The American Foundation for the Blind estimates that 10 million people in the US are visually impaired to some degree.

These impairments happen to non-NICU infants as well, but ALL infants are not being screened in most hospitals.

For infants, severe vision loss or blindness can mean that some parts of your child’s development and learning will be slower than it is for other children.  This includes less ability to roll over, crawl, walk, speak and be comfortable in social settings.

• 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”), which is a leading cause of vision loss in people younger than 45 years
• 1 in 25 will develop strabismus (more commonly known as “crossed-eyes”), a risk factor for amblyopia
• 1 in 33 will show significant refractive error such as near-sightedness, far-sightedness and astigmatism
• 1 in 100 will exhibit evidence of eye disease (e.g. glaucoma)
• 1 in 20,000 children have retinoblastoma (intra-ocular cancer), the seventh most common pediatric cancer