Development of Baby’s Vision – It becomes very happy for every parent to see a little angel born into the world. Even with impatience you want to know whether your baby can see you or not. Once born into this world, babies can actually see. It’s just that his vision is still limited. Apart from not being able to see from a distance, the baby’s eyes are still unable to work together properly so that their vision is still not focused.
When a baby is born, your little one’s eyes will help its development. Both physical, mental and emotional development. You do this by pulling information from the world around him. When a baby is born with perfect eyes, what happens during the first week to one month of life can still affect the baby’s vision development. Your baby’s vision will develop as he responds to light, color, shape and movement. If in the first week there is no visual stimulation, your little one will not develop their vision properly.
This is what causes vision problems at the age of children which will affect other brain development and make children’s growth slow. But you don’t worry, because activities that can increase social and cognitive development such as interacting with parents and others can help the development of your child’s five senses.
Baby’s Vision Development
When they are born into the world, babies still do not have perfect vision. As the baby grows in age, vision will develop. It is important for you to know the stages of development of the baby’s vision. The following is a description of the stages of the baby’s vision development. (Also read: 1 Month Baby Development )
Newborn Eyes Vision
At first birth the baby can see only white and black, and shades of gray. This is due to the undeveloped nerve cells in the retina. When you see your little one hasn’t focused on looking or staring at you, you shouldn’t worry. This is because newborn babies still don’t have the ability to focus their vision on even near objects.
Although it has limitations, based on a study, it is stated that after a few days of birth, babies are more likely to recognize their mother’s face than the faces of other people or strangers. Why is that? This is due to a striking difference between the mother’s face and hairline. Well, if the mother covers her hair or changes her hair style, your little one will not be able to recognize her mother’s face.
First Month Baby Vision Development
In the first month your little one will be less sensitive to light. You don’t need to worry if you want to turn on the light while your little one is sleeping.
At the age of the first week, your little one’s vision stage has begun to have the ability to see colors such as red, yellow, orange and green. Babies take a long time to see purple and blue. This is because the wavelengths of short blue light and the blue receptors that humans have are few.
2-3 Month Baby Vision Development
At the age of the second and third months, the baby’s vision develops. At this age, your little one’s vision becomes sharper. In addition, the eyes will start working together to see objects more clearly. At this age, your little one should be able to follow the movements of an object, and begin to reach what he sees. Babies will learn to shift their gaze from one object to another without being accompanied by head movements.
Babies will be more sensitive to light at this age. So it is important to dim the lights in the room so that he can sleep soundly.
At the age of 1 – 2 months the coordination between the two eyes is still not optimal. Therefore, if you see your little one’s eyes crossed, it is normal. It’s just that, if this situation occurs frequently, even shows a large enough difference, it is highly recommended to immediately take your little one to the doctor.
4-6 Month Baby Vision Development
At this stage, the development of the brain that regulates vision experiences rapid development, so that the baby will see sharper and be able to move the eyeball more quickly and accurately when he follows an object. Your little one’s visual acuity has grown from 20/400 when the baby is born and by the sixth month to 20/25. Your little one is able to see colors like adults. (See also: 4 Months Baby Development )
In the fourth to sixth months, babies have better hand-eye coordination, so they will be able to pick up objects or be able to direct their own bottle of milk to their mouth.
Meanwhile, at the age of 5 months, babies will begin to recognize depth perception. This is the ability to recognize the distance between an object and another. At this age, your little one can begin to see in three dimensions.
At the age of 6 months, you can have your little one’s eyes checked by a doctor to see if there is any disturbance in the sharpness of your little one’s eyes.
Vision Development for Infants Aged 7-12 Months
At this age, your baby can start crawling. At this age he also began to learn to coordinate vision with body movements. Your little one’s ability to determine distance is getting better and in taking or throwing objects is becoming more accurate.
What Should Mother Do To Help Baby’s Vision Development?
Research has shown that babies will prefer human faces over other images or patterns. Let your little one know your face. You can keep your face close to him, especially when he is just born. At the age of 1 month, almost everything shown to your little one will make him interested. You can make eye contact with your little one during mealtime or playtime. Not only for vision development, the role of eye contact for overall development is quite large. When you are going to give a bottle of milk, then you can change the position of the hand holding it. This is done so that the baby learns to use both his eyes to make eye contact.
At the age of six months early, peekaboo game is common. When you are not in your little one’s line of sight, he will assume you do not exist. Even if you hide your face behind your hands, your little one will not know that you are still there.
At birth, the baby’s vision is only able to distinguish bright contrasting colors. To stimulate baby’s vision, the soft colors you usually use to decorate your little one’s room actually don’t help, at least during the first week.
You can also move sound toys or brightly colored toys to the left and right of your baby’s face. Then you can replace it with an up and down motion. Objects like these will catch your little one’s attention, although usually most babies are not able to properly follow vertical movements until 3 or 4 months of age. You can find out other things you can do to get your baby’s attention visually.
When your little one is older, you can introduce basic colo
rs and pastel colors. You can buy your little one brightly colored toys, stick pictures on the walls of the room or story books with interesting pictures.
How to Check Your Baby’s Vision Is Normal
Babies will not be able to tell what they are experiencing and what they are feeling. However, as a parent you certainly have to know how to check whether your baby’s vision is working normally. To check this, there are several ways you can use it.
Seeing Light
The first thing your baby sees is light. You can try moving the light source, then see if your little one follows the light source or not. Usually your little one will be attracted to the light source.
Color
As a way to increase the catch of the baby, it needs to be introduced to various colors. Like giving him colorful toys, so that your baby will recognize many colors when he is young.
Moving Eyes
For vision, the reflection of the baby’s eyes is very important. By using a light or a moving colored toy, if your baby follows it then he has good reflexes.
Recognizing Face
At the age of 6 to 9 months, your baby can recognize faces. If you try to give it to someone you don’t know and then cry, then that is a sign that your baby has the ability to recognize faces well.
Sound
If you make a sound or use a toy for a sound source, does it follow the sound source? If he follows it, it means your baby is listening perfectly. Babies try to find the source of the sound you make with their eyes.
Eye Test
You can do regular eye tests to make sure the baby’s eye development is running normally.
Signs There Is Something Wrong In Baby’s Vision
You need to worry about the baby’s vision, if he shows these signs. Take him immediately to the doctor or tell the doctor if you see signs like the following:
- Babies are unable to track objects with their eyes by 3 to 4 months of age.
- The little one’s eyes kept moving and couldn’t stay still.
- Both or one of the baby’s eyes cannot move in all directions.
- The baby’s eyes cross all the time or if both or one of the baby’s eyes protrude or protrude. (Also read: How to Recognize the Signs of Squint in Babies )
- One of the pupils is white.
- The little one’s eyes didn’t move at the same time.
- Babies are unable to see or recognize people or objects from a distance.
- The baby’s eyes are red, oozing, watery or wet.
- Baby’s eyelids droop.
- Sensitive to light or squints frequently.
- Always rub your eyes excessively.
Thus, as the baby gets older, his vision will also develop. You can provide stimulation to help the baby’s vision development. If you show some of the signs above, immediately take your baby to the doctor and consult the doctor. Hope it is useful.
This article is reviewed by Midwife Pevi Revina sTR. Keb
