How to Get a Toddler to Wear Sunglasses

I've tried to get my daughter to wear sunglasses. Aside from protecting the long-term health of her eyes, sunglasses would really offer her a lot of comfort. The Sonoran Desert doesn't offer a ton of shade. To no avail. She won't do it.

This is my daughter. She squints a lot.

I tried the obvious infant sunglasses that have a soft elastic strap, but it was a no-go. She instantly started whining and tugged them off her face. I thought she would eventually get used to them, but she always cried and tugged until she got them around her neck. As much as I love strangulation hazards on my toddler, I decided to try something else.

Don't even think about putting these on me, Mom.

We were given a pair of cheapy infant sunglasses that just had regular plastic ear pieces. "Ah ha!" I said, this is it. She will definitely like these better. Well, she did. Her ability to take them off at will diminished that claustrophobic I'm-going-to-suffocate-if-I-can't-get-these-things-off-my-face reaction. So I began The Sunglasses Game.

I picked this little trick up from my sister. My niece has one eye that tended to drift, and my sister noticed it happened more if the eye got tired, such as being exposed to bright sunlight for a period of time. Needless to say, she had good motivation to patiently help her daughter get used to sunglasses. This game is simple, and probably works best for younger toddlers in the 12-24 month range, when they're still entertained by lame things like this.

The Sunglasses Game

All the game consists of is you putting on the glasses, and the baby taking them off again. Eventually, if you child has enough coordination, the game turns into you taking the sunglasses off and your child puts them on again.

If you baby is being really stubborn and won't let you near her face with the sunglasses, you could put the sunglasses on your face and practice taking them on and off. Then when your child is more comfortable with the idea of the sunglasses, you can alternate putting them on your face, and then your child's.

It's that simple. It just takes time, patience, and humor. The trick is to make the sunglasses fun, almost like a toy, instead of something they are forced to wear.

***UPDATE***

I recently spoke with my sister and she brought up the fact that she waited until they were at the beach, when the bright sun was really bothersome, to start the game. That way my niece could really tell that it was more comfortable to have the sunglasses on.

My niece rockin' her awesome shades

So why is my daughter still squinting? Well those cheapy sunglasses broke about a week after we started using them. And now that summer's over no one is carrying baby sunglasses anymore (because apparently if you're not old enough to drive you don't need eye protection). BUT I have something coming to me in the mail that I hope will solve our problem. It's supposed to arrive Friday so I'll write about it then.

Until then I'll just be singing the following around mail time:

What are your tricks for getting the kiddos to wear sunglasses?