Do Eyeballs Grow With Age?

Mystery Hour Question

My daughter told me that eyeballs stay the same size throughout your life, hence the reason babies have bug eyes. But that sounds ridiculous to me. Is it right?

Shazzy, Ilford

Answer

** Definitive **

Name: Tim, Wimbledon

Qualification: Studied human biology (but am now a cabbie).

Answer: The eyeball is the only organism which does not grow from birth. It is fully grown when you are born. When you look at a baby’s face, so see mostly iris and little white. As the baby grows, you get to see more and more of the eyeball.

(James O’Brien: I’m not having it. Your answer is based on nothing!)

** Definitive **

Name: Tony, Chadwell Heath

Qualification: Retinal photographer for the NHS

Answer: The surgeon cabbie was right! Eyeballs are the same size when you’re born as when you die.

** Challenging the definitive! **

Name: Caddas, Hounslow

Qualification: Surgeon

Answer: The eyeballs grow very slowly as a baby, then even slower as an adolescent, then stop growing completely when you are about 16. They don’t grow much… but they do grow.

(James O’Brien: Now I don’t know what to think. I have a surgeon and a retinal photographer disagreeing about it.)