What Does your Baby See?

Have you ever wondered how well or how much your baby can see? During the first months of her life, her eyesight will be improving more and more. Find out what babies can see in the beginning and how their vision develops over time.

One of the many joys of a newborn baby is witnessing the development of the senses. A baby is born with the eye structures needed for vision, but must learn how to use them together to actually be able to "see." Although newborns can't see very well, they can see quite a bit. Newborns can differentiate between light and dark, but can't see all colors. They are also extremely nearsighted, meaning that far away objects are blurry. This nearsightedness may explain why babies seem to gaze at nearby objects. Studies have shown that infants enjoy looking at faces, but they probably aren't able to see much facial detail. Your baby may appear to focus intently on your face, but he's probably studying your hairline or the outline of your face. An infant is not able to see fine details.

Amazingly, the sense of sight seems to develop quite rapidly. By six months of age, sight becomes a baby's most dominant sense. Some six-month-old babies actually have better vision than some adults.

Focus and Tracking: Newborn babies have peripheral vision (the ability to see to the sides) and in the first weeks of life gradually develop the ability to focus on an object or point in front of them. At one month, a baby can focus briefly on objects up to three feet away.

By two months, infants are also able to track (follow) moving objects, as their visual coordination and depth perception improves. By three months they also have the hand/arm control needed to bat at nearby moving objects. If a baby's eyes are not working together to focus and track objects by three months of age, a pediatrician should be consulted.

Distance vision continues to develop in the early months. By four months a baby may smile when they see a parent across a room, and they can see objects outside when looking through a window.