The human eye can tolerate contact lens wear at a very early age.  In some cases, infants are fit with contact lenses to treat vision problems present at birth.

The main factors in determining when pre-teens and teenagers can begin wearing contact lenses are motivation and responsibility.  If your child is highly motivated to wear contact lenses and is responsible enough to care for them properly and follow the wearing schedule prescribed by your eye doctor, they can begin wearing contact lenses at any age.

Most eye doctors will insist that children begin wearing contact lenses on a daily wear basis only.  In part, this is done to make sure kids learn how to apply and remove their lenses by practicing these skills on a daily basis.  If a child (or even an adult) immediately begins wearing contact lenses on an extended wear basis, there is too much temptation to leave the lenses on beyond the recommended wearing schedule if they haven?t mastered lens application and removal skills.