Crossed eyes in newborns: what's normal and what's not

The photo is nearly always the same: your baby mid-yawn or mid-blink, eyes briefly crossed, caught by the one frame in thirty where they were. By the time it reaches my desk it has been studied all night. The mother showing it to me is frightened, and often quietly certain she caused it somehow, or missed something. Neither is true. Most of what she is describing is a young visual system doing exactly what it is supposed to do at this age. My job in this article is to tell you what is ordinary, what is not, and what to do with the difference.

Is it normal for my newborn's eyes to cross sometimes?

Yes, in the first couple of months it usually is. A baby is born with two eyes that see, but not yet with the practised skill of pointing them at the same spot together. That skill, what we call eye teaming, is built in the weeks after birth, and while it is under construction the eyes can drift apart or cross now and then, particularly when your baby is tired or not focused on anything in particular.

Think of it the way you would think of a toddler's first wobbly steps. The equipment works. The coordination is still being rehearsed. An occasional crossed-eyes moment in a two-week-old is closer to that wobble than to anything alarming, and it is one of the most common reasons parents come to see me at a baby's first eye check.

At what age should a baby's eyes stop wandering?

The wandering should be easing by about two to three months, and by around three to four months your baby's eyes should be working together steadily for most of the time you observe them. That is a range, not a single magic date.

The NHS says get a squint checked if it still comes and goes after three months. The studies of how alignment matures say most babies have settled by four, with the third month being the real turning point. I give parents both numbers because that is the truth of it: somewhere around three to four months, watch for the drifting to have quietened down, and if it hasn't, get it looked at rather than wait for a further month to pass.

Before that age, it is common. Studies following healthy infants have found the majority show some outward drift at some point in early infancy, and a meaningful minority have their eyes misaligned for a real chunk of their waking hours without anything being wrong. It is a phase, not a fault, and it is one of the reasons newborn photos are such an unreliable judge: a single frame catches a moment, not the whole pattern of a day.

My baby's eyes look crossed in photos but the doctor says they are fine, why?

This is very likely pseudostrabismus, and it is one of the most satisfying things to explain in clinic because the fix is simply information. Many babies are born with a wide, flat nasal bridge and small folds of skin at the inner corners of the eyes. That skin covers a little more of the white of the eye near the nose, especially when your baby glances sideways or the light catches the face a certain way. The eyes are actually pointing the same direction. They only look crossed because of how much white is showing on each side.

It is extremely common, and most babies grow out of the look entirely as the face lengthens and the nasal bridge fills in over the following months and years. I cannot tell pseudostrabismus from a true turn by glancing at a photo, and neither can you, however clear the picture looks. What I do is shine a small light at both eyes together and check that the reflection lands in the centre of each pupil at the same time, then cover each eye in turn and watch for any movement as it comes out from behind my hand. Those two simple tests, not a snapshot, are how we tell the illusion from the real thing.

If it's just the nasal bridge, can I stop worrying for good?

Mostly, yes, but with one caveat I want every parent to hear. A single reassuring visit confirms that today, your baby's eyes are aligned. It does not vaccinate against a true turn appearing later. A baby with pseudostrabismus can still go on to develop a genuine squint as they get older, so the message is not "checked once, never think about it again." It is "checked once, and keep noticing." This is not a new worry to carry. It is the same ordinary noticing you already do at bath time and in daylight, and it costs nothing.

Will my baby grow out of a squint?

A true squint, where one eye consistently points a different way from the other, is not something a baby grows out of, and left alone it is unlikely to improve by itself. This is the sentence I most want parents to leave with, because it is the one place where "she'll grow out of it" is the wrong comfort to offer yourself. It differs from the ordinary newborn drifting we have just described, which does settle with time. A squint that is constant, in the same eye or swapping between eyes, needs a doctor's eyes on it, not a wait-and-see approach.

The reason we take a persistent turn seriously is not vanity about how the eyes look. When the two eyes are not aligned, the brain receives two different pictures and may start to ignore the signal from the misaligned eye to avoid seeing double. Left unaddressed, that ignored eye can develop a lazy eye, and vision lost to that process in early childhood can become permanent if it is not caught while the visual system is still developing. That is the entire reason for the age thresholds in this article: not to alarm you over a passing drift, but to make sure a real one does not sit unexamined for months.

What should I do if I'm not sure?

Watch for the pattern, not the single photo. A constant turn, present in every glance, at any age, warrants a booked check-up rather than more waiting. An intermittent drift that is still appearing after three to four months warrants the same. A head tilt held consistently to one side, or your baby regularly turning their face away instead of their eyes, is also worth mentioning at the visit. Nothing here requires you to become an expert at spotting subtle eye movements. It requires you to notice a pattern over days, bring your phone's photos if you have them, and say plainly what you saw. Most parents already have the evidence they need sitting in their camera roll; they simply have not looked at it as a sequence.

Understanding how a baby's visual system comes together in the first place makes all of this easier to read calmly, and how babies learn to see walks through that timeline from birth onward. Testing itself needs nothing from your baby beyond sitting still for a light and a look, which is exactly what happens at a routine children's eye test.

I see the newborn version of this worry nearly every week, and it is nearly always the same relief on both sides of the desk: a quick light and a cover test, a clear answer, and a mother who can put the phone away and simply watch her baby's face without dread. Most weeks, that is exactly how it ends.

Common questions

References

1. American Academy of Ophthalmology · Baby's vision development in the first year · www.aao.org
2. American Academy of Ophthalmology · Typical and atypical development of ocular alignment · www.aao.org
3. American Academy of Ophthalmology · Strabismus in children · www.aao.org
4. NHS · Squint · www.nhs.uk
5. AAPOS · Pseudostrabismus · aapos.org
6. AAPOS · Strabismus · aapos.org

Reviewed by Dr Chan Li Yen on 27 July 2026. Next review July 2027. This article is general information and does not replace an examination.