Children’s Vision FAQ

Will my baby’s eyes stay this color?

The pigment that determines a person’s eye color develops during early childhood. Usually, eye color development takes about six months in a full-term baby but can often change up to one year. Although rare, changes can occur even after one year. In a premature child, the development takes longer.

How much does a newborn see?

It is hard to measure vision accurately in a newborn. With special testing, vision has been estimated to be about 20/400 in a full-term newborn. This is the size of the largest letter on a standard eye chart. Their brains will only pay attention to things about one foot away, and they may not seem to follow faces or objects for the first few months. It is felt that newborns have a sense of color vision. They will often react more to black and white shapes because these have the most contrast and are therefore easiest to see.

My baby’s eyes are crossing. Is this a problem?

It is common for a child’s eyes to cross as a newborn, especially intermittently. As children mature and their brains learn how to focus and use their eyes better, this often improves. Crossed eyes is generally only considered a problem if it persists for greater than three months in a full-term child. One exception to this may be if a newborn’s eye(s) were not able to move in a particular direction. This may be considered a problem even before three months of age.

When will my child’s blocked tear duct go away?

Blocked tear ducts are very common in newborn children. Approximately 80% of these will resolve in the first six months of life. Topical antibiotics may be used if there are signs of a tear duct infection during this time. Massaging the tear ducts is also felt to be helpful in opening up tear ducts in some children. If a blocked tear duct persists for more than six months, it is less likely that it will open spontaneously; it may require a short procedure to relieve the blockage.

Will wearing glasses make my child’s vision worse?

Wearing glasses does not make a child’s vision worse. It may be critical in allowing a clear image to form inside the eye which is necessary for the visual system in the brain to develop. The amount of farsightedness (hyperopia), nearsightedness (myopia) or astigmatism an individual has is a function of the shape of the eye and the focusing power of the cornea and lens. Putting glasses on will not change the shape of the eye nor will it affect the focusing power of the lens or cornea.

Will patching make my child’s eyes stay straight?

In general, no. Patching is mostly used to try to force the brain to use the eye with weaker vision to try to improve visual potential. This is frequently used in combination with other therapies such as glasses or surgery. These latter therapies are often used to make the eyes straighter. There are some exceptions to this rule. For example, we have found that sometimes patching may improve the control in keeping the eyes straight in some children that have intermittent deviations.

Will exercises make my child’s eyes stay straight?

In most cases, we have not found eye exercises to be helpful in making a child have straight eyes. An important exception to this is with a condition called convergence insufficiency. This is when the eyes are not able to move together as well as they should when focusing on near objects. For this particular problem, eye exercises are often very helpful.

If my child has surgery for his eye turning, will they cross later?

For a child undergoing eye muscle surgery there is a 20-30% chance that there may still be a significant ocular deviation following this procedure. In some cases, this may be noticed right away. Other times, it may take years to develop. That also means that there is a 70-80% chance of having very good long-term alignment following surgery. If there is a significant ocular deviation following eye muscle surgery, it is generally possible to go back and reposition muscles surgically to try to improve the alignment.