Refractive power of premature children at infancy and early childhood.

We evaluated the refraction of 198 children born prematurely with birth-weights of 2,000 g or less, without any ocular disease. Between the ages of 6 months to 3 1/2 years these children had a mild hypermetropia. The refractive error did not change between the ages of 6 months and 3 1/2 years. The refraction of the prematurely born children was similar to that found in children born at full term.