As your infant leaves the dark, tranquillity comfort of your womb and enters the bright, noisy globe around her, just what can she see? The short answer: Not much — only that will change, and fast. In the first six months of life, babe's eyesight develops rapidly, since vision is closely linked to brain evolution. Then as your baby'due south brain matures in leaps and bounds, so does her eyesight. While it does, enjoy seeing babe take it all in every bit she reaches a few key milestones in visual development.

eye chart

Your newborn's vision: Birth to a few weeks old

  • Vision is fuzzy. In utero, baby'southward eyes brainstorm growing at around week 4 of pregnancy and tin can perceive light at around week 16. Simply a fetus's eyelids remain closed until 26 weeks gestation — and even then, the view from the womb is pretty limited. That means when your infant enters her newly expanded earth, information technology's a kaleidoscope of fuzzy images to her unaccustomed eyes. At first, the farthest your infant will exist able to encounter is the distance from your arms to your face (about 8 to 10 inches).
  • Will baby await at y'all? Some newborns do look straight at your face after birth ("Hi, Mom!"), while others keep those peepers tightly squeezed shut ("Alibi me, I was sleeping!"). Both reactions are perfectly normal: While some infants naturally focus on faces and objects, others need a little more time to adjust to the newly expanded world around them. Your ain baby's pace volition depend on everything from her gestational age to her individual personality.
  • Loving faces.Either mode, for the offset month baby's eyes will, for the most part, be closed as she sleeps for long stretches of time. When her eyes practice open, she's can't even so track moving objects. Still, babies of this age more often than not exercise love looking at faces — and then make sure to give your piddling one lots of up-close-and-personal time with you and other caretakers.

Your babe's vision: 2 to 3 months old

  • Baby might recognize you.At this age, some babies may start to recognize faces (and care for you to a outset grin) — but their sight is still fairly blurry. Babies who are born prematurely may take a chip longer to focus on your face, but don't fret: They will catch upwards developmentally. In all likelihood your baby will be checking you out in item in no fourth dimension.
  • Your babe is starting to encounter color.While experts aren't certain of how much colour newborns can see, this is when they're likely able to begin noticing different hues.

Your baby's vision: 3 to iv months erstwhile

  • Baby can see farther. Has babe begun watching closely from her bouncy seat as y'all cook dinner on the far side of the room? That'due south because around this historic period, babies can meet anywhere from several feet in front of them to all the way beyond the room.
  • Tracking with her eyes.By 4 months one-time, your infant tin can also track faster movements with her optics, perceive depth and even take hold of at moving objects — although her mitt-eye coordination may not however permit her to actually concur onto the target of her attention.
  • Eyes piece of work together. Mayhap the nigh exciting office of baby'due south sight at this stage is that her eyes are starting to work together, and she's developing depth perception. (Which means that your footling one can finally recognize your face up with much more clarity.)
  • Baby'southward colour preferences show.By now, your baby's vision has nearly fully developed. Babies can notice differences in shades of colour (particularly cerise and green) and may even brainstorm favoring specific ones.

Your infant's vision: 12 months old

  • Babe sees similar you!As you light the candles on her first birthday cake, your baby is finally able to see as much as the singing adults around her.

How to help meliorate your babe's eyesight

The best means to better your baby'due south eyesight are simple — you may already do many of these naturally:

Proceed Reading Below

  • Chat baby up. When yous're chest- or bottle-feeding, your face up is close plenty for even the youngest baby to see — and information technology'southward also conveniently one of her favorite things to observe. So talk to her while you look her in the optics — you'll bond and aid her brainstorm to learn linguistic communication, too.
  • Hang a mobile. Babies dear images with contrasting colors and patterns. So until your little 1 is able to sit up (at nigh calendar month iii or 4), securely hang a colorful, patterned mobile high above her crib or boisterous seat. (Just make sure to remove it as soon as she can sit to forestall her from condign entangled).
  • Mirror her. Some other visual hitting with babies: mirrors. While they can't recognize themselves until about month 15, they practise dearest seeing the changing prototype reflected back at them as they motility.
  • Bring baby along for the ride. Bring baby in a forward-facing carrier equally you go nigh your solar day — whether you lot're taking a walk around your neighborhood, shopping for groceries or just brushing your teeth. Describe what yous see to boost her verbal development at the same time she's observing the globe around her.

A Await At Your Newborn

Signs of babe vision bug

While many infant vision problems are only detectable by a pediatrician or an ophthalmologist, you can accept a few steps to ensure early intervention on any potential bug:

  • Snap photos. While "blood-red center" isn't the wait yous're going for, this nuisance actually shows that baby's optics are correctly refracting light. Pictures that show whiteness in baby'south pupils, on the other hand, indicate a condition known equally leukocoria, which may signal serious problems (such as a cataract or a tumor) that crave attention from a pediatrician correct away.
  • Watch for focus. In the get-go few months, information technology'south normal for a infant'south optics to sometimes seem like they're looking in unlike directions (a condition known equally strabismus). However if this continues by 4 months, take your child to a pediatrician for an evaluation. Aforementioned goes if your baby doesn't seem to focus on your confront and instead appears to be looking through or around you, or if she consistently seems to exist looking off to 1 side.
  • Bank check if she'due south interested in objects. If by around month 4 your babe tin't rails objects or by month 7 doesn't seem interested in whatever new visuals you show her (like that bright new toy you but bought), check in with your dr..
  • Monitor for other centre issues. Other symptoms that merit a trip to the doctor include bulging optics, eyes that seem to quickly palpitate up and down or side to side, constant redness or wateriness, sensitivity to light, itchy eyes or center hurting.

If y'all find any of the higher up or any other visual problems that don't seem quite correct, don't hesitate to bring baby to the doctor for an exam.

What to expect at your child'southward start middle examination

If you're regularly seeing your baby's doctor, you lot should grab any issues early — pediatricians regularly screen babies for vision problems at checkups. If your doctor does notice any potential issues, he may refer y'all to a pediatric ophthalmologist.

Some children, including preemies, babies with Down syndrome or those with a family history of centre issues, should meet an ophthalmologist in the first few months of life. Otherwise, if your kid has no risk factors, her kickoff vision screening should be at historic period 3 and a half or iv years old, since that's when kids tin verbalize what they see (and a whole lot more) — including what'southward on an middle chart.