Newborn children are completely incapable of life; without an adult, they simply cannot survive. Human babies, unlike most newborn animals, not only cannot crawl to their breasts or stand on their feet, but they also see and hear poorly. How many months does the baby begin to see well?
Year-long pregnancy
It is believed that the human cub is born the most unsuitable of all mammals: it can not crawl, walk, even hold its head. And the only type of communication available to him is crying.
Scientists suggest that this is the price we paid for upright posture: our ancestors' pregnancy lasted at least three months more. By the standards of our indirect progenitors, modern children are born deeply premature - this explains the imperfection of all systems.
A newborn baby does not see well. There are several reasons for this: on the one hand, the eyeball is not yet fully formed, and on the other, the visual centers are not yet formed in the brain. What time does the child begin to see clearly as an adult?
In the womb
The eye begins to form in the second week of embryonic development. By the fourth week, the future baby already has lenses and choroid.
In the 12th week of pregnancy, sclera appears. But the final formation of the eye is still very far away. The eyelids begin to function only at the 26th week, and light perception is formed by the 7th month. The baby will learn to distinguish colors and shapes after he is born.
By the time of birth, all eye structures are formed, but not developed. What time the child begins to see, largely depends on the degree of full-term and birth weight. It has already been proven that small children are more likely to have congenital and acquired vision problems.
Newborn Vision
Immediately after birth, a neonatologist checks the baby’s eyes for cataracts or other congenital abnormalities. Farsightedness is characteristic of newborns. With the normal development of the child, visual acuity will reach 100% by three years.
What time does the baby begin to see after birth? Almost immediately, but as if through a thick veil. Within a week, the veil is scattered, but low acuity allows the kids to see only contrasting objects at a distance of 30 centimeters.
In addition, at birth, children do not have color vision: they see everything in gray tones. This is due to the underdevelopment of rods, cones, retina and color receptors.
First month of life: learning to focus
In the first 30 days of his life, a child makes a huge leap. This is the time to set up all body systems, including the organs of vision.
By the end of the first month, the child begins to focus on the face of a person bending over him. Brain structures are rapidly developing and neural connections are forming. Thanks to this, vision is gradually improving. The sticks still do not function normally, so the baby is not yet as sensitive to light as an adult.
The field of vision of the child is much narrower than the field of view of the adult: he simply does not see the person or objects located on his side.
Two months - time to watch the toy
By the beginning of the second month, the baby begins to focus his eyes not only on the face of an adult bending over him, but also watches the toy. Smooth movements are difficult, the baby often loses sight of the rattle. This is due to the underdevelopment of the eye muscles and poor visual acuity. Over the next 3-4 weeks, the baby will improve this skill.
Color vision is actively developing, but the baby still prefers contrasting objects. Interestingly, the most important factor in the development of vision is the very act of vision. What time the children begin to see well depends on how often they watch. In other words, only that retina normally develops onto which objects of the surrounding world are constantly projected.
Three months: color and shape
By about 12 weeks of life, cones and rods begin to function normally. The child begins to distinguish colors and enjoys bright toys.
The first is the site responsible for the perception of red, the last - blue. However, three-month-old children are still not able to distinguish as many shades as adults: this ability is formed by about 7-8 years.
Visual acuity is rapidly increasing - at three months the child already sees objects located at a distance of 80-100 centimeters from him. The kid has already learned to follow a smoothly moving toy, without losing sight of it. However, his world is still two-dimensional.
Volume and distance
What time does the child begin to see volume and when does he learn to estimate distance? This occurs from 4 to 6-7 months. Very often, small children try to grab a toy drawn on a diaper, or grab the empty space in front of them with their pens. This is due to the immaturity of nerve cells and visual centers.
At this time, the idea of the depth of space is laid. By analyzing the discrepancy between the pictures obtained from both eyes, the brain learns to correctly evaluate the distance and volume of the world around it.
At 25-26 weeks, the retina is already sufficiently developed to distinguish between small objects, patterns and details. The world opens to the baby from a new perspective. Now he can look at the rattle for a long time, shake it, trying to make a sound, or bang objects against each other.
Interest in the world
By about 6-7 months, the baby is already able to roll over, sometimes crawl and sit, which means that he begins to more actively and faster explore the world around him. Now he does not need to get to a curious thing, pull it off a table or shelf. The grabbing skill is improving day by day.
For this age, an exaggerated attention to detail is characteristic - the child notices a new pattern on the diaper, can for a long time consider a towel, a blanket. The memory is already developed enough for the baby to recognize not only close people, but also toys. Those that he sees every day, no longer seem to him as interesting as new ones.
The kid reacts sharply to a change of scenery. In an unfamiliar place, some children get scared and cry, while others show interest.
Development after a year
By about 12 months, all eye structures are finally included in the work, but visual acuity and color perception will still increase.
This is primarily due to the fact that the anteroposterior axis of the eyeball in a child is significantly smaller than the adult's eye. The difference is about 6 millimeters. How many months a child begins to see clearly depends primarily on the growth rate of the eyeball.
By about three years of age, the baby's vision in severity and color is not inferior to that of an adult.
Prematurity and Vision
To date, medicine has made a breakthrough in the care of premature babies: children with a body weight of more than 500 grams have the opportunity to live and develop.
Unfortunately, vision problems are also associated with prematurity and low weight. What time do newborn babies who are born prematurely begin to see?
It all depends on the term of prematurity. All the forces of a small organism are aimed at the struggle for survival. The cardiovascular and hematopoietic systems, brain and lungs are rapidly developing, but the organs of vision often suffer. The most serious diseases of infants born out of time are partial atrophy of the optic nerve, retinopathy of premature infants, congenital myopia, glaucoma, developmental abnormalities leading to blindness.
All this requires the supervision of a well-trained, pediatric ophthalmologist who can recognize the pathology in time and begin treatment.
False strabismus
At the first glance at a newborn baby, you will notice that he mows to one degree or another. Often this causes unreasonable anxieties and unrest. Newly made parents think about what time the child begins to see how he sees and when the eyes will occupy the correct position.
Physiological (or false) strabismus in infants from birth to six months is explained by the immaturity of the eye muscles. As a rule, it goes away by 3-4 months.
To reassure parents, an ophthalmologist can conduct a series of tests that show whether the child really has oculomotor disorders. If strabismus is still diagnosed, the doctor will prescribe an individual course of therapy and a schedule of visits. In most cases, the problem can be solved by three years.
When to sound the alarm?
Many young parents do not always know what time children start to see and hear when they should roll over, grab toys, crawl or walk. The Internet is full of conflicting information that is only confusing.
To monitor the proper development of the newborn, it is advisable to show it to the pediatrician at least 1 time per month in the first six months of life. However, it is the parents who are the first to notice deviations in the development of vision. It is unscheduled to show the baby to the doctor if:
- a whitish veil is noticeable in the eyes of an infant older than 7 days;
- a child older than 4 weeks does not focus on the face of a person bending over him;
- a baby of any age does not respond to bright light, for example, when turning on the upper lighting in a dark room;
- an infant older than 8 weeks does not follow the rattle with his eyes;
- a 3-month-old baby does not try to grab a toy that is next to it.
All this can be caused by violations of both visual and brain structures. An experienced doctor will help to correctly assess the condition of the newborn and choose the appropriate treatment tactics.