked back since. Originally, she wanted to wear her glasses to school and contacts just to gymnastics, but the contacts quickly changed her mind. She said they were so comfortable and easy to use (dailies) that she will not even wear her glasses anymore! There was no adjustment time and the chalk doesn't bother her one bit.

 

[COz]

A few things about contacts from personal but not gym related experience.

1. Daily vs longer wear lenses and comfort levels
I) Daily wear lenses are more convenient and comfortable than longer wear lenses because they are thinner because they are not made to last as long, but they cost more per month than longer wear lenses.
II) I don't think they're harder to put in than longer wear lenses. Once you get the hang of sticking a tiny bit of glad wrap in your eye it doesn't make any difference really.
III) Not having to clean the lenses, particularly for a little person is worth the extra cost. If they're not properly cleaned, then little specks of chalk, dust, oil from skin sticks to the lenses and they sting when you put them in. You then have to pull them out and clean them again before trying again. This isn't much fun if you're in a rush.
IV) You can tell that longer wear lenses need replacing when they start stinging every time you out them in. An optometrist will tell you that you shouldn't let them get to this point, but, um, it happens. Proteins from your eyes also build up on the lenses after a while and this isn't good for your eyes which is why you change them.
V) Daily wear lenses can be a little harder to get out than longer wear lenses.
VI) If they feel uncomfortable, ask to try a different brand. Different lenses have different diameters and they feel quite different.

2. Getting them in and out of your eyes
I) If you whilst looking in the mirror in the bathroom can comfortably lightly touch your eye on the white, then you'll be fine putting in lenses with some practice. Don't poke yourself in the eye, just lightly touch with clean hands. You won't go blind or anything
II) Optometrists generally teach a method where they put it on the side of the eye and then slide to the centre. This has always seemed long winded to me.
I prefer to look in the mirror with the lens on the end of my finger. Pop in straight over the centre of my eye. Wobble it side to side a touch before taking my finger away to get rid of any air bubbles underneath (otherwise it might fold and come out of your eye the first time you blink). Blink carefully he first time, then blink a few more times, then you're set.
III) Don't panic if you have trouble getting a lens out. Firstly, stop and wait a bit or you'll end up with a sore red eye and get stressed because you can't get it out.
- Breathe.
- Make sure the lens is actually still in your eye. It's easy to keep trying and not realise that it's stuck to the side of your face. Can you see properly at a distance? No? Then it's already out of your eye.
- I find putting one finger at the left side of my lens and one on the right and pushing my fingers together is the easiest way to get it out. The lens bends and then you use those two fingers to lift it out of your eye.
- if it's hard to get out, it's probably because it's too dry and then sticks to the eye. Put in some saline or even wet your fingers under the tap and put a drop of water at the corner of your eye. Blink a few times and try again.
- unless you're wearing glass lenses (unlikely) they will not get stuck around the back of your eye. It's not going to happen. If it does get pushed into some weird spot, use saline. Blink lots and it will come back to somewhere sensible.

3. Other stuff
I) If you're used to using the front or back of you hand, arm, whatever, to get hair out of your eyes, then use more gel so you don't need to. Dust/chalk/glitter and contacts don't mix well and even once it's out, your eyes can water for a bit afterwards.
II) Don't forget that for longer wear lenses you are supposed to give your eyes a little time to breathe between taking the lenses out and going to bed. This allows more oxygen into the eyes.
If your gymmie sleeps in the car on the way home, get the lenses out before they leave the gym.
Lenses get kind of sticky and hard to get out of eyes if you sleep in them (which you're not supposed to). Use saline if this happens.
II) I used to do sport with glasses and there was always this fear in the back of my mind of breaking them or of them falling off. Contacts would have helped me a lot.
III) It's hard to judge distances if you can't see properly, so running fast at immovable objects will improve if you can see them.

4. Two things you probably would never have thought of...
I) Things look bigger
When you're wearing contacts then lens is closer to the eye. Things really do appear larger than when wearing glasses. If you don't notice this, then great. But it can be disconcerting at first and you do have to readjust.
Every time I wear contacts after not wearing them for months I'm surprised because my hands look bigger and I wonder why the chocolate bars are so much larger than they normally are (Seriously, at uni I kept thinking they'd changed the sizes). You adjust quickly to this, but it wouldn't be ideal to do something like say wear glasses then change to lenses just before competing. Give yourself some leeway until you know how much this affects you.

And the big one:
II) Headaches.
If you/they have been wearing glasses a lot, not just to see the board at school, but pretty much all the time, then the eye muscles are used for a narrower range of vision than normal as the eye can only see through the glasses lenses so there is no need to move your eyes to look out the corners.
Because a greater field of vision is suddenly available with lenses, you end up moving your eyes more and the poor muscles are out of shape.
This is one of the main reasons why they may ask you to progressively increase the duration you wear them, so you don't get sore eyes and headaches as a result.
I notice this every time I return to wearing them after months of not wearing them.