1380 Spahn Avenue, York, PA

Leora Wiest, ForSight Director of Vision Services

As the Director of Vision Services for ForSight Vision, I have the opportunity to get out in the community and check the vision of 3, 4, and 5 year olds in 3 counties. Over the years this has been a very rewarding and fulfilling opportunity. I have found many children that were referred by us to an eye care professional and have been diagnosed with astigmatism (an optical defect where light rays entering the eye are bent unequally preventing formation of a sharp point of focus), myopia (near sightedness), and hyperopia (far-sightedness), which requires the child to wear glasses. Other children have been referred and have more serious problems such as histoplasmosis (a fungus infection caused by inhalation of HISTOPLASMA CAPSULATUM which starts in the lungs, spreads to other organs and eventually ends up in the eye, if not treated). Amblyopia is commonly known as “lazy eye” which is a functional defect causing decreased vision in an eye that did not develop normal sight during early childhood and strabismus is eyes that are not properly aligned with each other. Several years ago I found a child that I had referred for a complete eye exam, diagnosed with a malignant eye tumor.

Did you know that:

• 1 in 10 children are at risk from undiagnosed vision problems
• 1 in 30 children will be affected by amblyopia
• 1 in 25 will develop strabismus
• 1 in 33 will shown significant refractive error and need glasses
• 1 in 100 will exhibit evidence of eye disease
• 1 in 20,000 children have retinoblastoma (intraocular cancer), the 7th most common pediatric cancer

Hopefully your child or grandchild, niece or nephew had a complete eye exam before entering school. Actually, it is recommended that a child be examined by an eye care professional, at 6 months and 3 years!

Excerpt from the Pennsylvania Optometric Association:  The American Optometric Association (AOA) and the Vision Care Institute of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc. have partnered to create InfantSEE, a no-cost public health program developed to provide professional eye care for infants nationwide. Successful treatment can be obtained more quickly with early intervention. If you are interested in getting more information on this valuable program, visit the website.