Iowa KidSight is a joint project of the Lions Clubs of Iowa and the Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital. We are dedicated to enhancing the early detection and treatment of vision impairments in young children. Our target population is 6 months of age through kindergarten. We work in Iowa communities through screening and public education.
Goals of the Program are:
- Objectively screen vision in infants and young children throughout all of Iowa’s 99 counties–for FREE.
- Educate the public about the risk of undetected vision loss.
- Identify ways to sustain vision screening programs of this type.
You can learn more about Iowa KidSight by clicking here.
Noon Lions’ KidSight
The DeWitt Noon Lions have been conducting KidSight Screenings in DeWitt since March of 2001. Iowa KidSight began one year earlier in March of 2000. Every year we screen nearly 100 of our DeWitt kids (with parent’s written approval) through our arrangements with Ekstrand, Grace Lutheran Church, and St Joeseph’s Preschool programs. We also screen kids at several independent home day-care centers in DeWitt.
About 5 percent of the children screened through KidSight are identified with vision impairments that might have otherwise gone undetected until the child was older, and perhaps then require more complex treatment, or in some cases, permanent vision loss.
As an FYI, of the 97 kids we screened in DeWitt in 2022, three were identified as needing further vision diagnosis and treatment.
If you have a daycare center in DeWitt and would like to host KidSight Screening at your center, let us know by submitting a request at our website’s contact page – click here. If you’re not in DeWitt and would like to know if your local Lions Club is involved in KidSight, let us know through our contact page and we’ll find out for you.
