A mum whose baby was born with one eye has revealed how the little girl is undergoing a specialized procedure to gradually expand her eye socket.

Izabella Myers, nine months, was born with her left eye missing.

At just three months old, she began wearing an expander to help keep the socket open while her skull continues to develop.

Now, every two weeks, she’s fitted with a slightly larger expander – a clear ball that absorbs fluid from the surrounding tissue – to gradually expand the socket until it’s large enough to hold an artificial eye.

But her mum, Alexis Miller, 27, revealed she would prefer her little girl not to wear a prosthetic.

“Medically, Izabella needs a prosthetic eye, but if she didn’t, I’d rather wait until she was old enough to decide for herself if she wants one,” she said.

“The day she gets it will be bittersweet. I love the way she is now and she’ll be different with two eyes.

“I don’t think she needs to change to fit in.”

Alexis, a stay-at-home mum from Pennsylvania, USA, first learned about her daughter’s condition during her 20-week scan, when doctors couldn’t see anything where her left eye should be.

She continued: “I was devastated. No one wants their child to face that challenge.

“When she was born though, I thought she was beautiful.”

At birth, Izabella was officially diagnosed with microphthalmia, a rare condition in which one or both eyes do not fully develop.

Doctors confirmed that the newborn did have some traces of eye tissue, meaning her eye had started to develop but had stopped.

Further investigations concluded that the condition occurred because Izabella hadn’t received enough chromosomes from her dad, Eric Myers, whose great-great-grandmother had also experienced the condition.

Now, the infant is undergoing the gradual expansion procedure and is expected to be fitted with a prosthetic eye before she turns one.

The artificial eye is medically necessary to help ensure her face develops evenly, as the left side currently sits around half an inch lower.

Until then, she can blink and cry – but when she sleeps, her left eye socket remains open.

With limited vision on one side, she also needs to turn her body to see objects on her left, and she is working with a therapist to help strengthen her right eye.

Alexis said: “At the moment, people look at Izabella and ask questions.

“As she gets older, she’ll understand what people are saying, and I’m concerned about how she’ll be treated at school because, even with a prosthetic, people may still notice she’s different.

“But I’ll tell her not to listen to the comments and that she can do anything she sets her mind to.

“Izabella’s sister, Kyliegh, was unsure at first and didn’t want to hold her very much.

“But now she loves her and tells people she was born without an eye. She’s no different from anyone else, and she’s still beautiful.”

Source: The Mirror