Parents often notice that their baby’s eyes don’t always appear perfectly straight. One eye might occasionally turn inward toward the nose, drift outward, or seem less coordinated when the baby is tired.
Naturally, this leads to the question:
“Is there anything we can do at home to help our baby’s eyes develop and work together?”
There are many simple activities that can support healthy visual development during infancy.
These aren’t exercises designed to “force an eye straight”. Instead, they provide the developing visual system with opportunities to practise looking, tracking, locating objects, using the two sides of the body, coordinating vision with movement and gradually developing binocular vision.
Importantly, home activities are not a replacement for an eye examination when an eye turn is frequent, constant or concerning.
Concerned about an eye turn?
A baby does not need to read or speak to have their eyes assessed. If you are noticing frequent inward or outward turning, book an infant eye examination with Westmead Eyes.
Vision develops together with movement
A baby’s visual system is developing rapidly throughout the first year of life.
Babies gradually learn to:
- look steadily at faces and objects
- follow moving targets
- move their eyes smoothly from side to side
- look toward sounds and movement
- coordinate their eyes and head
- judge where things are in space
- reach accurately for objects
- use both sides of their body
- shift attention between nearer and farther objects
- coordinate the two eyes together
From a developmental optometry perspective, vision doesn’t develop in isolation.
Vision, balance, movement, touch, posture and body awareness all develop together.
This is why activities such as tummy time, rolling, reaching, sitting, crawling and exploring the environment can also provide valuable visual experiences.
1. Face-to-face time
One of the best visual activities requires no special equipment at all.
Your face.
Babies are naturally interested in faces. Spend time talking and smiling while your baby looks at you.
Try changing your position occasionally:
- directly in front
- slightly to the left
- slightly to the right
- a little nearer
- a little farther away
Allow your baby time to find your face and maintain their attention.
This encourages fixation, visual localisation and eye-head coordination.
2. Slow visual tracking
Once your baby is looking at an interesting toy or your face, slowly move it from side to side.
Try:
left → middle → right → middle
Move slowly enough for your baby to follow comfortably.
As your baby’s visual control develops, you can introduce gentle diagonal and vertical movements as well.
There is no need to move the target quickly. Smooth, controlled visual following is the goal.
3. Encourage both sides
Babies can sometimes develop preferences for looking or turning toward one particular side.
During everyday play, deliberately give them opportunities to look in both directions.
For example:
- alternate which side you approach from
- place interesting toys on both sides
- talk to your baby from different positions
- alternate carrying positions when practical
This encourages symmetrical visual and motor development.
4. Tummy time with something interesting to look at
Tummy time isn’t just about strengthening the neck and shoulders.
It also changes the baby’s visual perspective and encourages coordination between the:
eyes + head + neck + body
Place yourself or an interesting toy in front of your baby during tummy time.
Once they are looking, slowly change your position from one side to the other and allow them to follow.
As head control develops, visual tracking becomes increasingly coordinated with head movement.
5. Rolling and side-lying play
Rolling provides a wonderful combination of visual, vestibular and body-awareness information.
With your baby safely supported:
- Gain their attention with your face or a toy.
- Slowly encourage their attention toward one side.
- Allow the eyes and head to follow.
- Gently move into side-lying or allow the baby to initiate the roll.
- Let them find the target again.
- Repeat toward the other side.
As babies become older and begin rolling independently, simply giving them plenty of safe floor time provides these experiences naturally.
6. Hands and toys at the middle of the body
Developing awareness of midline is an important part of infancy.
Encourage your baby to:
- bring their hands together
- look at their hands
- hold a toy centrally
- reach toward something positioned in front of them
As they become older, reaching, grasping and passing toys from one hand to the other add another layer of visual-motor development.
7. Let babies look both near and far
Babies don’t need everything placed directly in front of their nose.
Give them opportunities to notice things at different distances:
- a parent’s face nearby
- a toy slightly farther away
- another family member across the room
- movement outside a window
- trees and surroundings while being carried outdoors
This allows the developing visual system to experience different amounts of focusing and eye coordination naturally.
You can also occasionally move an interesting target slowly toward and away from the baby, without repeatedly pushing it very close to the nose.
8. Movement and vestibular play
Our balance system, or the vestibular system, has close connections with eye movements and postural control.
Normal infant movement therefore provides valuable visual information.
Depending on your baby’s developmental stage, this might include:
- gentle rocking
- being carried while looking around
- moving gently forward and backward
- rolling
- supported changes in body position
- gentle side-to-side movement
- later, sitting, crawling, cruising and walking
Some babies also enjoy slow, gentle rotational movement while securely supported.
Some babies also enjoy slow, gentle rotational movement while securely supported. Keep movements brief and comfortable, and stop if your baby becomes unsettled.
The important principle is varied, comfortable movement combined with opportunities to look and re-orient visually.
9. As your baby becomes mobile, let them explore
Once babies begin sitting, crawling and eventually walking, their visual world changes dramatically.
Floor play becomes increasingly valuable.
Crawling toward a toy, moving around furniture, reaching at different distances and navigating through space combine:
vision + balance + movement + depth + body awareness
There is rarely a need for complicated visual equipment.
Normal exploration provides enormous amounts of visual learning.
What if my baby’s eye tends to turn inward?
An inward eye turn is called esotropia.
Brief, intermittent eye crossing can sometimes be seen during early infancy while binocular control is developing. Frequent, persistent or constant crossing should be assessed.
For a baby who has already been assessed and shows a mild inward tendency, useful developmental play may emphasise:
- looking comfortably toward both sides
- broad horizontal tracking
- tummy-time tracking
- noticing objects farther into the environment
- symmetrical head and body movement
- rolling and changing positions
- visual exploration rather than keeping every activity very close to the face
We generally wouldn’t repeatedly bring toys right toward the baby’s nose in an attempt to “strengthen” the eyes.
What if my baby’s eye tends to drift outward?
An outward eye turn is called exotropia.
With an outward tendency, developmental play can include plenty of opportunities for:
- face-to-face attention
- looking toward the middle of the body
- hands-to-midline play
- reaching for centrally presented toys
- slowly tracking an object from the side toward the centre
- natural changes between near and farther viewing distances
For example, you might introduce a toy slightly to one side and slowly bring the baby’s attention toward the middle:
side → centre → pause
Or allow the baby to look at your face while you slowly move slightly nearer and then farther away.
These activities are intended to support visual development rather than correct exotropia itself. If an outward eye turn is frequent, persistent or becoming more noticeable, we recommend having it assessed.
Don’t turn playtime into therapy
Perhaps the most important rule is:
Keep it fun.
A baby’s developing visual system learns through everyday experiences.
You don’t need to spend 20 minutes making your baby perform eye exercises.
A few minutes naturally incorporated into:
- tummy time
- floor play
- feeding
- cuddling
- carrying
- changing
- reaching
- rolling
- outdoor time
is much more appropriate.
If your baby becomes tired, turns away, becomes unsettled or loses interest, stop and try again another time.
Can these activities fix an eye turn?
No home activity should be promoted as a way of curing strabismus.
Eye turns can have many different causes.
Depending on the child, management may involve:
- observation
- correcting refractive error with glasses
- treatment for amblyopia
- monitoring binocular development
- specialist assessment
- and, in some cases, eye-muscle surgery
For example, significant farsightedness can contribute to accommodative esotropia, where appropriate spectacle correction is an important part of treatment.
The activities in this article are intended to provide a rich developmental visual environment, not replace appropriate clinical care.
When should an eye turn be checked?
Arrange an eye assessment if:
- one eye consistently turns while the other remains straight
- the eye turn appears to be becoming more frequent
- the eye movement looks restricted
- your baby consistently turns or tilts their head
- your baby doesn’t appear to follow faces or toys well
- your baby seems to strongly prefer one eye
- you notice an unusual or white pupil reflex
- there is a significant family history of strabismus or amblyopia
- or you simply feel that something doesn’t look right
Babies don’t need to read an eye chart to have their vision tested
One common misconception is that there is no point examining a baby’s eyes because they can’t tell us what they can see.
In reality, there is a great deal we can assess without a child saying a single word.
An infant eye examination can look at:
- visual attention
- fixation behaviour
- whether both eyes are being used
- fixation preference
- eye alignment
- eye movements
- tracking
- refractive error
- pupil responses
- focusing behaviour
- eye health
- and early binocular visual development
Understanding why an eye appears to turn is much more important than simply trying to exercise it at home.
The take-home message
A baby’s visual system develops through experience.
You don’t need specialist toys or complicated exercises.
Some of the most valuable visual experiences are remarkably simple:
look at faces, move, roll, reach, explore, spend time on the floor, look to both sides, experience near and far space, and interact with the world.
If you’ve noticed your baby’s eye turning inward or outward, the most important step is to understand why it is happening.
At Westmead Eyes Optometrists, we assess babies and young children using age-appropriate techniques that do not require them to read an eye chart. We can assess eye alignment, tracking, fixation preference, refractive error, binocular development and eye health.
If the eye turn is frequent, constant, becoming more noticeable, or you simply feel something isn’t right, we recommend booking an infant/toddler eye examination.
Early assessment can help distinguish normal visual development from an eye turn that needs monitoring or treatment.