Eye Health Kid's Eye Health Print Causes and Treatments for Crossed Eyes in Newborns By Troy Bedinghaus, OD linkedin Troy L. Bedinghaus, OD, board-certified optometric physician, owns Lakewood Family Eye Care in Florida. He is an active member of the American Optometric Association. Learn about our editorial process Troy Bedinghaus, OD Updated on January 26, 2020 albert mollon / Getty Images More in Eye Health Kid's Eye Health Glaucoma Cataracts Macular Degeneration Vision Loss Dry Eye Syndrome More Eye Issues & Safety Contact Lenses Glasses Exams & Procedures Vision Improvement Surgery Eye Anatomy View All Having a cross-eyed look is very normal for newborns. Sometimes babies are born with extra folds of skin in the inner corners of their eyes, giving them an appearance of crossed eyes. As these babies grow, however, the folds start to disappear. Also, a newborn infant's eyes can appear to cross from time to time. This normal occurrence is due to a lack of development at this stage in their lives. It is normal for a newborn's eyes to move independently of each other. The cross-eyed look sometimes causes much concern for new parents. 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. Vision Development Milestones in Babies Older Babies and Crossed Eyes 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." In addition to developing amblyopia, depth perception could also be affected. Overview of Amblyopia, or Lazy Eye Causes 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. Treatment 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. A Word From Verywell 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 three or four months of age. If you suspect that your baby has a vision problem due to crossed eyes, make an appointment with an eye doctor. If your baby has an eye turn problem, the sooner treatment is started, the better the results will usually be. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Sign up for our Health Tip of the Day newsletter, and receive daily tips that will help you live your healthiest life. Sign Up You're in! Thank you, {{form.email}}, for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. What are your concerns? Other Inaccurate Hard to Understand Submit Article Sources Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Wan MJ, Vanderveen DK. Eye disorders in newborn infants (excluding retinopathy of prematurity). Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition. 2014;100(3). doi:10.1136/archdischild-2014-306215 Ye XC, Pegado V, Patel MS, Wasserman WW. Strabismus genetics across a spectrum of eye misalignment disorders. Clin Genet. 2014;86(2):103–111. doi:10.1111/cge.12367 Cotter SA, Varma R, Tarczy-Hornoch K. Risk factors associated with childhood strabismus: the multi-ethnic pediatric eye disease and Baltimore pediatric eye disease studies. Ophthalmology. 2011;118(11):2251–2261. doi:10.1016/j.ophtha.2011.06.032 Helveston EM. Understanding, detecting, and managing strabismus. Community Eye Health. 2010;23(72):12–14.