Hey, DUers who wear glasses - at what age did you start wearing them?

[KitchenWitch]

I was two and a half. I was very fortunate that I did not go blind. I had two excellent ophthalmologists, one in New Jersey and one in Minneapolis, their care saved my vision.

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. The post-modern age.

I was 13 or 14.

[bicentennial_baby]

2. 14

It was fantastic to learn that objects really did have defined edges!! :rofl:

[meegbear]

3. 12 years old

[devilgrrl]

8. same here

B-)

[huskerlaw]

4. 9

but I quit wearing them last April. Hooray for Lasik!

[ThomCat]

5. 11 years old.

I think. :shrug:

[Dora]

6. 8. nt

[book lady]

15. I was 8 as well

[ghostsofgiants]

57. 8 for me as well.

[zingaro]

65. I'll just tuck in here. /nt

[MissMillie]

7. age 6

first grade

[flvegan]

9. 28 or so.

[trof]

10. Mid-to-late 30s. Drugstore readers. Kinda funny story:

I was under my truck, working on something, like I'd done dozens of times before, when I discovered I couldn't q-u-i-t-e get whatever it was into focus.

Plain old presbyopia.
I started with 125s and 30+ years later am up to 200s.

[Lady Freedom]

11. I do! Ripe old age of 6 1/2! N/T

[Wapsie B]

12. Around age 10.

Mostly for protection of my one good eye, and now with bifocals it's also to take the strain off it as well. I was fortunate to lose vision in only one eye. But I am very interested in optic nerve regeneration. I'd love to be in a study dealing with that.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. 7th grade

[WritingIsMyReligion]

14. 13. But they got old, fast, so I made the contact switch.

I :loveya: my contacts. Acuvue Oasys--they are godly! :D I'm -2.00 in each eye.

[grace0418]

16. I was 10. It would've been earlier but my last name starts with "A" and I was always

seated in the front row. Then I got to fifth grade and my teacher didn't seat us in alphabetical order. I was near the back and I marveled for weeks about how anyone could read anything on the chalkboard from there. Finally my parents caught on.

[AlCzervik]

17. i was 5.

[Coyote_Bandit]

18. Not sure

I cannot remember being without my glasses. I started wearing them before I started school - and before I knew the alphabet or could count. I remember they used pictures to test my vision. I had/have a lazy eye and had to do eye exercises as a child. Had to wear an eye patch over my good eye for about an hour a day. Also had to wear that eye patch and a tinted lense over my bad eye and watch a blinking light bulb for about a half hour each day. Pure torture. Corrected vision in my bad eye has never been better than about 20/80 - which makes me only partially sighted in that eye.

[MonkeyFunk]

19. 30 for glasses

44 for bifocals.

[Gormy Cuss]

20. Sometime in elementary school

Annual eye exam in school is what sent me to the opthamologist but I don't remember which year.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

21. I was five!

Some time I'd like to hear your story...

[sazemisery]

22. 7 ys old n/t

[bikebloke]

23. 7

But I didn't wear them much in the beginning due to the stigma. Glasses meant you weren't good at sports and couldn't run around. By the time I reached junior high school, I could no longer squint my way around and had to wear them all the time. Thus, in PE class, I began getting chosen last, just because of the specs. It didn't matter that those same people knew me before without them.

[edbermac]

24. 14 or 15.

Began to not be able to read stuff from the blackboard in high school.

[terrya]

25. 51

[Bluestar]

26. 11 Years old n/t

[Sheltiemama]

27. 8

We had those school-wide vision exams in the third grade. My mother says I came home, told her they said I needed glasses and announced that I absolutely refused to wear them. I don't remember that, though I can certainly imagine me saying it. I do remember the day I got them, looking out the window of the doctor's office and being amazed and delighted that I could read a billboard outside. I hadn't noticed it the week before. My teacher said I must have been memorizing everything she said, because I sure as heck couldn't see the board.

[lost-in-nj]

28. I was 5

lost

[Fox Mulder]

29. I was 16.

[Oeditpus Rex]

30. 11

They weighed 18 pounds. :(

[KitchenWitch]

41. Yes, I had the thick glass lenses in those days too.

The glasses were so heavy that they actually caused a permanent dent in my nose. Which I have had plastic surgery to fix, now that the glasses are not so heavy.

[Oeditpus Rex]

43. I often don't realize I'm wearing my current specs

Suckers are so light, a swallow could carry them quite easily.

[KitchenWitch]

45. Yeah, mine too

and I have a rather strong prescription. But I love the ultra light lenses.

[Shine]

31. I was 5. Wore glasses up til 14, then got contacts that I wore for 20 yrs

then I had LASIK surgery right before I turned 35 and I'm STILL lovin' my clear vision, almost 8 yrs later! The surgery corrected my astigmatism, too. :thumbsup: Best money I ever spent.

:hi:

[FloridaJudy]

32. 14

But I needed them long before that. My vision was 20/120 when my math teacher noticed that I couldn't see the black board. Gods know how I faked being able to see for so long!

[Blue Diadem]

33. I was 41 and began having horrid headaches with nausea.

Within 6 months I realized I was squinting all the time and could no longer see distance. First it was stop signs then it was the wall clocks and the TV..so I got my first pair of glasses then.

I'm glad your Dr's were on the ball KitchenWitch. We tried to get care for my daughter's eyes shortly after birth but kept being told she just had crossed eyes that she would outgrow. It wasn't until she was almost 3 that an ophthalmologist told us she had an atrophied eye muscle and would never be able to move her eye to the right. Even now, in her 30's, her eye Dr recently brought it up and told her it would have been possible to correct if it had been treated properly those first couple years.
:(

We were warned that she may go blind in that eye but it's actually been the vision in her "good" eye that has weakened more through the years.

[Samurai_Writer]

34. in 3rd grade -- age 8

I couldn't see the chalkboard. I've been wearing them ever since. I've been near-sighted with astigmatism all my life. Now I'm losing my near vision too (I'm almost 47). So I have Progressive lenses now, and they are wonderful.

[Mugu]

35. At about 48 I started needing reading glasses.

At 54 I can still read a menu from the next booth, but not the one that I'm holding. I've been very fortunate in the vision department.

Regards, Mugu

[taterguy]

36. 40, sort of

I couldn't pass the eye test when I renewed my drivers license but it's mostly things far away that I can't see so I usually only wear them if I'm driving on the Interstate.

[Va Lefty]

37. 6

1st Grade, Still wear them

[yardwork]

38. Second grade. But I needed them much earlier.

It turns out that I have a congenital nerve defect. My eyesight worsened continuously until I was an adult. The deterioration slowed for a few decades, then age-related far-sightedness kicked in. Sheesh.

Thank goodness for modern optometry. I got contacts when I was 16 and never looked back. I have to wear hard contacts and surgery isn't an option, but it's so much better than coke-bottle glasses.

[racaulk]

39. I was 17, my senior year of high school. nt

[ceile]

40. 11 n/t

[Bucky]

42. You must have been extremely cross-eyed

one in New Jersey and one in Minneapolis

That must have been really tough to correct for. I assume they used a telescope.

[KitchenWitch]

46. LOL

I lived in New Jersey from when I was 1 until I was 4, then we moved to the Twin Cities.

[dembotoz]

44. in vitro

swear i was born with em
always had em
always will
til the eyes stop working entirely

told i started @2

[Chovexani]

47. 13

And I've hated them ever since. :(

[SPKrazy]

48. 45

had good eyes until about 40

didn't go to an eye doc until 45

5 years not seeing people at the end of the hall

:P

:hi:

glad you got good eye care

[KitchenWitch]

49. I would be blind without it.

:hi:

[Reverend_Smitty]

50. 15

I made it through my entire freshman year of high school completely unable to see the chalkboard. I actually went through quite a few years like that. I knew I would fail the vision test to get my learner's permit so I bit the bullet and saw the eye doc. I went from no corrective lenses to a -4 prescription over night...it was like a whole world was opening up for me.

Stupid self-conscious teenaged self!

[Starbucks Anarchist]

51. 12 or so.

[TimeChaser]

52. 19

I'd probably needed them for a year or two before that, but I didn't get them until I was 19

[Whoa_Nelly]

53. 12...only becuase i started taking my older sister's old glasses to school with me

so I could read the board.

That;s when my mom had me tested. Got contacts at 15, and have done well with those ever since.

My son, on the other hand, started wearing glasses by age 2-1/2. I kept bugging the optomitrist that one of his eyes was turning in when my face got close to him. Opto said, naw...just the baby type nose of wide bridge that made it seem that way (had started taking him in at age 1.) A year later, turned out I was right....son was esotropic and would have lost total vision in that eye by age 6 had he not gotten corrective lenses earky one.
Today, no longer has to wear glasses, and has 20/20 or better, and no problems.

[CatholicEdHead]

54. Second Grade

[femmocrat]

55. Around age 18. I needed them for all that reading in college.

Now I can't read at all without them.

[AwakeAtLast]

56. About ten or so

Went to contacts at 13. My eye doctor told my Mom that people my age were too irresponsible for them, but I begged her. Since that age, I have lost a total of one lens, and that was after college!

[Perseid]

58. I was 11, the same year I started writing poems

and appreciated the words of others.

[Cabcere]

59. I was prescribed glasses when I was in first grade

and picked out some frames then, but I didn't really need to start wearing them full-time until about the end of third grade, by which time my much more mature self realized that big light purple plastic frames weren't exactly the "cool" look I was going for at my new school. :blush: I ended up wearing them anyway, because by that time I did need them to see the board clearly, and besides we didn't have a lot of extra money to throw around on new frames just because of my short-sightedness (if you'll pardon the pun ;)).

So, short answer, I started wearing glasses at about the age of 8 1/2 or 9. :hi:

[The_Casual_Observer]

60. About 48

[Canuckistanian]

61. 10

I remember walking the street out of the optometrist's office and marveling at the friggin' DETAIL of EVERYTHING!

Then, the best part came. I went out at night and saw the stars. Individually.

[WCGreen]

62. About 7 or 8...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

63. I was ten

I spent the first few days taking my glasses off and putting them back on again so that I could compare the view.

[susanna]

64. Sixth grade, so about 11 years old. Nearsighted. n/t

[fizzgig]

66. i did for a bit in 6th or 7th grade

no idea why i stopped wearing them...started wearing them again around 18 or so...wore contacts for a few years in college but went back to glasses after the contacts started making my eyes angry

[Mutley]

67. I got reading glasses in second grade.

Some kids made fun of me in school and I stopped wearing them.

It has become increasingly clear to me in the last few years that I need glasses, especially for driving. I don't have health insurance, though. :(

[la la]

68. 9

when the street lights started looking like exploding stars!

on edit- and a bit off topic---but I also have had little ears that stick out--so I'd wear the ear pieces on top of my ears, so my ears wouldn't stick out so much! can you imagine how goofy I must have looked?/?/?

( now, I have extra short hair and 15 holes pierced in my ears, so I guess I've gotten over the 'taxi cab with the doors open look'- which my *wonderful* father tagged me with!)

I have REALLY gone off topic---sorry ;>(

[JVS]

69. about 20

[Manifestor_of_Light]

70. Six.

Really nearsighted. needed them earlier. The school nurse had a light box with those Es in various sizes. I sat at the back of the classroom saying "I can't see that"
about 40 times. She didn't hear me. Eventually my mom took me to the eye doctor.

Now I'm in bifocals. I can see a lot better in contacts. I can wear one contact for near and one for far, and my brain will merge them like I'm wearing bifocals.

[Breeze54]

71. I was ten when I finally got corrective lenses but I should've had them at age one!

:(

I was blamed for all my "mistakes" as uncoordinated and clumsy and dumb and stupid and daft
and I could go on.... I got "hit in the head" lessons from the nuns because I couldn't see
the blackboard, unbeknownst to me! I was fucking BLIND but none of the adults in my life picked
up on that until I was in the 5th grade. As I look back on all of that, it still pisses me off!

[annonymous]

72. 18

I found out I needed glasses when I took the vision test for my driver's license.

[BreweryYardRat]

73. About 9.

I like them. I don't look quite as stupid with them.

[Bossy Monkey]

74. 10! 10! 10! 10! Let's sing a song of 10! How many is 10?

Shoulda got 'em at 8, but failed to report the school nurse's findings to my parents, 'cause no little kid wants to wear glasses. Gave in when I couldn't see the blackboard anymore.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

75. 40

[bumblebee1]

76. I was 16 when I started wearing glasses.

n/t