While STRABISMUS is a common condition among children, it can also affect adults later in life. About four percent of the pediatric population is afflicted with this condition-male and female alike, many with no family history of this visual defect.

In simplest terms, strabismus is the misalignment of the eyes. Often called "squinting," "cross-eyed,' or "lazy-eyed," strabismus may come and go and may have different appearances: while one eye is directed straight ahead, the other may be turned inward, outward or upward or downward.

With normal vision, the brain focuses on (and fuses) the two images from each eye simultaneously. This results in a three-dimensional image being formed-this is called depth perception.

With strabismus, however, the brain ignores the image of the misaligned eye and focuses only on the image of the straight, or "good," eye. The result: loss of depth perception.

There are two major types of strabismus:

esotropia —the inward turning of the eye, and the most common type; early surgery can align the eyes and prevent possible permanent vision loss;

. one form of esotropia is accommodative esotropia -common in farsighted children; the focusing effort to adjust for the farsightedness, and to see clearly, can cause a child's eyes to cross; glasses, eye drops or ointment, or sometimes special lenses (prisms) can be used to correct this defect

exotropia -the outward turning of the eye, occurring most often when a child is focusing on distant objects; occurs most often intermittently (perhaps when a child is either ill, tired or daydreaming); a child with exotropia often may be seeing squinting one eye in bright sunlight.