However, by the age of 3 or 4 months, an infant's eyes should be straight and able to focus on objects without turning outward or inward.
If your baby is older than 4 months and her eyes continue to cross, move inward or outward, or don't appear to focus together, strabismus might be to blame. Strabismus is a misalignment of the eyes resulting from a failure of the eye muscles to work together.
Early detection of strabismus or other eye disorders is important for preserving a child's future vision. An eye doctor can perform several tests on babies and young children to determine if treatment is needed.
If your child has strabismus and does not receive proper treatment, her brain could actually start to ignore the messages sent from one of her eyes.
Over time, the neglected eye may begin to become lazy and stop working altogether. This visual condition is known as amblyopia or "lazy eye.
Strabismus sometimes runs in families, but it can also show up in children with no family history. When genetics don't seem to play a role in the development of strabismus, a significant vision problem is usually diagnosed. Children with cerebral palsy and Down syndrome seem to have a higher occurrence of strabismus.
Premature babies and low birth weight babies are also at higher risk of developing strabismus, as well as children with farsighted vision. Strabismus can usually be corrected with glasses and is usually successful if it's caught early in a child's life. Sometimes, however, wearing glasses is not enough to correct strabismus and treatment may include surgical correction.
Eye doctors will operate on the eye muscles, maneuvering them to pull the eyes into the correct position. It is normal for an infant's eyes to cross when vision development is in its early stages. The eyes should straighten and appear normal by 3 or 4 months of age. Some people may think that their child will outgrow strabismus, but this is untrue.
In fact, if strabismus is left untreated, it can progress to amblyopia, or lazy eye. When the eyes are misaligned, the brain receives two different images. If left untreated, the brain will eventually ignore the image from the turned or crossed eye, permanently reducing vision in that eye.
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When many people think of crossed eyes, they might only think the condition affects only one of the eyes, but it can actually impact both. Not only can both eyes be affected by strabismus, but the condition can cause eyes to be misaligned in any direction. This means that eyes might turn inwards, outwards, upwards, or downwards. The baby frequently tilts or turns their head. This could be a sign that they need to adjust their head to look at an object.
The baby frequently squints or blinks, which could be caused by double vision due to strabismus. The light reflex in the eye when their picture is taken red eye in picture is not in center of the eye.
Eye examinations in the office can easily determine if a baby has strabismus. Until they develop adequate strength, it is very common to see strabismus in the newborn.
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