They bought them at a mall and I'm not sure if she got an okay from an eye doctor or not.

Isn't it dangerous to put "over the counter" contacts in one's eyes? And as another issue, how much do these things cost, anyway?

Would you be okay if your grandchild were going to insert these things into his/her eyes?

I'm waiting until I calm down before I initiate a friendly conversation with the mother and I'm breathing very deeply.

Any foreign object in an eye could cause injury, infection and loss of sight.

A 12 yr old doesn't have the logic to think that far ahead, but I'd expect a responsible mother to worry about her child's safety.

Does your GD wear contact lenses normally?

There are a lot of Web sites that sell these things, and the ones that I just looked at require a prescription to get these (and prescriptions for glasses are not the same thing as a prescription for contact lenses).

When people wear different-colored contacts to change their eye color, they are getting them through their doctor's prescription. Legit Web companies will not sell without a copy of a prescription, period. (I have an ophthalmologist in the family.)

Check out Lens.com (just the first site I hit on) for some FAQs about these things. Contact lenses of any type need to fit the individual's eye -- there are all sorts of variations that only a trained professional can measure.

And no offense to opticians -- I'll let them order my glasses, but only with a prescription from an ophthalmologist. And if I had kids, no way would I walk into an optician's at the local mall and buy this stuff, which is what it sounds like happened. If they were purchased from one of those Halloween costume stores that pop up during this season, I would be even more worried. (The fad lenses seem to cost under $30.)

Mona: Do you know which mall they went to? If I were in your shoes, I'd go do a little in-person research. I'd want to know if there is SOME eye doctor on the premises and whether the specific lenses it sells are FDA-approved, and that's just for starters.

But the bottom line for me is that I would never jeopardize a child's eyesight by buying her something that I have not researched thoroughly and gotten my ophthalmologist's approval for. A $30 fad for a few hours of fun is not worth the possible issues.

i don't have any d-i-l's yet, but i can pretty much say that i would have to say something... i can't imagine, as a parent, allowing my child to put contacts in their eye that weren't obtained from a reputable optician...

How can some people be soooooo dumb when it comes to children's safety?

Maybe you can use it as back-up to your argument that it's not a good, or safe, idea. Good luck.