Abnormal Vision Development

About Abnormal Vision Development

Normally, your child’s vision gets stronger as your child grows. Babies start by seeing blurred outlines to recognizing their parents' faces. Eventually, they begin following objects and then reaching for them. 

Babies need excellent vision to explore their world, to make connections, and to learn to read and write by the time they enter school. Your child's vision should be fully developed by the age of eight. If it isn’t, vision problems can have an impact on or delay social, emotional, and educational development.  

Symptoms

Abnormalities can develop in the eyes before your child is born. Developmental abnormalities such as lazy eye, iris defects, microphthalmia (small eye), and optic nerve hypoplasia (underdevelopment) can occur and cause vision loss. If your child is not seeing properly, Columbia doctors can help. Reach out to us immediately if you notice that your child is:

  • Squinting
  • Having trouble making eye contact
  • Having difficulty seeing

Risk factors

There are many factors involved in abnormal vision development and the pediatric ophthalmologists at Columbia are trained to diagnose the problem and treat it. Some of the risk factors may involve:

  • Family history
  • Prematurity
  • Complications in delivering

Why Choose Columbia?

At Columbia, we have the technology, experience, and specialization to diagnose and intervene with a whole child and inclusive family approach. We know that if your child is not seeing well, they are not learning and growing the way they should and need to.

Every child is special to us and combined with our extensive referral system of subspecialty experts, and our state-of-the art facilities at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and the Harkness Eye Institute, you can rest assured that your child will receive the best eye care in New York City.