![]() Your newborn baby’s eyes do sometimes similar. Again, this difficulty should fade over the first several days and weeks of life.ĭo you remember playing with dolls when you were younger? Some dolls had eye lids that opened and closed when you lifted them up and laid them flat. This puffiness may not only impact your newborn’s appearance, for a brief time, but may also make it difficult for them to open their eyes wide or sustain opened eyes for long periods of time. “A newborn’s face may look quite puffy… facial appearance often changes significantly during the first few days as rid of the extra fluid and the trauma of delivery eases” ( SickKids, 2009). Much of this difference in appearance is due to both the trauma of birth and extra fluid baby is carrying around. They even look different from babies who are only a few days older. What I had failed to fully grasp, although cognitively I knew it, was that newborn baby’s look very different from their counterparts of one and two months old. You’ve probably seen many adorable pictures of babies and have an image in your mind of your newborn looking similar to those images. They may then refer you on to the ophthalmologist for diagnosis and treatment of your newborn’s crossed eyes. If you are concerned about your baby’s eye(s) turning in atypical directions, consult your pediatrician. Strabismus, however, does not resolve on its own and requires intervention by an ophthalmologist (a specialized eye doctor). As a baby grows, these features usually change and pseudostrabismus goes away. These features can make a baby’s eyes look crossed. ![]() There are often small folds of eyelid skin on the side of the eye near the nose. The optical illusion of baby’s eyes appearing misaligned and cross, even though both eyes in reality point forward, is due to “baby’s nose having a wide bridge. “Pseudostrabismus is when one or both of a child’s eyes look misaligned (crossed), but really they are not.” This is to be differentiated from strabismus, which is a true crossed eye situation involving eyes that “are misaligned, and point in different directions…one eye may look forward while the other eye turns in, out, up, or down” ( Boyd, 2020a). Another reason for the newborn crossed eye appearance is due to an optical illusion called pseudostrabismus. The crossed eyed appearance may result from eye wandering, with each eye moving in slightly different directions as they learn to work together and grow stronger. Crossed EyesĬlosely related to wandering eyes is crossed eyes. If you child still has wandering, crossed, or unfocused eyes beyond these time frames or if their eyes turn in or out consistently (more than a slight wandering) at any point, please consult with your health care provider. Baby should begin to focus better by two months of age and their eyes should have developed the strength and coordination to not wander by three months of age. Your baby’s eyes may wander, have a hard time focusing on objects, or even move in slightly different directions. One of these initial milestones your baby must learn is how to focus their eyes and have them work together as a pair. Your newborn baby’s eyes (and associated brain processes), just like other parts of their body, still have a lot to learn and practice! Just as your newborn isn’t born with the knowledge and coordination for clapping, crawling, talking, and eating pizza, so too their eyes do not yet have the experience and strength for coordinated movement, sustained usage, or the ability to process all the input they are suddenly receiving. ![]() Your newborn’s eyesight itself is a topic for another day. However, today I’m choosing to focus on the physical characteristics of your newborn’s eye, things you can see as you’re looking at your baby. That most certainly has to do with the eyes and it most certainly isn’t up-to-speed at birth. Today, we’re going to rapid-fire review many of these quirks so that when you find yourself lovingly staring down into your newborn’s eyes, you’re able to greet them into this world with a few less concerns.Īlso, I’m intentionally leaving out information about your baby’s vision. What you’re more likely to find, during this early stage of development for your child, is a variety of eye conditions, quirks, and peculiarities that could be alarming if you didn’t know what to expect. Even knowing this, you still might not be able to help yourself from trying to smile into your baby’s eyes the same way you would an older baby, looking for recognition, laughter, connection. If you know anything about newborns, you know that they aren’t the most interactive little ones during their first several weeks and months of life after birth.
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