What Do You Know About a Newborn’s Vision at Birth?

Your Baby’s Eyes and You

When your baby is born there will be countless hours spent into each others eyes. While you notice every single speck on her perfect little face, what can she see?

Their primary focus is on objects 8 to 10 inches from their face or the distance to parent’s face when being held in their arms. Eyes stay relatively still at this age and cannot tell the difference between to objects. Babies at birth will however stare at two object that are in high contrast of one another.

A newborn baby does not have a fully developed retina and therefore cannot see colors. Because of this a newborn can only see light and dark or black and white. Do not despair if you realize your baby is unable to see you at first. A baby’s vision will develop, but needs stimulation to do so. Provide your baby with lots of black and white and contrasting toys to look at.  This will help the optic nerve strengthen and give your child a chance to see what is going on around her.

Have your say