Your eyes are not deceiving you: Newborn babies' eyes commonly appear as if they're crossed. Babies' eyes don't always move in perfect unison either, and that's a perfectly normal — and common — newborn characteristic. After all, your cross-eyed baby just spent nine months in your dark womb, so he hasn’t had much practice focusing his vision.
Happily, crossed eyes in babies are hardly ever anything to worry about. Odds are, your baby’s eyes will right themselves within a few months.
What causes crossed eyes in babies?
Some babies are born with extra folds of skin in the inner corners of their eyes or have a wide-bridged nose, giving them a cross-eyed appearance. As they get older, they grow into their nose or their folds disappear — as does that cross-eyed look.
Otherwise, a truly off-kilter gaze is caused by the fact that a newborn’s eyes are just as uncoordinated as the rest of them and can't always track together. In the weeks after birth, a cross-eyed baby’s eyes sometimes don’t look in the same place at the same time.
Most infants’ eyes correct themselves within the first four months of life, as babies learn to use their eyes and strengthen their eye muscles — but sometimes they don’t. This misalignment of the eyes, known as strabismus, is when just one eye focuses on what your baby is looking at while the other tends to wander.
Strabismus can stem from problems with the nerves or muscles in the eyes. Iit tends to run in families and may occasionally be linked to another vision issue or medical condition.
Symptoms of strabismus include eyes that look misaligned or don’t move together. Eyes may regularly appear to drift outward or cross inward. Babies may also tilt their heads, blink or squint their eyes often, especially when they’re in the sun.
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When do babies’ eyes stop crossing?
By the time a baby is 3 to 4 months old, his increasingly coordinated eyes should stop crossing and work together to follow objects, thanks to better-developed and more-mature eye-hand coordination and depth perception. If not, your doctor may recommend getting your baby’s eyes checked for strabismus.
How to fix crossed eyes in babies
If your baby’s crossed eyes are still out of sync (or don’t seem to be more coordinated) by the time he’s 3 to 4 months old, check with his doctor, who may suggest visiting a pediatric ophthalmologist for vision testing.
It’s important to diagnose and treat strabismus as early as possible, since little ones learn with their eyes. Untreated strabismus can lead to “lazy eye” (or amblyopia), where it becomes weaker from disuse.
An ophthalmologist may recommend one of the following treatments for your cross-eyed baby:
Eyeglasses
For many babies, eyeglasses — sometimes with special prism lenses — correct strabismus. While it can be difficult to get a baby to wear glasses, following your doctor’s treatment plan will produce the best results.
Eye patch
If eyeglasses don’t correct a wandering eye, your child’s doctor may recommend wearing an eye patch over the eye that sees well for a few hours each day. This forces the other eye to work on its own, helping to strengthen the muscles controlling it along with your baby’s focus.
Eye drops
If your baby refuses to wear an eye patch, your doctor may recommend eye drops (called atropine drops), which temporarily blur the vision in the stronger eye. Similar to the eye patch, this forces the weaker eye to do the work of seeing for both eyes.
Surgery
Very rarely, other treatments don’t correct a baby’s crossed eyes, and surgery may be necessary. A ophthalmologist will shorten or reposition the muscles in the eyes so that they appear straight. Your little one may also need to visit a vision therapist in the future to learn exercises that help keep his eyes from crossing again.
If you’re concerned about your newborn’s crossed eyes, remember that you're in good hands: Your baby's vision will be checked at every well-baby visit. Keep in mind that for most babies with crossed eyes, the problem corrects itself within a few months. If your doctor thinks your baby may need treatment, a pediatric ophthalmologist can help nip any issues in the bud.
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