When does a newborn begin to see and focus?

Vision is one of the main functions of knowing the world. Thanks to visual images, the child receives up to 90% of the information about what is happening around him. There are many speculations about the vision of newborn children: someone claims that the baby sees everything upside down, in an inverted position, someone is sure that babies are not able to distinguish colors.

In this material, we will consider how newborns see our world, as well as find out when the baby begins to focus his gaze and how to help the baby develop visual functions.

Organs of vision before birth

Visual analyzers in the fetus arise in the second week of pregnancy. Mom is not yet aware of her "interesting position", and the embryo already has eye vesicles, which will later become its eyes. The lenses are born by the end of the first month of pregnancy. By the end of the third month, the child has formed blood vessels and established blood supply to the eyes.

The formation of sclera occurs at 4-5 months of pregnancy, by the same time the baby's eyelids are fully formed.

The fetus in the space of the uterus cannot see in full understanding of this word until the formation of the center of vision in the brain is completed. In the third trimester of pregnancy, the baby, through the eyes tightly closed by the eyelids, begins to identify and differentiate light and darkness outside the mother's abdomen.

At birth, the eyes of a child have a structure identical to the eye of an adult, but all departments are not physiologically matured, are smaller, and functionally lag behind the analyzers of adults.

Development stages after birth

Vision continues to develop after birth, the eyes and nerves mature. This process proceeds simultaneously with the development and formation of brain functions.

After birth, babies' vision is weak, they cannot boast of its sharpness. A large and bright (in comparison with a mother's womb) world is a great stress for the baby, who, moreover, cannot really see what is happening around. What we see for a baby in the first month of life is a "patchwork quilt" - an accumulation of multi-colored spots that do not have clear boundaries.

But the process of formation of the organs of vision and neural connections in the brain occurs continuously, and also very intensively, and therefore, already in a month, the baby can generally distinguish certain forms if the object is brought close to his eyes.

However, it is still very difficult for an infant of this age to keep a point-like gaze, the muscles responsible for the movement of the eyeballs and fixation of the gaze are still very weak.

Do newborn babies see everything in black and white? The answer to this question is rather negative, but the newly born child does not perceive a special variety of colors. Rather, it is a collection of spots in halftones. Statements that babies perceive everything upside down are generally far from reality. Your newborn sees everything in the correct projection, only very indistinctly.

Since the eyeballs are significantly inferior in size to adults (16 mm in newborns versus 24 mm in adults), the image is formed not on the retina of the eye, but immediately behind it, therefore, all newborns, without exception, are characterized by some physiological hyperopia.

As the eyeballs grow, the image begins to form correctly and exactly where it should appear - directly on the retina.

Let's look at the main stages of the formation of visual ability in infants.

Newborn

In the first days after birth, the child distinguishes only between light and darkness. Neither mom, nor dad, nor even more so his grandmother, he can not consider, no matter how the relatives tried to prove the opposite.

If you send too bright light to the child, he may cry, a sharp change in lighting (from darkness to light) causes tearing and quite understandable indignation of the little man. These abilities belong to the category of visual reflex reactions, they are assessed in the parental home after the baby is born. If there are reactions, the child is considered to be sighted.

3 weeks after birth

A period of primary adaptation passes, the baby adapts to the new conditions of his habitat. After 21 days, color vision begins to form, the baby will begin to distinguish some spots as more or less bright.

At a distance of about 40 centimeters from the face, he can see them best. But the baby is not yet able to understand or analyze what he saw. He does not distinguish the face, he cannot see his mother, but he can feel her - by the smell, by the voice, by the touch that is familiar to him.

1 month

After the first month, the baby begins to hold his gaze for a short time on an object that is no more than 50-60 centimeters away from him. But it turns out that it is still bad, and therefore the parents begin to ring all the bells - "the baby squints", "his eyes look in different directions", "one pupil trembles."

All these are not signs of pathology, but signs of immaturity of the muscles of the eyes, it will take quite a while, and the infant will learn to consider objects longer.

2 months

By the end of the second month, the baby can focus on a large toy for a little longer. But it is still very difficult for him to follow her with his eyes.

The kid begins to recognize his mother, and this is an undeniable breakthrough. The rudiments of color discrimination appear - the baby perceives the red color.

3 months

By this age, the child's organs of vision "stepped" far ahead. Now he can not only follow a static object, but also try to keep his gaze on a moving object, however, provided that this object moves slowly and smoothly.

The baby's eyes can already move left and right, up and down. The ability to distinguish colors improves - the baby begins to see yellow.

4-5 months

By the end of the fifth month, the baby can distinguish blue and green, as well as all the basic colors of the spectrum, but half-tones are not yet available to him.

He will learn to see them by 7-8 months. The child recognizes relatives, distinguishes between faces, can quite clearly see objects that are at a distance of a meter from him.

6 months

At six months, the child's facial expression begins to acquire a "live" look, quite conscious and reasonable. The eyes no longer look in different directions, do not run back and forth, the baby can clearly see faces, toys at a distance of up to three meters, fix his gaze on them.

Vision becomes stereoscopic. This means that the baby begins to see the world not flat, as before, but three-dimensional, three-dimensional, the way we, adults, see it. The child can easily see the toy, reach for it, pick it up.

7 months and older

At the age of 7 months and after that, vision is formed in its base. But this does not mean that the processes of improvement in the organs of vision and the brain stop. Visual analyzers will develop up to 3 years inclusive, but the base has already been laid.

The child begins to fix his gaze on distant objects, to quickly "switch" his gaze from distant objects to near ones and vice versa. At 8-9 months, the child can estimate the distance between objects.

It should be noted that the most striking changes in the child's organs of vision occur during the entire first year of life, and therefore parents must do everything possible so that the baby's vision develops harmoniously and correctly. This will help avoid problems in the future.

Premature babies lag somewhat behind in the stages of vision formation. It all depends on how early the baby will be born. The eyes of babies born prematurely will mature a little longer, and this is quite natural.

How to develop visual function?

Parents should make sure that the baby's eyesight is normal from the first days. The room in which the baby is to be located should not be very dark. In the twilight, all stages of vision development will be delayed. But the room should not be too brightly lit: in the first months, bright light will irritate the baby, cause noticeable inconvenience to him.

Avoid the presence of a light source near the crib. It is also undesirable to have large mirrors in the room.

Do not move the crib against the wall - you need to approach the baby from different sides so that he can learn to perceive objects both to the right and to the left of him.

Mobile, rattles and other "favors and charms" that mothers prepare for crumbs during pregnancy, it is better to start using when the child reaches one month of age. Previously, he simply will not see and appreciate them. After a month, toys are hung at a distance of at least 50 centimeters from the baby's face.

Classes on the development of vision will be useful for your little one from one and a half months. Start by showing your baby black and white geometric images.

From three months, start engaging with your child using colored objects and toys. At the same time, remember that first you need to offer items in red and yellow, and only by six months - blue and green.

As soon as the child learns to crawl, give him free rein. A playpen is an excellent device that makes life much easier for mom and saves nerves and strength, but stereoscopic vision will develop much more slowly in it.

While exploring space with his own hands and knees, the baby also comprehends the laws of distance and volume, do not forget about this.

Be sure to walk with your child. The sun's rays contribute to the development of the retina of the eye, besides, on the street, the child receives an excellent training in tracking moving objects that he has not yet bothered with, unlike at home - a dog is running, a car is driving, a flower is swinging in the wind, etc.

Self-examination

Looking at the squinting and cloudy eyes of the baby (and they are like that in almost all babies up to a certain age), parents no, no, and they begin to wonder if everything is in order with the vision of the child. Of course, the final answer to this question can only be given by an ophthalmologist, but some of the signs and alarming symptoms of visual impairment may well be determined by the baby's parents on their own in order to immediately visit the same ophthalmologist. So, problems most often arise in children who:

were born prematurely, ahead of time;
were born in a family where close relatives have vision problems (ophthalmological problems are often inherited);
per month do not demonstrate the reaction of the pupil to light (the pupil does not become smaller in response to bright lighting);
at three months, they do not focus on large objects that do not emit sounds, show interest only in toys that can make sounds;
at four months they do not follow moving objects;
in six months they do not recognize the faces of relatives, do not differentiate them from strangers;
at six months, they demonstrate involuntary nystagmus (trembling and spontaneous movement of the pupils from side to side or from top to bottom);
at six months demonstrate pronounced unilateral strabismus;
at the age of one, they do not pay attention to dogs, birds or cats on the street, they are not interested in moving objects.

Child medical examinations

The vision of babies should be monitored not only by parents, whose task is to prevent injury to the eyes, chemical burns, but also by specialists.

The first physical examination for the baby's eyesight is carried out in the children's department of the maternity hospital. Already at this stage, doctors are able to identify severe malformations and diseases, for example, retinopathy of newborns, glaucoma and cataracts.

But after hearing from neonatologists the conclusion that no defects have been found, parents should not relax and calm down: many pathologies with vision, including genetic ones, manifest themselves only over time. That is why it is important not to "skip" visits to a pediatric ophthalmologist.

The first such visit should be made to the optometrist when the child is 1 month old. Premature babies need to visit the doctor again at three months, and then at 6 months. If the child was born on time, then after examination in 1 month, he should repeat the diagnosis in six months.

A visit to an ophthalmologist at 1 year is also mandatory. Then the child should be shown to the appropriate medical specialist every six months.

Useful Tips

Toys for visual inspection should be safe, because sooner or later the baby will begin to reach them with his hands and drag them into his mouth. All these actions are quite normal for babies.
Do not leave the child while playing with soap bubbles or in the sandpit: very often eye injuries occur from contact with the chemical composition of the soap solution, as well as grains of sand.
A newborn should not scratch his face, at least because he can injure his eyes with sharp, like razors, marigolds. Use special undershirts with sewn-on hands, mittens for handles, envelopes, from which the baby will not arbitrarily take out his hands.