What is depth perception in infants?

May 29, 2013 - PRLog -- When a baby is born, it is important to check if there is any issue of vision defects. It can have strongly influence on the entire life of the baby. A nurse will commonly carry out these checks, also referred to as screenings, right away after the birth of the baby. The vision disorders in babies may related to depth perception. There are some eye conditions that affect depth perception in infants such as crossed eyes, lazy eye and optic nerve hypoplasia.

Crossed eyes, also considered as strabismus. If your baby is younger than 6 months and you have detected that their eyes are crossed sometimes, do not worry. Most babies do not use both of their eyes together until about six months old. It is absolutely normal for a baby to have one eye that goes off to the side or turn inward on an intermittent basis, up until the age of six months simply because the brain is not developed for binocular vision as of yet. The brain programs the eyes to work together around this age and this is when vision improves dramatically for infants.

Lazy eye or amblyopia is a typical problem that occurs mostly in children. It is estimated four in every one hundred people suffer this condition. In a normal case, infants after birth should learn to use their two eyes together while performing visual tasks. However, some children are finally diagnosed with lazy eye because one of the eyes does not function properly for an long period. The weaker eye or unused eye is formally referred to as amblyopic eye. Worse still, the lazy eye will probably lead to visual loss. Fortunately, lazy eye is treatable in both children and adults.

A person with Optic Nerve Hypoplasia (ONH) has tiny eye nerves (optic nerves) from the eye to the brain. Now at outbreak proportions, ONH is the leading ocular cause of blindness and visual impairment in young children.
Source: http://www.eyehealthcare.net/depth-perception-in-infants.html