One of the greatest moments of being a new mother is when your newborn daughter or son opens his eyes for the first time to make eye contact with you. But don’t worry if this doesn’t happen immediately.
The visual system of newborn babies takes some time to develop. In the first week of life, babies don’t see much detail. Their first view of the world is vague, with only the shade of gray.
It will take several months for your child’s vision to fully develop. Understanding the milestones of baby’s vision development (and what you can do to help it) ensures that your child sees and enjoys his world correctly.
Infant vision development begins during pregnancy
Your child’s vision development begins before birth. How you take care of your body during pregnancy is extremely important for the baby’s body and mind development, including the eyes and vision centers in the brain.
Be sure to follow your OB/GYN doctor for instructions on proper nutrition, including supplements, and get the proper amount of rest during pregnancy. Avoid smoking, drinking alcohol or medication during pregnancy, as these toxins can cause a variety of problems for your baby, including serious vision problems.
Smoking is especially dangerous during pregnancy, as cigarette smoke contains 3,000 different chemicals that can harm humans (including carbon monoxide, a known fetal toxin).
Even taking common medications like aspirin, it can be dangerous to your baby when pregnant, increasing the risk of problems with birth weight and delivery. Low birth weight is associated with an increased risk of infant vision problems.
Always talk to your OB/GYN doctor before taking any medications during pregnancy, including over-the-counter medications, herbal supplements, and other over-the-counter therapies.
Vision development at birth
Shortly after birth, your doctor will briefly examine the baby’s eyes to rule out signs of congenital cataracts or other serious neonatal eye problems. Although such eye problems are rare, they must be tested and treated early to minimize the impact on the child’s vision development.
Likewise, antibiotic ointments are often applied to the eyes of newborns to prevent bacteria present in the birth tube from infecting the eyes.
At birth, your baby sees only black and white and gray shadows. The retina and nerve cells in the brain that control vision have not yet fully developed.
Moreover, the eyes of newborn babies do not have the ability to focus on near objects.
So don’t worry if your baby doesn’t seem to be “focused” (including your face). It only takes time.
Despite these visual limitations, studies show that in the days after birth, babies prefer to look at their mother’s face rather than the image of a stranger.
The researchers believe that this preference depends on large, high-contrast stimulation, just like the boundaries of the mother’s hairline. (In the study, infants prefer to look at their mother’s face if these boundaries are covered by scarves or shower caps.)
So to encourage visual interaction with newborns, keep the same hairstyle and avoid changing the look.
One thing you may notice about newborn sons or daughters is how big their eyes are. This is because normal infant development drops from the head. At birth, the baby’s eyes are already 65% of the size of an adult!
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Baby’s eyes: first month
In the first month of birth, your baby’s eyes are less sensitive to light. In fact, a 1-month-old baby needs to pay attention to light (called light detection threshold) 50 times higher than that of an adult.
So, some lights can be left in the nursery – it won’t affect their ability to sleep and may prevent you from fixing your toes to the furniture when you check the little one.
The baby or baby begins to develop the ability to rapidly develop color. A week after birth, they can see red, orange, yellow and green, but it takes longer for your baby to see blue and violet. Why? Blue light has a shorter wavelength, and in the human retina, blue light has fewer color receptors.
Don’t worry too much about your baby’s eyes sometimes seem to not work together in a team.
One eye may sometimes drift inward or outward from proper alignment. This is normal, but if you see your child’s eyes constantly misalign, inform your ophthalmologist immediately.
Tip: To help stimulate the baby’s vision, decorate the room with bright, cheerful colors. Includes artwork and furniture with contrasting colors and shapes. There is also a crib above or near the brightly colored cell phone. Make sure it has a variety of colors and shapes.
Vision Development: Months 2 and 3
Many progress in vision development occurs in the second and third months. During this time, babies will become more sensitive to vision and their eyes begin to move better.
Your child should follow the moving object at this stage and start encountering what he sees.
Similarly, babies at this stage of development are learning how to shift their eyes from one object to another without having to move their minds. Their eyes become increasingly sensitive to light: at 3 months old, the light detection threshold for babies is only 10 times that of adults.
Therefore, you may want to dim the lights to nap and bedtime.
Tip: To help stimulate vision development for your 2- to 3-month-old children, the American Optometry Association (AOA) has these recommendations:
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Add new items to their room, or change the location of existing items in the crib or room frequently.
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Talk to your baby as you walk in the room.
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Keep your child visually stimulating for a night when he wakes up in the crib.
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Let the baby crawl. While babies should be placed in sleep to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), keeping them in your stomach when you are awake and you can supervise them. This provides important visual and sport experiences.
Vision Development: Months 4 to 6
By the time you are 6 months old, the Vision Center of the Brain has made significant progress, allowing your baby to see his eyes more vividly, move his eyes faster and more accurately to follow moving objects.
Vision increased from about 20/400 at birth to 20/25 at 6 months old. Color vision should also be similar to adult color vision, so that your child can see all the colors of the rainbow.
Babies also have better eye-hand coordination at 4 to 6 months old, allowing them to quickly find and pick up objects and bring bottles (and many other things) to their mouths accurately.
Six months old is also an important milestone as this is when your child should have his or her first pediatric eye exam.
Even if your baby doesn’t know the letters on the wall diagram, your ophthalmologist can do nonverbal tests to evaluate his vision, detect myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism, and evaluate his eye combination and alignment.
During this exam, your eye care doctor will also check your baby’s eye health and look for anything that may interfere with normal and continuous vision development.
For the most thorough ophthalmic examination at 6 months old, you may want to seek services from an ophthalmologist who specializes in the development of children’s vision and vision.
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Vision development: 7 to 12 months
Your child is now moving, crawling, covering more distances than you think. He is better at judging distances and more accurately grasping and throwing things.
Keeping your appearance stable helps your baby get to know and interact with you after birth.
This is an important developmental period for your child. At this stage, babies are improving their overall body and are learning how to coordinate their vision with body movement.
This is also a time when greater efforts are required to prevent the baby from being hurt. Bumps, bruises, eye damage and other serious accidents can happen when he begins to explore his environment. In particular, keep the cabinet containing the lock of cleaning supplies locked and place barriers in front of the stairwell.
Don’t worry if the baby’s eyes start to change color. Most babies are born with blue eyes because the dark pigment in the iris is not fully developed at birth. Over time, the iris produces more dark pigments, just like hazel eyes, which usually changes the child’s eyes from blue to a mixture of blue, green, gray or colors.
Tip: To stimulate the development of the child’s eye-hand coordination, please join him on the floor and encourage him to climb onto the object. Put your favorite toy on his floor and encourage him to get it. There are also many objects and toys that he can separate and put together.
Eye alignment problem
Be sure to pay close attention to the baby’s eyes as a team.
Strabismus is a term that dislocates the eyes. It is important to detect and treat it as early as possible, so vision in both eyes can develop normally. With rest treatment, strabismus may lead to amblyopia or “lazy eyes.”
Although it takes several months for a baby’s eyes to develop eye coordination, if you feel that one of the baby’s eyes will be constantly misaligned or out of sync with the other eye, contact your pediatrician or ophthalmologist as soon as possible.
Vision problems in premature babies
The average length of a normal pregnancy is about 40 weeks (280 days). According to the World Health Organization, babies born before 37 weeks of gestation are considered premature.
Smoking during pregnancy significantly increases the risk of premature delivery.
Premature babies have greater risk of eye problems than intact babies, and the earlier the baby is born.
Here are two more common vision issues for premature babies:
Premature retinopathy (ROP)
This is an abnormal replacement for fibrous tissue and blood vessels in the retina. ROP can cause retinal scarring, poor vision and retinal detachment. In severe cases, premature retinopathy can lead to blindness.
All premature babies are at risk of ROP. Very low birth weight is an additional risk factor, especially if it is necessary to place the baby in a hyperoxygen environment immediately after birth.
If your baby is born prematurely, ask your obstetrician to recommend you to a pediatric ophthalmologist so that he or she can perform an internal ophthalmology exam to rule out ROP.
nystagmus
Nystagmus is an involuntary, back and forth movement of both eyes.
In most cases, nystagmus can cause the eyes to slowly drift in one direction and then “jump back” in the other direction. Eye movements are usually horizontal, but they can also be diagonal or rotated.
Nystagmus can occur at birth or develop after several weeks. Risk factors include incomplete development of optic nerve, albinism, and congenital cataracts. The size of eye movements usually determines how much your baby’s vision and visual development will be affected.
If your baby shows signs of nystagmus, consult your pediatric ophthalmologist or other ophthalmologist immediately.
Also Read: 5 Simple Unique Arts and Crafts for Toddlers and Children
No cost checks for babies
If you can’t afford an eye exam for your baby, please help.
The American Optometry Association recognizes the importance of infant vision development to the overall growth and life enjoyment of children and establishes infant programs.
Developed in partnership with Johnson & Johnson Vision Care’s Institute of Visual Care, Infantsee is a public health program designed to ensure vision care becomes part of routine baby care in the United States.
Under the program, AOA member optometrists provide a cost-free initial assessment for infants in their first year.
To learn more about Infantsee and to find participating optometrists, visit the Infantsee website.
Time for the first eye examination in the baby? Find an ophthalmologist near you.
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