Infantsee
In 2005, Optometry's CharityTM - The AOA Foundation and the Vision Care InstituteTM,LLC - a Johnson & Johnson company began the InfantSEE program. InfantSEE is designed to promote the visual health of children. An InfantSEE doctor agrees to perform examinations on children between the ages of 6 months and 1-year-old.
One in ten children is at risk for an undiagnosed eye or vision problem. Many of these conditions must be treated at an early age if there is hope for correcting the problem. When a person reaches adult age, there are many conditions that cannot be treated because the neurological and visual systems are fully developed. If discovered early enough, these conditions can be treated. This is the purpose of the InfantSEE program.
These eye/vision conditions include strabismus (eye turning in or out), amblyopia (lazy eye), hyperopia (farsightedness), and myopia (nearsightedness). According to the US census bureau, 4.02 million children were born in 2004. Statistically, 4 percent of these children will develop strabismus, and 3 percent will develop amblyopia. This equates to nearly 100,000 children who will be born with an eye condition.
While school eye screenings do help, they do not replace the quality of a full in-depth examination by an InfantSEE provider. The eye examination when you bring your young child for an InfantSEE assessment includes: visual acuity and refractive status assessment ("what prescription your child is"), eye movement and binocular status (how your child's eyes move and strabismus evaluation), and ocular health with dilation. Dilation is included for a child of this age in order to assess eye health because disease such as retinoblastoma can be discovered. Retinoblastoma, a cancer of the retinal tissue and optic nerve, is the 7th most common type of pediatric cancer.
The doctors at Florence and Tuscumbia Eye Centers are proud to be InfantSEE providers. We are honored to help care for your child as he or she grows and develops.