Preemie Infant Eyes

The development of preemie infant eyes is very closely watched after birth and for several months after NICU discharge. There have been great advancements in the care of eye conditions in preemies in recent years. Most problems if found early enough can be corrected by surgery.

Retinopathy Of Prematurity (ROP)

Retinopathy of prematurity is the condition by which the preemies retina did not have time to finish in utero. This can cause the blood vessels to clump up instead of spidering out as should happen during normal development of preemie infant eyes in the womb.

When detected early enough this condition can be corrected with surgery. Normally the preemie will undergo an eye exam before being discharged from the NICU. It is possible for the baby to be discharged and an exam scheduled a week or two later. This is a very important appointment to keep and your attending doctors and nurses will stress this to you.

After the exam you will be shown a diagram of your babies eye detailing the progress of the blood vessel development. If the doctor is not satisfied with the results you will be scheduled to come back in two week increments until your baby meets the requirements. After the babies blood vessels are seen to be developing normally you will be told to schedule an appointment 6 months from the test date. This will be a checkup to make sure everything is still going well.

Often times these appointments are quite a distance from you if you do not live near a major medical institution. A lot of facilities do not have the technology available to them for this type of testing. The 6 month checkup can normally be scheduled closer to home. The testing at this point is more of a routine test that doesn't require the type of equipment used to check the blood vessels.