How Well Can New Babies See?

"Look Dear, she is looking at me!"... "It must be that pink blouse. That seems to be her favorite color." The days after the birth of a newborn are generally filled with comments similar to these. We intuitively know by watching the babies reactions, or lack of reactions, that our baby's eyesight is not completely clear. Some bystanders will chime in, "Come on! Seriously... The baby's vision is blurred until they are six months old." This has been the conventional wisdom for many years based partly on a general lack of guidance from the medical experts. To a great extent, the majority of folks still subscribe to the opinion of William James, the great 19th century philosopher and psychologist, who argued that an infant's visual world amounted to a "booming, buzzing, confusion." But, we want to interact and bond with baby. So we hope and wonder how well our little one can see our faces and the wonderful profusion of colorful baubles that we surround them with. I will admit, you could not have convinced me that Olivia wasn't transfixed by my face when I softly spoke her name.

So what can an infant see? The answer to this question lies in the answer to two other related questions. 1) How far can the baby see? and 2) How clearly can the baby see? I did some research on these two questions and though there are a lot of varying opinions, even amongst experts, there is a general consensus that provides a reasonable response.

Let's consider the first question. How far can my baby see?

Generally, experts agree that newborns are short-sighted. They are pretty good at following the movement of highly contrasting objects that are no more than 7-12" away. Actually, their little eyes have all of the functionality and optical parts needed to focus perfectly on objects at any distance. However, the ability to control their focus is still in development. Let me explain.

The eye is able to focus on an image because tiny muscles called ciliary muscles change the eyes shape making it longer or shorter as needed. A good analogy is the way a camera lens lengthens or shortens to convey a sharply focused image onto film when we take a picture. An infant's eyes are perfectly capable as a lens at birth. It is the coordination of these ciliary muscles that is still in need of refining. Since these muscles are still developing and lacking a bit in coordination, the baby's eyes may either focus too close (in front of an object) or too far (behind an object). Now for the next question.

How clearly can the baby see?

We have already discussed that focusing, and more importantly accurately focusing, can be a challenge for young babies. The other factor that determines how clearly the baby will see is how well the brain processes the image. This is referred to as acuity. Images that pass into the eye are projected on the retina. The retina is a thin layer of neural cells that line the back of the eyeball. The retina is still incompletely developed in infants. For this reason, even though the optic components of the eyeball itself are capable of producing images in sharp focus onto it's surface, the retina and the neural pathways that are used to carry the images are immature and do not convey a clear image to the brain. This limits how clearly an infant can resolve the images the eye receives.

So how fuzzy is an infants vision? Most experts agree that in the first month of life, a baby can achieve visual acuity of about 20/120. In simpler terms, if babies could read, they would be able to read the big "E" at the top of a standard eye chart. Fortunately, this situation quickly improves. By 4 months of age, acuity has improved to 20/60 and by 8 months the babies nervous system has matured enough to improve acuity to 20/30.

So what's the bottom line? Babies have a real challenge in their early months focusing on objects. Especially those that are not viewed up close. However, a newborn infant can easily see many of the things that are most important to them and you. Hold them close in your arms and they will certainly be able to make out your eyes, lips and nose. They will also be fascinated by their own hands, fingers, feet and toes. And come to think of it, those are the very things we will be focusing on also.

Finally, what can I do to promote proper development of my baby's vision?

Check out the following links for facts about your infant's vision as well as things you can do to insure your baby has the appropriate level of visual stimulation:

http://www.ski.org/Vision/babyvision.html?id=10

http://www.webmd.com/content/Article/119/113496.htm

http://www.allaboutvision.com/parents/infants.htm

You probably have seen those black and white mobiles and toys that are being touted as "visually stimulating" to your baby. Are these items really more beneficial than other designs? We will discuss what we found in another post. So stay tuned.