At J&J;’s Camp Baby, my favorite speaker of the day was from a program called InfantSEE. Dr. Scott Jenns, a successful leading optometrist, discussed children/infant eye care and shared warning signs that could alert parents to potential vision problems. He was a very moving speaker who shared heartbreaking stories of parents who were introduced to the program and were able to alter the course of their child’s life with this amazing and free program.
The American Optometric Association encourages parents to include a trip to the optometrist in the list of well-baby check-ups. Assessments at six to twelve months of age can determine healthy development of vision. Early detection of eye conditions is the best way to ensure your child has healthy vision for successful developmentânow and in the future.
InfantSEE is a public health program designed to ensure that eye and vision care becomes an integral part of infant wellness care to improve a child’s quality of life. This program is FREE to parents and all it takes is a quick moment to look up your zip code to locate a doctor. Just head over to the homepage and click the button at the top to explore doctors in your area. Explore the parenting section as well with tips for vision care for your baby.
I hope this will benefit someone out there. I know that vision care is often not covered by most insurance companies, and this is a way for you to get the care you need for your baby at a very critical time in their lives.
Before this presentation, I would have never thought to schedule this for my infant, and now I will hope to pass on and promote the message that Dr. Jenns was able to share with us! I was disappointed to see that there are no optometrists in my area, but hopefully the word will spread about this excellent program and more optometrists will want to participate.
Sound Off: Do you take your children to the optometrist? How do you save money on your eye care needs? Does you/your husband’s company offer any insurance, flexible spending account, or a way for you to get this expense covered? Please share!
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9 Responses to “InfantSEE- Free Vision Care for Your Infant”
Yes, we do. The twins were 2 months early so they were seen in the NICU by a peds eye dr. Then at 6 months and again at 12 months. One of them has a slight vision issue, so he was seen again at 18 months. We will need glasses soon, probably by 3 to correst his problems. The twins are 2 now.
Do you take yours to eye doc?
Blessings!!!
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Hi Amy,
I was excited to see that there are several participating doctors in my area. And, with a baby not yet six months old – perhaps I should look into this for him.
I have never taken either of the girls. Before David had LASIK surgery, we did buy a small supplemental insurance for vision needs. It barely helped enough to pay for itself, so it is now gone. We could put money in our Flexible Benefit Account and be reimbursed that way.
Thanks for the great info!
Monica
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Monica- I would DEFINITELY take advantage of this program! You should blog about it if you go and tell everyone how great it was. There were no participating optometrists in our area so I would love to hear about your experience.
Marva- Eye care is important to our family. Ethan gets checked at his school. My mom actually works for an optometrist so I try to take advantage of that for our family care. We no longer have vision care on our insurance so we use money from our FSA.
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We participated in the InfantSEE program and we were very pleased with it. It was amazing what the doctor could tell… Our daughter turned out to be just fine, but I was glad to have the peace of mind…
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I wiah I had known about this a few months ago! There are several doctors in my area!
I’ll have to let my friends know about this who have babies under a year. What a great program!
We save on eye care the same way Monica does — we include it when figuring out our flexible healthcare spending account for the year. I include my checkups and contacts/glasses, along with all the copays, etc. we think we will need.
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I forgot to add that we do not have any vision coverage. The boys exams and visits were covered under medical the first 12 months of their lives. Now, we have to pay and it is high. There are only 3 peds eye specialists within 1 1/2 hours of our home.
That is great Amy! I would take advantage of it too! Yes, i agree it is very important! Blessings and what a great post!
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We took our son at around 6 months and we were happy with the program. But when we mentioned later to our pediatrician that we had participated in InfantSee she gave us a hard time about it saying that she doesn’t recommend getting a child’s eyes checked until much later. We don’t take our son to her anymore and we would definitely do InfantSee again with future children.
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I’ve contacted doctors on the list in my area, and they had no idea what it was. I was confused by this. My daughter has one pupil smaller than the other, so I wanted it checked out.
I guess one good thing came from it. The receptionist at one office told me who she took her son to (the best doctor in the area), and it wasn’t the one she was working for!
My optometrist just told me to bring her back when she was three.
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Great thanks for increasing awareness of InfantSEE(R)!! I am the doctor who presented the program to Camp Baby, which was a high-powered event that allowed InfantSEE(R) to have the attention of bloggers from across the nation. Your posting is very helpful to increase awareness. I’m sorry that Erin didn’t find a doctor whose staff knew more — we find that some doctors have registered to provide this free service but it’s so new that their staff hasn’t yet been engaged in the process — please contact infantsee@aoa.org if you want help in finding a doctor, we’re here to help!
Scott Jens, O.D.
Middleton, WI
Chair, InfantSEE(R)
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