Where Picking Lenses Is Mere Child’s Play : A Woman of Vision Operates Two Stores That Specialize in the Delicate Art of Making Eyewear That Kids <i> Like</i>

Katheryn Dabbs Schramm knew opening an eyewear store for children would prove a worthwhile endeavor the day she fitted a months-old boy with his first pair of glasses.

“This little baby had never seen his parents’ face,” she recalls. “I put the glasses on him, and his little eyes started looking all around. His father was holding him, saying, ‘Michael, look at Daddy, look at Daddy.’

“As soon as those eyes centered on dad and you saw the little boy recognize his father for the first time--well, if I’d gone broke right then it would have been reward enough.”

Schramm did not go broke. Rather, her business doubled in size. She now owns two shops in Orange County that specialize in prescription glasses for children, one in Mission Viejo not far from the store’s original site in El Toro, and a two-year-old shop in Huntington Beach.

She had worked as an optician for 20 years when she opened A Child’s View six years ago to correct what she perceived as an industry oversight.

She’d heard enough parents complain about the poor selection of frames in children’s sizes to figure a store devoted exclusively to children’s eyewear would attract a large and loyal clientele.

On a recent Saturday morning, there’s an endless parade of parents leading their bespectacled youngsters into her Mission Viejo shop. It’s a homey place, with blue floral wallpaper, oak chairs, a wooden rocking horse and an abundance of stuffed animals.

Peter Pohl of Dove Canyon has come to pick up a new set of glasses for his 8-year-old son Pete.

“How do you see in those?” asks Pohl, as his son tries on the wire-rimmed frames.

“Bad,” Pete says.

“Seriously,” his father says.

“I see OK,” Pete concedes. He studies his reflection in the full-length mirror.

“I’m an old granny,” he says mischievously, pretending to hobble with an imaginary cane.

His father grabs him and pinches his cheeks.

“You look so cute,” he says.

Pete has worn glasses for several years and is accustomed to the way they look.

“I can see much better with them. I love picking them out,” he says.

“Do your friends call you ‘four-eyes’?” his father asks.

“Some dorks do,” he says with a shrug.

For some children, getting their first pair of glasses can be a time of trauma and tears.

Schramm remembers one little girl who sobbed when she saw herself in spectacles.

“She was devastated. This girl was heavy, and she was not that attractive. She cried and cried.”

Schramm works closely with children to keep such scenes to a minimum, which requires the cheerful disposition and endless patience of a kindergarten teacher. Fortunately, she’s blessed with both.

Erin Denny, 4, a tiny dark-haired sprite, is sitting in a chair trying on a massive set of frames when Schramm comes to her rescue.

After some negotiating, Erin--with judicious guidance from Schramm--narrows the choices to two pink frames.

“Are you prettier in these glasses, or are you prettier in these glasses?” asks Schramm, trying both on the child. Erin is perhaps a little too young to choose.

“I like these,” she says, pointing to bright red frames that are not included in the choices. Ever the diplomat, Schramm lets her put them on even though they dwarf her small face.

“I just don’t think you’re ready for those yet. You really have to grow some more nose to wear those,” she says.

After some cajoling, Schramm manages to steer the girl back to the more flattering pink frames. The child is pleased.

It’s still not over. Now Schramm must measure Erin’s face for the fitting. As she places a ruler perpendicular to Erin’s nose, the child playfully whirls from her grasp.

Schramm tries a new tactic, standing the child on a chair so she can face her at eye level. She does not blink when Erin coughs in her face and patiently lends a hand when Erin’s purse, loaded with pennies and Popsicle sticks, spills out on the floor.

A half-hour, Erin has an order for new glasses. For her mother, Cynthia Denny, who has flown the child from their home in Sacramento just to visit the shop, it’s been worth the trip.

“I want her to look good. I’m worried about the psychosocial ramifications of glasses,” Denny says. “I want her to think of this as an accessory, and not just a medical device she has to wear.

“Other stores back home don’t have the selection (of frames). And here they also have a high degree of accuracy in filling prescriptions.”

More important than how the glasses look is how they perform. In these critical years, wearing the wrong lenses or poorly fitted frames can mean loss of vision to a child.

“If I put the wrong glasses on a child, I can do damage, even if it’s just to their skin,” Schramm says. “What I do is very critical.

“The burden of fit is in the bridge. It must fit perfect on the nose so you don’t change how the nose grows.”

When she started the business, Schramm found little information about filling eyeglass prescriptions for children.

“None of the textbooks tell you how to do facial measurements on a screaming baby,” she says.

Now some are taking a second look at children’s eyewear. Eyewear manufacturers have become more responsive to youngsters, devoting more of their lines to children’s frames.

“In the past few years, we’ve seen a big turnaround,” she says.

Companies such as Fisher-Price have introduced fashionable frames for youngsters. At her store, children can find frames decorated in sprinkles, stripes, plaids, polka dots and geometrics. One pink pair come adorned with letters of the alphabet.

“Round lenses and bright colors are really big right now,” she says. “We used to try to blend in with the hair color. Now the frames are brighter.” Primary colors are especially popular.

The frames fit children of all ages, from tiny plastic pastel frames for infants to sophisticated wire rims for teens. Parents can expect to pay $110 to $190 for a pair of glasses.

How their children view their glasses depends on their age, Schramm has discovered. Those under age 8 often think wearing glasses is “totally cool,” but children ages 8 to 11 suddenly become appearance-conscious.

“Their budding personalities are forming. The social pressure is much different. They hate anything outside the norm. So they rebel.

“To put glasses on a 10-year-old is traumatic.”

She tries to appease them by encouraging them to pick out their own frames.

Elizabeth Hayden of Mission Viejo first worried that her 10-year-old son Jeffrey would have trouble adjusting to glasses.

“There’s always this negative connotation with glasses,” she says. “Kids always think they’ll look funny, but this was such a good experience. He really felt he could pick out neat frames. Now my other kids want them.”

It helps that Jeffrey has received nothing but compliments from his classmates.

“They thought I looked good. I thought I looked like a nerd,” he says.

To Jeffrey, who is wearing a baseball uniform smeared with mud, how he looks in his new tortoise shell frames doesn’t matter.

“I like them because they help me see the ball better,” he says.