Infant’s Eyesight Development: An Overview

How does eyesight develop in infants?

The baby’s vision develops in different stages in the first year. They can see only up to a maximum distance of 6 to 10 inches as soon as they are born. If you want to make your face familiar to your baby, keep it at a distance of 6 inches for best results. It will take about 3 months for babies to identify colours and the differences in various faces.

If you’re worried your baby doesn’t look at you directly when you hold him/her with a lot of love, it is only because he/she cannot see you clearly. However, as your baby grows, his/her vision develops gradually. The clarity of your baby’s vision depends on the lifestyle and diet you follow during your pregnancy.

By the time a baby turns 8 months old, he/she can see his/her surroundings without any hassles. With every passing month, the child’s brain starts sending signals to process the images in front of him/her in detail. The maximum distance up to which the baby can see keeps increasing right from the time he/she is born till the time the child is about 8 to 9 months old.

Infant’s Eye Development Chart

The following stage-by-stage comparison of age vs. vision range will help you clearly understand infants and vision.

Some points to note:

• Avoid too much brightness in your baby’s room.

• Keep your baby’s toys far away from him/her (at a distance of at least 8 inches), and encourage your child to crawl and gather the toys.

• Hide and Seek can be played often to encourage your baby to explore the house and look for you.

• Avoid smoking and drinking when you are pregnant, as this can directly hamper vision development in your baby.

• Watch out for the following symptoms in the eyesight of newborns, as these may require immediate medical attention:

◦ Different-sized pupils

◦ One eye is closed mostly

◦ Tilting of the head to a particular side while viewing things or people

◦ Not tracking objects but focused only on the light source

◦ Too much tearing issues

◦ High sensitivity to light