1 Your baby’s eyesight from day one to plus one: This facts will blow your mind
Imagine seeing through a baby’s eyes after birth, its an entirely new place compared to moms womb. The senses are unfamiliar with this new environment and will soon begin adapting to the new course of life, although a healthy new born has no vision impairment of any sought their eyesight is still delicate as it lacks accurate navigation and auto focus.
Process is everything for a new born, from learning how to move his hands and legs to sitting up, crawling, standing, walking, eating and talking, he will gradually master his ability to see things with precision and detail.
Fundamentally the human eye plays a crucial role in helping us understand and tune in to activities within our immediate environment, vision impairment in babies will eventually lead to a setback in development hence a need to pay attention to nutritional and physical factors as your new born grows older.
baby eyesight development: day one to 4 months
Within the first two months your new born will hardly smile as he/she is still trying to get accustomed to the new expanded world, they can only have a clear sight of your face when you are in a close up view not more than 8 – 10 inches away.
Basically newborns can behave differently, some have a natural tendency to gaze at your face after birth while a majority will rather have their eyes closed. In my opinion that is a mild display of extroversion and introversion traits.
As time goes on it becomes obvious that babies love looking at faces, they are unable to keep moving objects in focus but their instincts focuses on familiar faces, you should do well to maintain closer distance once your notice your baby steering
At the third month your baby will begin recognizing faces well, and a smile can pop up once in a while, at this age your baby’s eyes seldom picks up different hues and colors become apparent
At the fourth month your baby’s long sight begins to improve as he/she is able to track your movement as you walk around the room, holding objects in close proximity becomes easy for your baby
Lastly both eyes begin to work together, the retina begins to detect colour depth hence he gets clearer view of objects around him, you can experiment this by dangling a colourful toy in front of your baby, he will try to track the pendulum movement and make attempt to get a grip of the toy. It is now obvious that your baby’s eye and hand movement has gained some level of coordination
baby eyesight development: 5 to 8 months
At this age the brain undergoes exponential development causing improvement in key sense organs, your baby’s eyesight becomes keen as both eyes now work like binoculars to produce a 3D view of the surrounding with clarity and depth
Moving on to the next level , your baby is able to control his vision and motion to the point where he is able to sight objects, hold them and play them around, he also picks interest in shapes and patterns
At 8 months of age your baby’s coordination is fully enhanced as he can crawl and explore anything within his reach, his mind is quite curious and already picking things up mentally. It will be beneficial to introduce colorful objects, toys, solid text and some verbal illustrations from you
baby eyesight development: 9 to 12 months
Between 9 to 12 months of age your new born is well on the way to high level coordination, he makes attempt to stand while grasping firmly to a chair or support structure with his thumb and forefinger. They can hold objects while crawling and can fling them spontaneously.
Although visual impairment are rare in newborn, parents should be on a look out for vision problems. Here are a few medical signs that would require the intervention of a ophthalmologist
-Excess tears in baby’s eyes -Red eye lids -Constant eye turning -Excessive sensitivity to light -Development of a white pupil
