Eyes are so cool! We use them every day to see the wonderful world around us. Pre-term babies can have eye problems because the eyes are not fully formed when they are born. The blood vessels in the back of the eyes are still forming when a baby is born early. The blood vessels in the eyes grow based on the amount of oxygen that touches them. Before a baby is born, the eyes are not exposed to very much oxygen. When a baby is born early, the eyes are exposed to a greater amount of oxygen before they are ready. The higher level of oxygen causes the blood vessels of the eye to stop growing as they normally would and to grow incorrectly. If the vessels grow in the wrong ways, the baby can develop a sickness called "retinopathy of prematurity" (ROP).

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