Mason MacGregor had vertical lines in sight and crossed his eyes when the cute stuffed animal touched the tip of his nose.

It was not a complete eye examination, but Dr. Brenda Montecalvo, a partner at Nova Vision Care in Beavercreek, said things looked promising for the bright-eyed Fairborn tot who turns a year old today.

Montecalvo was at The Greene last week promoting InfantSee Week.

More than 250 optometrists around the state are participating in the program through Friday.

They offer free eye examination to infants 6 to 12 months old as part of the week supported by American Optometric Association in partnership with The Vision Care Institute of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care.

Some of the doctors will hand out complementary baby sunglasses.

Finding out about eye problems early can spare a child developmental issues down the road, Motecalvo said.

“A lot of kids tell me they had double vision a long time and they thought it was fine. They figure everyone has to deal with that so they don’t tell anybody,” she said. “All of those (vision) issues should be able to be picked up on so they don’t have to deal with it and it doesn’t affect their development.”

One in 10 infants is at risk from undiagnosed eye and vision problems, but InfantSee Week organizers say only 14 percent of children from infancy to age 6 have had a comprehensive eye assessment from an eye care professional.

Ellen Miller, 38, of Springboro said she and her husband learned the tough way the importance of early detection.

They only learned their now 8-year-old daughter Lauren had amblyopia, commonly known as lazy eye, after the girl exhibited problems reading in kindergarten.

“It affected her in school. It affected her socially,” Miller said. An avid soccer player, Lauren had difficulty with tracking and peripheral vision.

The Millers learned last year during InfantSee Week that their youngest child, Molly, had similar issues.

They acted quickly and sought vision therapy for the now 2-year-old at Motecalvo’s office.

“(Molly) is great. We fixed it all,” Ellen Miller said. “It took me a couple of months to fix it opposed to how it was with Lauren. We’ve been working on it since she was 5 and now she’s 8.”

Dr. Kathy Rudolf, an optometrist at Dayton Optometric Center, said many parents mistakenly think eye examinations given in pediatric offices are enough.

“It isn’t always sufficient to know if the eyes are working well,” she said.

Optometrists can check infants for a variety of conditions such as glaucoma, refractive errors (near sightedness and far sightedness), strabismus (crossed-eyes) and invasive cancers like retinoblastoma, Rudolf said.

“If (retinoblastoma) is not caught early enough, it can take a child’s life,” she said. “It is those cases that thankfully are rare, but you don’t want to lose the opportunity to find that out.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2384 or arobinson@DaytonDailyNews.com.