Your Baby's Amazing Eyesight

 

If a mother exposes her prenatal belly to bright light, studies indicate that her unborn fetus will close its eyelids.  This amazing behavior indicates that babies do use their senses even before birth.

Vision is the most complex of all the senses.  It is the most important sense used for learning about our world than any of our other senses and is the slowest to completely develop.  Researchers have suggested that our relatively slow developing visual system is advantageous.  Because we take in so much information through our sense of vision, it develops slowly in the newborn so as to not overload the developing brain and to allow for a strong role of direct experience in the baby’s developing visual system.

When a baby is born, her eyesight is very poor, actually around 600/20, but the sense of sight does develop rapidly throughout the first year of life.  At birth a newborn cannot see more than about 6 - 8 inches in distance away, and really only sees what is at the side of the eye rather than directly in front it.
High contrast, bold, simple and organized patterns are preferred by baby at this time and throughout the first year of life.  Red is the first color baby can see, followed by oranges, yellows, greens and lastly at about 4-5 months of age, baby can perceive blue.

For a unique perspective on what your baby can see at his or her specific age follow this link to www.tinyeyes.com and enter your baby’s age.  We love this website because it brings to life an infant’s vision.