With Former President Jimmy Carter and Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter as honorary spokespersons for the InfantSEE® program, and The Vision Care Institute of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc. promising multi-year support, InfantSEE has the potential to ensure early childhood wellness care to include a professional eye and vision assessment as a necessary step in an infant's overall health and wellness.

As you think about your child's developmental milestones, remember to consider your child's eye health. Because vision plays a major role in infant development, visual health must be checked early and regularly. In fact, the American Optometric Association recommends that children receive their first comprehensive eye assessment at 6 months of age.

As participants in the InfantSEE program, we look forward to helping you make the most of your child's future, by providing eye assessments to your children within six to twelve months of life.

"As parents, we regularly take our children to the dentist to help prevent cavities. Likewise, we should take our babies to the optometrist to help prevent potential eye and vision problems. Given my family's experience managing vision problems that were not caught early, I strongly encourage all parents with babies to visit an optometrist for an InfantSEE assessment during the first year of their child's life and I applaud AOA for providing parents this opportunity." - Former President Jimmy Carter.

One in every 10 children is at risk from undiagnosed eye and vision problems, yet only 13 percent of mothers with children younger than 2 years of age said they had taken their babies to see an eye and vision care professional for a regular check-up or well-care visit. Moreover, many children at risk for eye and vision problems are not being identified at an early age, when many of those problems might be prevented or more easily corrected. Some 4.02 million children were born in 2004, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In approximately 4 percent, strabismus will develop, and amblyopia will develop in 3 percent'this equates to as many as 100,000 infants born each year who are at risk for serious eye and vision problems.

An InfantSEE assessment between 6 and 12 months of age is recommended to determine if an infant is at risk for eye or vision disorders. Since many eye problems arise from conditions that can be identified by an eye doctor in the infant's first year of life, you as a parent can give your infant a precious gift with an InfantSEE assessment in addition to the wellness evaluation of the eyes by your pediatrician or family practice doctor.