Where should I go for glasses?

[Anonymous]

My DD needs to get glasses. I'd like to go somewhere where the staff will be patient and kind to us and where they hopefully have experience with special needs. Any recommendations?

[Anonymous]

Moda Optical in Rockville. Or, I like Costco for cheap glasses.

[Anonymous]

I've also had good luck with McPherson Optical on Lee Highway in Arlington and Dr. Goldburg's optical shop on Little River Turnpike in Annandale. My son got his first pair of glasses at 3 months (at McPherson) and his second pair at 9 months (at Goldburgs). Yep, that's months, not years. Both places were incredibly patient with my baby. The ladies we worked with at both were clearly all moms and grandmas. The reason we switched to Goldburg from McPherson is that Goldburg accepted our insurance. I'd highly recommend both places.

[Anonymous]

A friend of mine with a SN child with vision problems and who wears glasses sees Dr. Teller at:

http://www.pediatric-ophthalmology.com/

[Anonymous]

Funny, I actually see Dr. Teller at EDOW myself. Great guy, great practice. Is the main special need an extreme visual impairment? If so, I'd actually recommend going to the ophthalmology department at Children's National Medical Center. Dr. Jaafar is very good. But if your child's main SN is something else but also needs your run-of-the-mill glasses, Dr. Teller would definitely work. I'm 30 but can't imagine him having a bad bedside manner with kids.

[Anonymous]

OP here... thanks for the suggestions! We ended up going to For Eyes in Rockville on 355. The young girl who helped us was incredibly nice and patient. We went in the morning, so it was pretty quiet in the store (which helped since our daughter has sensory issues).

Our daughter has CVI and has been to see Dr. Jaafar and Dr. Avery at Children's, Dr. Vicente in Chevy Chase, and Dr. Repka at Hopkins.

Our favorite is Dr. Vicente at EDOW. He's very patient, kind, and great with kiddos. He does a great Donald Duck impression : )

[Anonymous]

While we haven't seen the doctors at Children's we've also been to Dr. Repka at Hopkins and Dr. Vicente also remains our favorite. I was really surprised at how little Dr. Repka tried to engage my daughter, given how difficult it is to do an eye exam on a kid without their cooperation. I get my glasses at For Eyes, so maybe I should start taking DD there. Do you think they would be able to manage a difficult prescription?

[Anonymous]

I agree about Repka. We drove from DC to Baltimore to meet him, waiting about 2+ hours to see him, then he gave us maybe 10 minutes of his time. With our daughter's CVI, it takes time to get a visual response from her. There were two other young doctors in the room and he spent more time speaking to them than to me about my daughter in the appointment. He rushed through the appointment, then left in a hurry before I even felt I could ask all of my questions, then he went into the hall and spoke his notes out loud by phone (for dictation of the notes) as the next family was being brought into the room we were in. They make such a big deal about the HIPPA stuff, yet here's the doctor repeating our daughter's medical history in the hall for all to hear! We really love Dr. Vicente. He actually gave our daughter some time to respond, which is a must with CVI.

[Anonymous]

Regarding For Eyes, I'm not sure if they could manage a difficult prescription (our's was really simple for farsightedness), but the young woman who helped us was incredibly kind and patient. I thought about going to Dr. Vicente's office for the glasses (I think I remember seeing displays of glasses in front by the waiting area), but Repka is the one that gave us the script and so I just wanted to go get it filled without having to explain that a different eye dr gave us the script. We're not even sure the glasses will do much for our daughter visually because of her severe CVI, but we felt it was worth a try.

[Anonymous]

Our experience with Repka was very similar, down to the two residents/fellows in the room--so disappointing after the trip to Baltimore. Dr. Vicente has told me that he just shares space with the optical shop, so I don't think it would matter re. a prescription from another doctor. However, we did get one pair of glasses for my DD there and I wasn't at all happy with them.

[Anonymous]

Robin Rinearson in Baileys Crossroads works with a lot of SN kids and there is an optical shop in the office that has a good kids section. But it is hard to get an appointment with Robin - usually a 2-3 month wait. But I assume you can go to the optical part with a prescription from another Dr. We've also used Edmonds Opticians in Bethesda.