I was blessed with great vision. I don’t know the feeling of not seeing the alarm clock in the morning or feeling your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. My husband was not so lucky (except for recent corrective eye surgery), and he began wearing glasses at a young age. He says he remembers realizing, after he started wearing glasses, that his vision had been bad for a long, long time. I’m hoping Jessa has my eye genes, but I’m prepping myself for that to not be the case.
A couple of weeks ago, I was online and randomly came across mention of the InfantSEE program. My interest was piqued and I looked for some more information. I was very surprised that I had never heard a thing about this very neat program, so consider this your briefing!
InfantSEE is a federal program that provides free eye and vision testing for babies 6-12 months. That’s right…FREE! I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have Jessa checked out, especially with her dad’s poor eyesight genes. The InfantSEE website allows you to easily find participating doctors in your area, and after a quick call Jessa had an appointment with Dr. Becky at Jensen Eyecare Center in Iowa City.
I was a little worried the day of the appointment, as I had to wake up baby J from a nap in order to make it on time. However, she was great when having her eyes dilated, and after signing a couple of forms Jessa and I hung out for a few minutes with Dr. Becky. She was fantastic with Jessa, and she did a great job of explaining what she was doing and why. After some tracking tasks along with a few “shine this light through a lens into her eye” type of tasks, Dr. Becky was able to determine that Jessa is just a bit farsighted. This is apparently very common in kids her age, so J passed with flying colors. She even got a gift at the end! (Check out the adorable Baby Banz shades!)
I still couldn’t believe that I had never heard of this program, and this leads me to believe it is likely very underused. It was fast, simple, painless, and another reassurance that Jessa is developing normally. I hope you consider taking twenty minutes to have your baby’s eyes screened!
