Local doctors provide free eye care for infants

MARQUETTE — Eye care for babies is not something that most parents think about when they think about their child’s health and local eye doctors are setting out to change that.

A program called InfantSEE offers free eye screenings for children between the ages of six months to a year. When children are infants, it can be tough for parents to even realize that their child is having vision problems, which can impair their development down the road.

“It’s hard to determine if kids can see or not when they are so young like that. There are things that we can find, as eye care professionals, that parents just wouldn’t recognize on their own,” said Dr. Jessica Hartwig, O.D.

One in four children have vision problems and without getting their vision checked, sometimes the issues can go undetected.

“That helps establish if there are any vision problems, and we can catch any problems early in life. To prevent that, give them glasses, you know, start treatment programs and things like that,” added Hartwig. “Make sure that their eye health is good, they don’t have anything like congenital cataracts or retinal blastoma. It’s important for their eyes and their vision.”

Dr. Hartwig and Superior Eye Health Center are members of the American Optometric Association, which allows the InfantSEE program to be free for children. To find more information about the program or to find a participating optometrist near you, visit the InfantSEE website.