SUMMARY
We examined, on a cross-sectional design, the position of the corneal light reflex (Hirschberg test) of 273 children with ages ranging from 4 to 208 days. The test was performed at 1 meter of distance. During the first month of life (n=139) the reflex was classified as aligned in 52.52% and as deviated nasally in 38.13% and temporally in 9.35% of the children. The deviations of the reflex fell abruptly with age according a power function and after the third month of age it was almost zero. Almost all reflex deviations were restricted to the pupillary area. After a time interval ranging from 7 to 28 months, of the 92 children that presented with deviation of the corneal light reflex 63 were reevaluated and only 2 children presented with strabismus. We concluded: 1) early deviations of the corneal light reflex are not a precursor of late strabismus 2) large reflex deviations should not be considered in Alinhamento ocular nos primeiros sete meses de vida the first trimester of life, and 3) more than half of the examined children seen in the first month of life presented with corneal reflex aligned.