Advances in neonatal medicine over the past decade have allowed doctors to save growing numbers of very premature infants.

But some of those surviving babies are part of a far less publicized trend: an alarming rise in the numbers of blind children.

Doctors say retinopathy of prematurity (ROP)--a condition in which abnormal blood vessels and scar tissue grow over the retina of a very premature and tiny infant--is the primary cause of the increase.

Besides ROP, very premature babies can become blind because of cortical visual impairment, a condition in which the brain has been damaged and cannot interpret visual information. Cortical visual impairment is often associated with other disabilities, such as cerebral palsy.

"What we see is the success of our medical care system keeping alive people," says Corinne Kirchner, director of programs and policy research for the American Foundation for the Blind. "The question now is: OK, how do we incorporate blind people in this society?"

And just when the increase in infant blindness is being recognized as an unfortunate outcome of advanced neonatal care, lawmakers in Washington have voted to slash funds set aside to educate blind children--including reading materials and teacher training.

Parents of these children and special-education teachers are incredulous that funding for such things as Braille textbooks and teacher training may be cut at a time when the numbers of blind children are increasing.

"We are very alarmed," says Susan LaVenture, executive director of the National Assn. for Parents of the Visually Impaired. "Forty years of building up services for the blind will be diminished by these cuts."

At the Blind Childrens Center in Los Angeles, which has seen its enrollment more than double from 26 students in 1989 to more than 50 today, officials predict that funding cuts will increase the burden on privately funded institutions such as theirs.

"My guess is, we would see more referrals as other centers dry up," says Lynne Webber of the center. "People are very upset because it looks like the cuts will be drastic. It's very shocking."

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Blindness in infancy and childhood is still a relatively rare disability. According to the American Printing House for the Blind, 53,576 American children under age 18 are legally blind. That figure is growing about 3% per year, says Dr. Tuck Tinsley, president of the printing house, a government-funded institution that supplies virtually all educational materials for the blind.