An infant squints his eyes. Strabismus in newborns

There are many factors that can affect the appearance of strabismus in a baby. These include:

Heredity. If one of the parents has strabismus, then there is a high probability that the child will also have it.
Flu, measles, acute respiratory infections or scarlet fever suffered in the first month after birth. To prevent your baby from developing strabismus, try to put as little strain on his eyes as possible during illness.
Complications during pregnancy (impaired blood flow or fetal hypoxia). This also includes difficult childbirth. The part of the brain containing the posterior longitudinal fasciculus may experience microscopic hemorrhage due to these complications. If strabismus in a child is associated precisely with this reason, then Only surgery can solve it.
Infectious diseases suffered by the mother in the 1st trimester of pregnancy.
Cerebral palsy, congenital brain tumor, Down syndrome or microcephaly. These diseases can also affect the newborn's visual acuity.

If the baby is not yet six months old, then problems with focusing vision should not be immediately associated with strabismus.

A child’s eyes may widen during the newborn period for the following reasons:

An unusual structure of the skull, in which both parts are located at a slight angle relative to each other. It is because of this that parents begin to think that their baby is suffering from strabismus. This goes away at 6 months.
The baby is experiencing severe anxiety or stress. Because of this, approximately 20% of children may experience temporary strabismus. The cause is dysfunction of the eyeballs. After the child calms down, the pupils will return to their normal position.
The child was born with farsightedness, nearsightedness or astigmatism.

In addition, the muscles of the eyeball may simply not have had time to fully develop after birth, so at first infant May have difficulty focusing.

When should squint go away?

As a rule, a slight strabismus is noticeable in every newborn and this is absolutely normal. Imaginary strabismus can occur in a baby due to weakness eye muscles. He simply hasn’t learned how to use them, which is why his pupils temporarily diverge different sides. As soon as the newborn learns to control their movement, the squint will go away.

When to start worrying

If the child is not yet six months old, then there is no point in raising a panic if he has strabismus. The organs of vision develop extremely slowly, so for the first few months the baby can only respond to large figures and light sources. But if the baby is already 6 months old, and his eyes continue to run in different directions, then this is already a reason to visit an ophthalmologist. The infant may have persistent strabismus.

What to do and how to help a baby

If you suspect that your child has strabismus, then be sure to go to a specialist. Before six months, he must determine which of the 20 types of strabismus your baby has.

How to improve visual acuity at home:

Do gymnastics. Sit on a bed or sofa with your elbows on a pillow. Bend your legs at the knees. Then place the child on them (if the baby is not yet 6 months old, then he should be in a semi-lying position). Then take any ringing toy or rattle and start moving it from side to side, up and down and vice versa.
Train your baby's eyeballs with big toys. Hang them above the crib. The distance between the toys and the baby should be such that he cannot reach them.

If eye gymnastics does not help eliminate strabismus, your doctor may recommend the following:

orthopedic therapy;
electrophoresis;
driving the child to specialized kindergartens;
reflexology;
osteopathic therapy;
occlusion healthy eye.

In addition, the doctor may suggest an operation that lasts only 15 minutes. During the operation, the long muscle of the eye is truncated and thanks to this it returns to normal condition. However, such an operation can be performed no earlier than the child turns 2 years old.

Or is this disease for life? It depends on the reasons for its appearance, the age of the child and other factors.

What is strabismus?

In medicine, the term “squint” is used when talking about a pathology of the visual organs, in which one or both eyes look in different directions. In this case, the lines of sight do not have an intersection point. One eye looks at the object, and the other is directed away. In such cases, the muscles visual organ work inconsistently.

The pathology can be either congenital (present from birth or appears in the first six months of life) or acquired (appears before 3 years of age).

Vision in children under one year of age: normal

As soon as the happy mother returns from maternity hospital with a newborn, she is surrounded by caring grandparents and other relatives. Everyone looks at every part of the baby’s body, watches his every movement, every breath. And they often pay attention to the fact that a newborn’s eyes are crossed. Will this pass, do parents worry? In most cases - yes! Therefore, you should not immediately panic and run to the doctors.

The fact is that this is quite normal for a newborn. The baby is still a tiny, not fully formed organism. Many organs and systems are just beginning to adapt to new conditions environment. Including vision. The eyes are a complex analyzer. It begins to work at full capacity only towards the end of the first year of life.

Immediately after birth, the baby's eye is only able to distinguish between the presence or absence of a light source. This is exactly how vision is checked back in the maternity hospital, the beam is directed at eyeball If the baby closes his eyes, then the reaction is correct. B has difficulty distinguishing objects, seeing them as if in a fog. The gaze can be focused only on large objects. At 3-4 months, the baby tries to catch smaller objects and their movement with his gaze. During this period, the vision of each eye develops separately. The muscles there are still quite weak, and it is difficult for the baby to focus his gaze on an object. Therefore, it is absolutely normal when a child’s eyes cross. When does strabismus go away in newborns? This usually happens by 4-6 months. There should be no signs of physiological strabismus until six months.

Convergent strabismus

Strabismus is a pathology in which the visual axes are displaced. With convergent strabismus, these axes are located closer to the bridge of the nose. This can affect either one eye or both at once. They seem to gather “in a bunch”. The eyeball is shifted from the center to the bridge of the nose. This problem occurs most often, in 90% of cases, and most often in newborns. Most likely, there is no need to worry if the baby mows only from time to time and not constantly.

Exotropia

Much less often, only in 10% of all cases, the visual axes shift relative to the center not towards the nose, but in the opposite direction, towards the temples. Often divergent strabismus is also accompanied by farsightedness.

Treatment of strabismus

When does strabismus go away in newborns? Usually by 6 months babies get rid of it. But if the child is already six months old, and the look does not normalize, in such cases it is important not to waste time and start treatment. You can help your baby with a whole range of special measures:

Create the right conditions for normal visual function. That is, ensure a visual work regime, ensure good lighting of the play area, bright toys should not be close to the crib.
Correct other diseases that accompany strabismus. For farsightedness and nearsightedness, lenses or glasses are used. Thus, the load on weak eye muscles is reduced, and the disease goes away.
Temporarily close the healthy eye. To do this, use a special bandage or simply soak one glass of glasses. In this way, the muscles of the healthy eye are temporarily disabled, forcing the muscles of its “lazy brother” to work and train.
Hardware treatment. These are computer techniques, magnetic stimulation, laser stimulation, electrical stimulation and others.
Operational surgical intervention. This is a drastic method, but it is necessary if all of the above conservative methods did not bring any improvement.

When will strabismus in a newborn go away? This question worries parents. Does strabismus go away quickly in newborns? The baby has physiological age feature will pass by 6 months. And if treatment is required, it will take about 2-3 years. The sooner the disease is discovered and treatment begins, the faster it will go away.

Prevention of strabismus

Like any disease, it is better to prevent strabismus than to treat it. There are simple techniques that will help prevent the disease from occurring:

do not overload the visual muscles and nerves, toys should not be located too close to the eyes;
do not run the ones that appear eye diseases, treat them immediately;
be attentive to scheduled inspection ophthalmologist

Strabismus in children. Causes

We found out in this article how to cure and when strabismus goes away, but why do some children suffer from this disease and others not? Why does this disease appear? The reasons why it may appear in a child are different:

viral and chronic diseases may affect the baby’s health;
difficult childbirth;
various infectious diseases And inflammatory processes in a newborn;
external damage and trauma to the organs of vision;
hereditary predisposition;
obvious violation of eye hygiene;
incorrect mode of visual function, when toys are always located too close to the baby’s face in the crib and stroller.

This pathology belongs to the small number of diseases that can almost always be diagnosed by the parents themselves, without the participation of a doctor. You just need to carefully monitor the development of visual functions. And when the newborn’s strabismus passes, caring parent will notice right away. You just need to carefully monitor the baby.

When does strabismus in newborns go away? Komarovsky answers

Oleg Evgenievich agrees with other doctors on this issue. Komarovsky says that this is quite typical for newborns. physiological feature. Moreover, it is the norm. When does strabismus go away in newborns? It goes away on its own without any treatment by 4-6 months of life. By this time, the child’s eye muscles should be sufficiently strong. If this does not happen, you should contact a specialist without wasting time, he believes. Parents should be especially careful about this if there have been cases of similar illnesses in the family. The main thing is not to waste time. Indeed, for children, untimely access to a doctor can lead to the fact that the ability to clearly see a picture with both eyes at the same time will not be formed.

They will not be able to see three-dimensional objects. And fix it in more mature age it won't be possible anymore. But when strabismus in newborns goes away, parents can completely forget about the disease. Most likely, she will not appear again.

Many parents are faced with strabismus in their newly born baby. This scares them, and they begin to worry that their eyes will remain looking in different directions forever. Don't panic ahead of time. Let's figure out why a newborn squints his eyes and how to fix it.

Strabismus in infants or strabismus is most often a temporary phenomenon. The thing is that babies cannot yet control the movement of their eyeballs. Therefore, it happens that the eyes diverge to the temples, roll down to the bridge of the nose, or even roll up completely. The reason for this is that the eye muscles are still very weak. Most often, as the child grows up, strabismus goes away without a trace.

The eye, like any other muscle, requires constant exercise to strengthen. The baby, showing interest in the world around him, will gradually gain control over his vision.

Strabismus in newborns, when it goes away, types

Squinted eyes in infants are considered a normal physiological phenomenon and, as a rule, by 3-4 months everything returns to normal. By the age of six months, the baby already sees quite well and his vision is slowly improving. The peephole muscles become stronger, and the squint goes away on its own.
However, visiting an ophthalmologist in such early age should not be neglected. This will help to exclude and prevent serious pathologies. An experienced local pediatrician, in case of existing deviations, will immediately see them and refer them to an ophthalmologist.
There are several types of strabismus in newborns:

divergent. The eyes look in different directions in the direction of the temples. The most common type, occurs in 80% of cases;
convergent. The child squints his eyes towards his nose. Makes up 10% of the total;
vertical. When a child squints one eye up or down. Occurs in 10 children out of 100.

Baby's eyes squint, causes, treatment

The main causes of infant strabismus include:

weak eye muscles;
undeveloped visual function in newborns;
genetic predisposition;
weakened immunity due to frequent colds mothers during pregnancy;
past diseases of infectious origin;
eye injuries;
unsanitary conditions at home;
hanging toys too low over the playpen or stroller.

As we have already decided, with the first two points above, there is normal phenomenon in infants. This strabismus does not require treatment and goes away on its own by four months. In cases where pathology is present, there are two types of treatment: medication and surgery.
The first involves wearing glasses to correct vision, special training exercises and an eye patch on the good eye. This treatment is indicated from the age of six months.
Surgery itself implies an operation. But this happens in rare cases.

Most often, strabismus occurs in premature babies born with complications, as well as those who have relatives with diseases of the visual organs.

Therefore, at the slightest suspicion of slanted eyes, show the baby to the doctor to determine the causes and further recommendations on what to do about it.

Strabismus in newborns is caused physiologically and in most cases goes away by 3-4 months. If after this period there is no synchronization of eye movements, parents should consult a doctor.

Newborn children are born without knowing how to do many things. For example, coordinating eye movements. The child learns this over several months. Weakness of the eye muscles allows the baby to concentrate on an object for a few seconds, then the eyes begin to move apart. Such strabismus in infants is called functional, and it tends to go away on its own.

Features of vision in infants

When looking at a baby in the first weeks of life, you often get the impression that his eyes are a little squinted - instead of the usual synchronous movement, they converge or diverge.

This feature becomes a matter of concern for parents who are trying to show the child to everyone possible doctors and healers. Excessive anxiety often arises from a lack of knowledge about this feature of newborns, but even in the worst case, if the diagnosis is confirmed, modern techniques make it possible to quickly recognize and effectively treat the defect.

In the first weeks of life, visual strabismus in newborns is caused by structural features facial bones– the left and right parts of the facial skeleton of infants are placed at an angle to each other; it takes some time to align them. During this time, the baby's eyes may converge and diverge. After the baby reaches the age of 4-5 months, synchronous eye movement develops. Medical statistics assures that in 9 out of 10 babies, infantile strabismus will go away on its own.

A feature of vision in infants is the specific structure of the eye. The eyeball of a newborn is special - not round, like in adults, but flattened. Because of this, children are born farsighted (up to +3 diopters).

Strabismus in infants is caused by congenital weakness of the eye muscles, which the baby has not yet learned to control, so the eyes move in different directions when stressed. In 1 out of ten babies they move towards the lateral edges (from the nose), in the remaining 9 they move towards the nose.

Formation of the eyes

A child’s eyes form throughout the first year of life, and go through several stages of development:

in the first days of life they are able to react only to a light source;
in the second month of life, due to the child’s congenital farsightedness, he can fix with his eyes only large objects that are located at a distance; he sees all other things as blurry and foggy;
After reaching three months, the baby can look at small toys and focus on their movement, but only a short time– this is explained by weakness of the eye muscles.

Ophthalmologists and pediatricians consider functional strabismus to be a normal physiological phenomenon - as the child grows, he will learn to coordinate the eye muscles and look straight and meaningfully, like an adult.

Self-determination of strabismus

To determine a possible defect in eye coordination in a child, there are simple tests that parents can conduct on their own. To loving mothers it must be carried out from time to time, for this you need:

take a bright rattle;
move it from side to side, now moving away from the baby’s eyes, now bringing it closer;
Monitor the reaction of the child’s eyes and pupils.

Children under 4 months cannot coordinate their eyes; after this age, eye movements are synchronized. You need to be careful when conducting the test on a baby whose appearance is characterized by a wide bridge of the nose - in some cases the effect of false strabismus will persist. If the phenomenon of strabismus (strabismus) does not go away by six months, the child should be shown to a doctor.

Signs of strabismus

The child undergoes periodic examinations every 2 months until six months, when strabismus in newborns physiologically resolves. For some children, this process can take up to a year.

Dad and mom need to pay attention to the following symptoms:

the baby cannot simultaneously focus his eyes on one object in space;
no synchrony in eye movements;
one eye “rolls” to the side or closes spontaneously in the sun;
to better examine the object, the child tilts his head;
If you shine a flashlight into a child's eyes, the reflection is different.

If there is a suspicion of strabismus in an infant, or there are cases of such a defect in the family, parents need to show the child to a specialist every two months. Already at six months, after examining the baby, the doctor will be able to determine whether a defect is present and determine its type.

Parents often begin to panic when the diagnosis is confirmed, mistakenly believing that it is impossible to correct the defect. This is not true - the disease can be treated, modern techniques make it possible to completely rid the child of the disease.

Causes of the violation

The occurrence of the defect is based on a number of reasons, many of them are physiological in nature. These include:

damage to the centers of the baby’s brain that are responsible for synchronizing the actions of the eyes during pathological pregnancy or difficult childbirth;
viral infectious diseases that disrupt the functioning of the baby’s body;
some diseases of the mother during pregnancy;
constant stress or illness that causes severe crying in the baby and increases desynchronization of the eyes;
hereditary pathology that is observed in the child’s parents or close relatives;
birth or postpartum trauma (damage) to the eye;
mistakes in baby care.

If the parents have pathology, the baby will inherit strabismus in 4/5 cases. A birth defect of this kind may be caused by a birth injury, or may be caused by microtraumas that form in the system of the posterior longitudinal fasciculus, due to oxygen starvation or damage. The consequence of such a lesion may be persistent divergent or convergent strabismus in an infant.

Gymnastics for the eyes

For proper development eye muscles, a mother can do some kind of gymnastics with her child:

after the baby learns to identify an object by sound, you need to sit (lay) him on your lap and show him a large bright toy, moving it from side to side;
in order for the baby to train eye movements, large educational toys need to be hung above the crib, which should be within the child’s reach;
all toys should be kept at a sufficient distance from the child’s face, taking into account congenital farsightedness babies.

Such simple exercises will help the baby quickly learn to synchronize the work of the eyes.

Treatment of the disorder

Dr. Komarovsky substantiates his point of view on the naturalness of asynchronous eye movements in infants physiological reasons, which allow the eyes to move only horizontally at first, and only a little later - vertically.

Komarovsky draws the attention of parents to the fact that after six months, if the defect remains, the child must be shown to an ophthalmologist and neurologist and treated.

Why should strabismus treatment be carried out as quickly as possible? A timely visit to a specialist will help not only correct the violation, but also prevent possible violations vision.

Unfortunately, all effective modern methods for eliminating strabismus are designed for older children. Indicated for babies acupressure which is performed by a professional are possible medicinal methods treatment.

It is much easier to correct a still small defect in a baby than to treat additional visual impairment later.

At an older age it is possible surgical repair synchronizing the eyes or stimulating the eye muscle by taping the eye.

Strabismus in newborns is a fairly common occurrence. The mechanism that controls the movement of the eyeballs is still imperfect in a child at this age. The eyes can roll back, converge at the bridge of the nose, or diverge to the sides; doctors call this condition physiological strabismus. Over time, when the muscles become stronger and fully formed, it usually disappears. Below we will tell you when strabismus in newborns goes away and whether it always happens on its own.

Why does physiological strabismus occur?

At a very early age All babies have farsightedness. They see objects located in the distance well, but everything nearby is blurry. This makes it difficult for them to focus their eyes, so the eye muscles are deprived of exercise.

If the eyes diverge to the sides or, conversely, come together, such strabismus in newborns is called divergent or convergent. As the child grows, he learns to follow objects, watches his mother’s movements around the room, what surrounds him while walking, and the eye muscles become stronger.

Another cause of physiological strabismus is special structure of the baby's skull. Immediately after birth, the bones of the head are still mobile and not strong enough. The facial bones are located at an angle, which also affects the location of the eyeballs. When does strabismus go away in newborns? By 4 months this phenomenon becomes almost unnoticeable, and by six months the eyeballs are completely synchronized with each other. By this age, the skull is usually leveled and the eyes are in a normal position.

When to sound the alarm

If after 6 months the child’s eyes are still squinting, we can talk about a pathology of the visual organs. To get rid of it, parents need to show the child to an ophthalmologist, identify the causes and take necessary measures, otherwise this problem may go with him adult life. Determined that Such deviations may occur in the following cases:

Only a doctor can distinguish true strabismus in newborns from false ones. If at six months the baby’s eyes have not returned to their normal position, it should definitely be shown to a specialist. In addition to obvious strabismus, you should pay attention to whether the child tilts his head to look at something. The baby may bump into various items in the house, because strabismus impairs spatial vision and the child cannot accurately determine the distance to an object.

Up to 4 months, children's eyes may act uncoordinated or converge at the bridge of the nose if the baby tries to look at some object close to him. Sometimes it seems that a newborn's eyes are squinting if the child has a wide bridge of the nose. After four months of age most It takes time for the eyes to focus correctly.

Treatment tactics

Even if the doctor confirmed your concerns about your baby’s strabismus, most often at the first stage everything limited to compliance with hygienic and preventive measures . The visual system at an early age is still unstable and not fully formed, so serious techniques cannot be used in children under two years of age.

The baby is still too young to do special exercises for the eyes, he simply will not understand what they want from him. Meanwhile, strengthening of the eye muscles occurs, among other things, through special gymnastics. After two years of age, the treatment regimen may include the following:

Use of ophthalmic simulators. The eye training process is carried out using special computer programs. This effect activates the cerebral cortex and, as a result, affects the functioning of the visual organs. Due to some complexity of treatment, this therapy is used from the age of 4.
Reflexology. The doctor performs a targeted effect on areas of the skin associated with nerve center responsible for the functioning of the eyes. How independent method not used, used as part of complex treatment.
The tactic of occlusion of the healthy eye is often used, that is, it is covered with a tight bandage to force the squinting eye to work. Increased load in this case, it will strengthen the weakened muscles of the eyeball and vision will return to normal.
Operation. Modern techniques are such that they allow for minimal intervention, which lasts only a quarter of an hour. The weak, stretched eye muscle is shortened and the eyeball takes the desired position. Surgical treatment strabismus is performed in children after 3 years of age.

The squinting eye demands compulsory treatment, because it supplies distorted information to the brain. Over time, vision becomes completely weakened and it will be almost impossible to restore its sharpness. Therefore, even if the doctor suggests surgery, there is no need to be afraid of it. Correcting the defect as early as possible is the direct responsibility of parents acting in the interests of the child.

Preventive measures

It is better to paste over a children's room with light wallpaper. Enough daylight should penetrate into it, but we must not forget about artificial lighting , then the load on the organs of vision will be correct and uniform.

The toys that parents hang above their baby's crib should be of different sizes and shapes to train the eyes to focus. It is best to do this at a distance of about 30 centimeters from the baby’s eyes. The preferred colors of rattles are blue, yellow, green.

If you and your child share a room, place the TV and computer in such a way that the child did not see the screen. IN infancy Such radiation is very harmful to the eyes. Preventive visits to the ophthalmologist, which are prescribed for all young children, should not be skipped. Even if you do not notice any problems, it is better to have the examination carried out by a qualified doctor who can timely detect strabismus in a newborn.

It is the mother’s responsibility to take timely care of her child’s health. Now you know why a newborn’s eyes squint, when it should go away, and what needs to be done if the pathology remains.