If a child is diagnosed with NF during infancy, the disorder is usually more severe.  To see if a child has NF1, doctors look for one or more of the following symptoms of the disorder.

·    Many light brown spots appearing on the skin (about five millimeters in diameter in children or fifteen millimeters in diameter in adults or adolescents.

·    Two or more growths on the iris of the eye

·    Tumors on the optic nerve

·   Abnormal fixtures of the spine, the temple bone of the skull, or the tibia

·    Close relatives with NF1

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