What is Infant Vision?

Vision is a primary guide to the process of child development. When a child is not moving through the developmental stages as expected, an underlying vision problem may be the culprit.  We understand the importance of vision in relation to the vital developmental stages. A good guideline is to have your infant's eyes checked at 6 months to 1 year of age, then at 3 years of age, and yearly after that.

An infant eye exam assesses vision problems of: 

• Depth perception
• Amblyopia (lazy eye)
• Check to see if one eye is turned
• Ocular health problems

Some children are prone to risk factors in their vision development due to inherited traits, the environment or nutritional factors.  Some indicators that a child may be at risk for vision problems

• Pregnancy Complications (systemic infections, preeclampsia, anesthetics at birth, medications, toxemia, obstetrical trauma, hypoxia, etc.)
• Prenatal Care and Lifestyle Issues (drinking, smoking, drugs during pregnancy)
• Family History of visual problems and/or learning disabilities
• Malnutrition
• Low Birth Weight or Premature Birth
• Failure to Thrive
• Postnatal factors (infections, metabolic disorders, chronic disease, environmental hazards, and hazardous medical events ie. head injury, abuse, seizures, etc.)
• Lack of rich sensory-motor experiences due to our cultural increase of time spent in movement-restricted activities such as: car seats, playpens, activity saucers/walkers/bouncers, strollers, tight clothing and TV/computer viewing

                                                                                                      -Published by the American Optometric Association

For more information on infant eye care, visit this link:

College of Optometrists in Vision Development

These statistics are little known facts:

1 in 10 children are at risk from undiagnosed vision problems

1 in 30 children will be affected by amblyopia, often referred to as lazy eye, a leading cause of vision loss in people younger than 45 years

1 in 25 children will develop strabismus – more commonly known as crossed-eyes – a risk factor for amblyopia

1 in 33 children will show significant refractive error such as nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism

1 in 100 children will exhibit evidence of eye disease – e.g. glaucoma

1 in 20,000 children have retinoblastoma (intraocular cancer), the seventh most common pediatric cancer

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