{"id":501,"date":"2021-05-21T06:30:54","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T13:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/?p=501"},"modified":"2024-04-25T03:01:17","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T10:01:17","slug":"understanding-infant-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/understanding-infant-vision\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Infant Vision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One summer afternoon I was sitting at the foot of my bed, holding my 2-month-old firstborn. We were enjoying one of those peaceful moments of bonding that new parents get after their baby wakes up from a nap, alert and happy. <!--more-->It was magical \u2013 until I noticed his eyes were looking in opposite directions. Were they supposed to do that? He looked a bit possessed! I called my pediatrician and it turned out that at his age, he was allowed to have crazy eyes!<\/p>\n<p>As a new mom I temporarily forgot what I knew as a pediatrician: In the beginning babies\u2019 eyes don\u2019t work well together and can appear to wander out or turn in. This is normal in a young baby, but shouldn\u2019t be seen after 4 months old.<\/p>\n<p>New parents often have many questions about their baby\u2019s eyes \u2013 I certainly wasn\u2019t alone. Here are some questions I have frequently answered as a pediatrician\/mother.<\/p>\n<h3>Eye color<\/h3>\n<p>Parents often want to know what color eyes their baby will have, but it\u2019s hard to predict!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Eye color is determined by the melanin in the iris, the colored area around the pupil. Cells called melanocytes make melanin. At birth, a baby\u2019s eyes often look grey or blue. As the melanocytes make melanin you can see the eye color develop. If not much melanin is made, the eyes will stay blue; if more is made they\u2019ll turn green, hazel or brown. This process won\u2019t finish until your baby is about 1 year old, but you can usually make a good prediction about eye color at about 6 months old.<\/li>\n<li>Eye color is also determined by more than one gene. Because of this, it\u2019s difficult to predict the eye color a baby will have, based on their parents\u2019 eye color. Two brown-eyed parents can have a blue-eyed child and two blue-eyed parents can have a brown-eyed child. Or green-eyed. Or hazel-eyed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Watery eyes<\/h3>\n<p>Parents are also concerned about watery eyes or eyes that appear to have frequent discharge. Usually this is caused by a blocked tear duct.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The tube or duct that drains fluid from the eye is tiny in babies. If it has a narrow portion, the tears and mucus normally produced by the eye can back up into the duct and overflow. This looks messy but isn\u2019t a problem unless the white of the eye gets red or the lids are swollen.<\/li>\n<li>Most babies outgrow this on their own without any treatment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>How your infant\u2019s vision develops<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Birth to 1 month:<\/strong> Newborns\u00a0can\u00a0see shapes but not details and have vision about 20\/400-600 (think a shape larger than the big E on eye charts). They can see across a room but are more interested in what is close to them &#8211; like the gaze at a parent\u2019s face while being fed. They prefer to look at objects with high contrast.Their focus improves\u202fover the first month.<\/li>\n<li><strong>3 to 4 months: <\/strong>Over the first few months, babies start being able to focus on increasingly smaller objects. When they are 2 to 3 months old, they can see moving objects, so we say that they have developed the ability to \u201cfix and follow.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>4 to 5 months: <\/strong>Now your baby\u2019s eyes should be working in a coordinated fashion to create stereo vision. That\u2019s why babies start to be able to grab toys by about 4 months of age. Their depth perception develops at 5 months, and their color vision is developing, too \u2013 first with red and green.<\/li>\n<li><strong>5 to 8 months: <\/strong>Your baby\u2019s eye-hand coordination is improving. Tummy time, which will lead to crawling, helps develop this.<\/li>\n<li><strong>9 to 12 months: <\/strong>Your child will have better distance perception, and even have the ability to throw toys!<\/li>\n<li><strong>3 to 5 years: <\/strong>Your child will finally have 20\/20 vision.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>How parents can help babies\u2019 vision develop<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Hang mobiles over their crib until they\u2019re about 5 months old. Take the mobiles down when your baby can sit up and pull, in order to avoid strangling injuries. Besides, they eventually get bored of mobiles.<\/li>\n<li>Display pictures with high contrast.<\/li>\n<li>Change pictures and decorations in their room often.<\/li>\n<li>Talk to your baby as you move around the house.<\/li>\n<li>Provide supervised tummy time to enhance your baby\u2019s coordination skills.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>When to call your pediatrician about potential problems<\/h3>\n<p>While I review all of these common vision issues with parents, I also like to make sure they know when to be concerned. Call your pediatrician if you notice:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Eyes crossed or turned out, if your child is over 4 months old<\/li>\n<li>Eyes do not fix on and watch a moving object, if your child is over 3 months old<\/li>\n<li>Eyes flutter repeatedly in any direction<\/li>\n<li>An eye bulges, or an eye lid droops<\/li>\n<li>Redness that does not go away in a few days<\/li>\n<li>Eye pain<\/li>\n<li>Eyes that are always watery<\/li>\n<li>Eyes that are always sensitive to light<\/li>\n<li>Your child often rubs or squints their eyes<\/li>\n<li>Any change in your child\u2019s eyes from how they usually look<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Having questions about your baby\u2019s eyes is normal \u2013 there\u2019s a lot to wonder and worry about. There\u2019s one time when your baby is allowed to have devilish eyes: in photographs. Those red eyes we don\u2019t like in photos? They show light reflecting off of the retina and are medically just fine. You do however, need to call a doctor if you notice a photo with one eye red and one eye with a white appearance in the pupil, because that can be a serious condition.<\/p>\n<p>If you do think your baby\u2019s eyes look a bit crazy just call your pediatrician \u2013 the way I did!<\/p>\n<h3>More resources for Parents<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mydoctor.kaiserpermanente.org\/ncal\/mdo\/presentation\/conditions\/conditionpage.jsp?condition=Condition_Blocked_Tear_Ducts_-_Nasolacrimal_Duct_Obstruction_-_Pediatrics.xml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Blocked Tear Ducts<\/a> \u2013 My Doctor Online<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthychildren.org\/English\/health-issues\/conditions\/eyes\/pages\/Eyelid-Problems.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eyelid Problems<\/a> \u2013 HealthyChildren.org<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aap.org\/en-us\/about-the-aap\/aap-press-room\/aap-press-room-media-center\/Pages\/Tummy-Time.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tummy Time<\/a> \u2013 American Academy of Pediatrics<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aao.org\/eye-health\/tips-prevention\/baby-vision-development-first-year\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Baby\u2019s Vision Development: What to Expect the First Year<\/a> \u2013 American Academy of Ophthalmology<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One summer afternoon I was sitting at the foot of my bed, holding my 2-month-old firstborn. We were enjoying one of those peaceful moments of bonding that new parents get after their baby wakes up from a nap, alert and happy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":365,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[667],"tags":[92,94,93,668,602,61,620],"class_list":["post-501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newborn-care","tag-eye-color","tag-eye-development","tag-eye-problems","tag-infant","tag-newborn","tag-parenting","tag-vision","ages-baby"],"metadata":{"_edit_lock":["1691571456:8"],"_edit_last":["11"],"slide_template":[""],"video_format_choose":["youtube"],"_wpb_vc_js_status":["false"],"_custom_body_class":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_content_score":["30"],"qode_animate-page-title":["no"],"qode_show-page-title-text":["no"],"qode_show-page-title-image":["no"],"qode_show-sidebar":["2"],"qode_hide-featured-image":["no"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":["455"],"_thumbnail_id":["365"],"wpfp_favorites":["14"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_ages":["288"],"ase_chapter_enable_timeline":["off"],"ase_map_component_start_point":["a:2:{s:3:\"lat\";d:29.76;s:3:\"lng\";d:-95.38;}"],"_yoast_wpseo_estimated-reading-time-minutes":[""],"_yoast_indexnow_last_ping":["1714039277"]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":511,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions\/511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}