Amblyopia.

I think it's worth sharing this because I'm hopeful our experience with amblyopia will bring some encouragement to other parents.  We noticed Stella's eyes were occasionally crossing inward a couple months ago - not at the same time, but one or the other and primarily the left eye.

Example #1 - the right eye (which happens much less frequently than the left):

Example #2 - the left eye

When it started to become more frequent and our family members took notice we decided it was time to visit a pediatric opthamologist.  We discovered there that Stella is farsighted in both eyes, but her left eye has a much higher prescription than her right, which explains why her eyes turn in when she is seeing two different images.  Each of her eyes is sending a different picture to her brain and, in order to compensate for this difference, the brain will tell one eye that it doesn't need to work as hard...hence the turn in her eyes, which is called amblyopia.  We are working on correcting this difference and strengthening her weaker eye (left).  We patch her right eye for two hours a day to give her left a workout, and she also wears glasses full-time to help with her farsightedness.  The doctor said that there is a really good chance Stella will only need vision correction in her left eye in the future, if we keep up this routine consistently.

Patching started even before we got Stella's glasses a few weeks later.

I cannot say that it's been a fun process, but going to the pediatric opthamologist was certainly an eye-opener (insert pirate laugh here:  "hardy har har") as we realized how much WORSE things could be for our little girl.  Wow...what some kids and parents have to go through is overwhelming!  Plus, as time has gone on, we've all gotten more used to the routine of patching and glasses.  When we got her diagnosis I really thought that asking a 15/16 month old child to wear a patch for two hours a day (and glasses all day long) was unrealistic...now I think it's a blessing in disguise this happened when Stella was so young.  This is her reality now and she won't grow up knowing anything different.  There is less to explain for now and there is more time to work on fixing an issue that otherwise would have just gotten worse and less "fixable."  And don't you think she looks pretty darn cute in those glasses?