Infant Vision Birth to One Year (2024)

Infant Vision Birth to One Year (1)

What does my baby see? This is a very common question for parents. This handout describes what your baby sees from birth to 1 year of age, and how you can stimulate your baby’s vision.

Birth to 1 Month of Age

At birth your baby:

  • Sees in black and white and in shades of gray.
  • Is not very light-sensitive.
  • Has eyes that are large compared to their body.
  • Has eyes that are about 65% of their adult size.

One week after birth, your baby will start to slowly develop color vision. They can also see about 8 10 10 inches away. At 6 weeks of age, a baby can see about 12 inches away.

2 Months to 3 Months

Your baby should:

  • Follow objects with their eyes. This is called tracking.
  • Recognize your face.
  • Start reaching for things.
  • Remember what they see.

For the first 2 months of life, an infant’s eyes do not work well together and may cross or wander. This usually goes away. If it continues, or if an eye is always turned in or out, talk to your baby’s doctor or health care provider.

4 Months

Your baby’s vision is clear, and now they can see farther away. They still prefer looking at you up closely. At this age, an infant uses both eyes (binocular vision) and is working on their depth perception. Encourage play time by reaching for bright objects and toys.

6 Months

Your baby’s eyes should be working together all the time. They can see colors like adults do. Play peek-a-boo and use mirrors to help develop vision.

  • The color of your baby’s eyes may change during the first 6 months. Many babies are born with blue eyes. Over time, dark pigment is made, which makes their eyes darker. Usually, the color does not change much after 6 months of age.

7 to 12 Months

Your baby is now moving around more. They are better at judging distances and grabbing objects. Babies are learning how their vision works when their body moves.

When to Call the Doctor

All infants should have regular checkups with their doctor or health care provider so they can screen for problems.

Babies that are born early (premature) are at high risk for vision problems. All premature infants should be seen by a pediatric eye doctor (ophthalmologist) by 1 to 2 years of age.

Call your baby’s doctor or health care provider if:

  • Their eyes do not work together and/or are not properly aligned in all directions.
  • Their pupils are different sizes.
  • They are not tracking items with their eye. They are staring at lights.
  • Their eyes have a lot of tearing or crusting.
  • They turn or tilt their head to one side to view objects.
  • They close one eye most of the time.
  • They are very sensitive to light.\\You are concerned about your baby’s eyes or vision.

If your baby’s regular doctor or health care provider is concerned about their eye health or visual development, they can recommend a pediatric ophthalmologist.

If there are any problems with your baby’s vision, it’s better to find them early. The earlier problems are found, the sooner they can be taken care of.

Infant Vision: Birth to 1 Year (PDF)
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HH-IV-108 • ©2014, revised 2023 • Nationwide Children's Hospital

Infant Vision Birth to One Year (2024)

FAQs

What is the vision of a 1 year old baby? ›

Now, your little one can see quite well near and far and even focus on quickly moving objects. Your baby's motor skills are working together with eyesight (hand–eye coordination), and it's likely that he or she can spot a toy across the room, focus on it, move to it, pick it up, and explore it in lots of ways.

How would you describe an infants vision after birth? ›

At birth your baby: Sees in black and white and in shades of gray. Is not very light-sensitive. Has eyes that are large compared to their body.

What is the normal vision of infants? ›

At birth, a newborn's eyesight is between 20/200 and 20/400. Their eyes are sensitive to bright light, so they're more likely to open their eyes in low light. Don't worry if your baby's eyes sometimes cross or drift outward (go "wall-eyed"). This is normal until your baby's vision improves and eye muscles strengthen.

How does a baby's vision change during the first year? ›

During the first months of life, the eyes start working together and vision rapidly improves. Eye-hand coordination begins to develop as the infant starts tracking moving objects with his or her eyes and reaching for them.

What is a babies vision from birth? ›

Babies are born with a full visual capacity to see objects and colors. However, newborns cannot see very far -- only objects that are 8-15 inches away. Newborns prefer to look at faces over other shapes and objects and at round shapes with light and dark borders (such as your adoring eyes).

When do babies get 100% vision? ›

It turns out that babies ability to see is perhaps not as strong as you thought, with it taking up to two years for their vision to fully develop. Just like learning to walk and talk, babies ability to focus and move their eyes takes time and does not happen overnight.

Which of the following best describe a newborn's vision at birth? ›

Babies are born with the ability to focus only at close range--about 8 to 10 inches or the distance between a mother's face to the baby in her arms. Babies are able to follow or track an object in the first few weeks. Focus improves over the first 2 to 3 years of life to a normal 20/20 vision.

Which sentence best describes newborn vision at birth? ›

Which sentence best describes newborn vision at birth? They are very nearsighted, and so they can best see things at a short distance.

When do babies start to see clearly? ›

Usually, a baby's eyes don't work well enough together until about 5 months. At that age, their eyes can form the 3-D view of the world they'll need to begin seeing things in depth.

What is a newborn's estimated vision? ›

Your baby's vision – between 20/200 and 20/400 at birth – is almost adult in its clarity and depth perception at this point. Though their attention is more focused on objects that are close by, their vision is strong enough to recognize people and objects across the room.

Are babies born with perfect vision? ›

Newborns have poor eyesight, in part because they did not get much visual information in the womb. At birth, the average baby's visual acuity is 20/640, 1 meaning that an object that an average adult can see 640 feet away, would need to be just 20 feet away in order for the baby to see it.

At what age is vision fully developed? ›

At age 3 to 5, a child with normal vision will be able to see as clearly as a typical adult, and by age 10, their visual system will be completely developed.

When do babies' eyes open fully after birth? ›

Is so, what were they? In this study of 104 babies, 30 babies opened their eyes at birth, and the remainder, except three, opened their eyes ranging from within 1 minute of birth to within 20 minutes of birth (20 minutes being the time limit set for the study).

When do babies' eyes stop crossing? ›

It's normal for a newborn's eyes to wander or cross occasionally during the first few months of life. But by the time a baby is 4–6 months old, the eyes usually straighten out. If one or both eyes continue to wander in, out, up, or down — even once in a while — it's probably due to strabismus.

When do babies start seeing and hearing? ›

Newborn babies can hear – your baby has been hearing noises from well before they were born. They can see, but only see close things clearly. In the first 3 months your baby will be attracted by faces, bright lights and colours, stripes, dots and patterns, but not understand what they're seeing.

Can babies see color at 1 year old? ›

At about 1 month, your little one can detect the brightness and intensity of colors, and over the next few months may start to see several basic colors, including red. Your baby's color vision is fully developed by about 4 months, when they'll be able to see lots of colors and even shades of colors.

How can I test my 1 year olds eyesight? ›

Measuring the response of the pupil (the black center part of the eye) by shining a penlight in the eye is one way to test an infant's vision. Ability to follow a target. The most common vision acuity test in infants is a test to check their ability to look at and follow an object or toy.

Why would a 1 year old need glasses? ›

Why might babies and toddlers wear glasses ? Babies and young children up to school-age can need to wear glasses if they have a high prescription for glasses such as myopia (short-sightedness), hyperopia (long-sightedness) or astigmatism.

What is normal vision for a child? ›

Kids up until age 4 normally have 20/40 vision, and by age 5, they will have 20/30 vision. After that, their vision should be 20/25 or better. 20/20 is what most people know as normal vision, and that's what they should ideally have by age 6. Often, the schools will want a child's vision screened before kindergarten.

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