Dear Scott,

I assume that you mean hyperopia.

Most children are born hyperopic, (refractive status +1/2 to +8
diopters), thus there is no physical "trauma" to hyperopia.  Thus
hyperopia happens "spontaneously" at birth.

Perhaps you could describe what problem you have, and more of the
nature of your question.

Best,

Otis

Do you mean you suddenly see double, or do you mean one eye looks higher
than the other in the mirror?

-MT

Otis is our resident self-appointed lay "expert."  Believe him at your
own risk.  He is correct about some things, but those are intertwined
with his personal fantasies.

One of the things he is correct about is the fact that most infants
come into the world as hyperopes so that the eye can adjust itself.
This process of adjustment is called emmetropization.  The average
amount of hyperopia is about 1.00 diopter at the age of two years, and
about 0.50 diopters at the age of four years.  For some people, this
process goes to far, and children become myopic.  Others who were born
more farsighted may remain hyperopic.  Children can normally
accommodate to substantial levels of hyperopia.  With age and waning
accommodation, the symptoms of farsighted begin to appear.  For an
adult who is only slightly farsighted, those symptoms typically begin
in the third decade.

Farsightedness is not without pathology.  It is the refractive
condition most likely to be associated with strabismus and amblyopia,
or lazy eye.  It is the refractive condition most likely to be
associated with vision-related learning problems.

DrG

If you actually do have a hypertropia (vertical deviation of one eye),
you should get it checked out . A 4th cranial nerve palsy, for
instance,
can cause this type of deviation. It usually doesn't happen "out of the
blue"  (there can be exceptions when someone has a small amount
of this deviation and fatigue and/or age causes it to become more
manifest).  But again, a thorough evaluation is recommended.

frank