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Myth: Babies will outgrow crossed eyes. Babies do not develop the ability to follow objects until around 4 months of age. When babies are younger than 4 months, they may sometimes have occasional intermittent eye crossing (esotropia), which is quite small. This does usually resolve spontaneously as the baby gets older. HOWEVER, constant eye crossing at any age MUST be evaluated immediately by a pediatric ophthalmologists. And eye crossing past the age of 4 months, whether intermittent or constant must also be evaluated by a pediatric ophthalmologist. When people say that their babies outgrew their eye crossing at an older age, it might be that their kids never had eye crossing at all. Instead, they may have had pseudoesotropia. Pseudoesotropia is the appearance of, but not truly, misaligned eyes, usually caused by having a wide nasal bridge. The skin covers more of the white of the eye nasally, making the baby look like their cross eyed, even when their eyes are perfectly straight. This is extremely common here in Hawaii because of the large percentage of Asian and hapa babies. As these babies grow, they start to develop more of a nose bridge, and lose their “cross eyed appliance.” This distinction must be made by a pediatric ophthalmologist, because some children can have both pseudoesotropia and real esotropia. Bottom line - past the age of 4 months, babies do not outgrow eye turns without proper evaluation, diagnosis and treatment. If you are concerned, see or refer to a peds ophthalmologist. Myth (kind of) Busted. #eyemythbusters #crosseyes #lazyeeye #strabismus #ophthalmology
By drrupawong
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