contact lenses

[bmom]

I was just wondering if anyone has had experience on their children wearing contacts. My son wants contacts, but I am worried that the feeling of them in his eyes may cause a tic? Has anyone let their child wear contacts and had good or bad experience on it?

[Guest]

Hi bmom,

 

I'm not a child, but I've worn contacts for 2-3 years now without any problems. The feeling of them in my eyes has never caused a tic for me.

 

Carolyn

[Pamela Kay]

My kids don't wear contacts quite yet either. I just wanted to add though, that I do and some times they do make my eyes quite dry and I have to blink alot. I would not call it a tic however, more an irritation. My contacts are hard though, and I bet soft ones would be less of a problem.

 

I also want to add that when I got my contacts I was a whole different person. I hated my glasses with a passion and really came out of my shell when I started to wear contacts. If the look of glasses bother your son I would seriously give it a try I know many kids want to feel "normal" any way they can. I of course don't know your son and his personality but I wanted to add my experience. I think I was about 13 or 14 when I first got them.

[travelgirl02]

Hi there -

 

I was diagnosed with Tourettes when I was 10. I started wearing contacts at 18. I'm now 37.

 

In all the years before I wore contacts, I used to mask my eye ticks when people would say "your eyes are twitching and you're blinking a lot...are your contacts bothering you?" I had the eye ticks, but not the contacts; However that didn't prevent me from masking the tics by using contacts as an excuse for my eye tics! Sometimes it was just easier to say "yeah...contacts", rather than explaining TS in the 1970s-80s when TS was more unknown/unique and less understood.

 

I was always told the one unifying tic that all TS people have in common is the eye blinking. In the 27 years I've had TS, I can say that statement seems to hold true. Of course, eye ticks present at varying degrees of intensity and based on other factors...but I can definitely confirm that my contacts have never been an issue or cause of my tics being more prevalent. In fact, they were probably more helpful for me. I think getting them sooner may have taken some edge off of the other teen stresses (acceptance, image, etc) - emotional/hormonal stresses that can "flare up" ticks.

 

But the actual contacts....no problem.

 

Good luck.