When can the baby see their surroundings properly and clearly?

When and at what age can babies see?

Even though the baby is born physically healthy, he does not yet have the perfect ability to see.

In fact, newborn babies have very close visibility and cannot focus on distant objects at all.

Quoted from Stanford Children's Health, in general, newborns are only able to see objects that are about 8-10 inches away.

Right at birth, babies usually recognize only black and white, with slight shades of gray.

As the day progresses, newborns will prefer to see round shapes that have light and dark borders. For example, your eyeballs are always catching his eye.

So, at what age or age the baby can see clearly, of course, not at birth.

The development of when the baby can see colors and surroundings clearly i.e. at 4 to 12 months of age.

Then the visual acuity will continue to develop until he is 3-5 years old.

The stage of development of the baby's sense of sight

For parents, it is important to recognize the stage of development of the baby's sense of sight.

Moreover, this condition is relatively fast in the first year so you can know when the baby can see clearly.

Hopefully this will help you to make sure your baby's vision is developing properly and to recognize when there are certain problems.

The following is the stage of development of the baby's vision:

When new born

While still in the womb, the baby's eyes are tightly closed so he can't see anything.

When a new baby is born, he will try to see the surrounding environment through vision that is still unclear or blurred.

If you pay attention, the pupil size of the baby's eye is still very small so that it limits the light that can enter the eye.

Therefore, babies see only black, white, and varying shades of gray because the nerve cells in the retina are not yet developed.

He can also see objects that are next to him by relying on side vision.

The focus of the baby's vision is only able to capture objects that are about 20-25 cm from his face.

So, when a baby can see well, of course, it doesn't happen at birth.

She can usually see your face clearly only when breastfeeding or holding your baby in her arm.

0 to 4 months of age

Within a few weeks after birth, the development of the baby's eye retina is also getting better.

Babies begin to be able to see objects in bright light and dark, objects with bright colors, and objects with patterns.

This is part of the development of your baby's vision, so you can immediately tell when your baby can see clearly.

When your baby is 4 weeks or 1 month old, your little one can usually focus on looking at you briefly.

It's just that, he may still be more interested in seeing brightly colored objects around him. At the development of a 2 month baby, chances are he will be able to recognize the faces of his father and mother.

New babies can move their eyes to follow the direction of motion of objects at around 2-3 months of age.

Around the development of a 3 month baby, his eyes continue to follow objects around him in an effort until the time comes when the baby can see clearly.

For example, when you play with a brightly colored toy in front of your little one, usually his eyes will move in the direction the toy is moving.

To train your baby's visual reflex, you can stimulate it with sound, either from the sound of your mouth or from the motion of a toy.

At this time, it is the answer to parents who are curious about when babies can see more clearly.

Age 5 to 8 months

At the development of a 5 month baby, the baby's vision will get better. This is so that later the time will come when the baby can see clearly.

At this age or age, babies begin to be able to see objects at a considerable distance from them, or what is known as deep perception (depth perception).

Now, babies' ability to see colors is much better, though not yet perfect. Then, there are more and more color variants that the baby can see.

The coordination between the eyes and hands will help the baby see something interesting. The baby's eye movements are now also more focused.

This can be seen in the development of a 7 month baby who is able to move his eyes, without the need to change the position of his body or head.

In fact, the visibility of the baby is also much wider than before.

He is also able to recognize your presence in other rooms and see various objects outside the house through the window.

Thanks to the ability of his eyesight, he began to be able to process the information around him.

9 to 12 months of age

From around 7 to finally 9 months of age, babies can already see the sharpness, depth and color of an object. This was revealed by Melanie Kazlas, MD, director of pediatric eye health at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston.

At the age of 9 months, the baby is likely to be able to recognize the distance well enough so that the baby will be able to see clearly later.

This can be seen when the baby tries to pull away and take a distance to stand up on his own from a sitting position after eating.

Furthermore, at the age of 10 months, he seems to be more adept at estimating the distance to take something between his thumb and index finger.

More than that, the development of the baby's vision is getting better because he can see all the objects around him clearly.

At the age of the baby, seeing this will make it easier for your little one to explore more areas and various objects around him that he finds interesting.

Expertise in estimating distance also allows your baby to throw items at certain places as well as quickly shift focus to other things.

Age 12 to 24 months

The answer or the question when the baby can see, will become clearer in the development of a 1 year old baby.

At this age, generally he can see everything very well, from objects at close range to fairly far away.

Your little one can also focus quickly when they see object movement. You will see him really enjoy playing peek-a-boo, as well as playing with his favorite toys.

At this time, your question about when the baby can see has been answered.

Entering the age of a toddler or 2 years, the eye and hand coordination, as well as the baby's deep perception when seeing an object have developed very well.

Your baby is currently very interested in exploring the world around him, by seeing and listening a lot.

In fact, there are various objects that your little one is familiar with. Like mentioning a body part or mentioning "cat" when he saw the animal passing in front of him.

Watch for signs of a problem with your baby's eye

Having eye-related problems can certainly hinder vision development and slow down when the baby can see.

Therefore, it is important to detect possible visual disturbances as early as possible in order to get the appropriate treatment.

Infants with visual impairments on 3 months of age can exhibit the following symptoms:

Cannot follow objects with their eyes.
Inability to be aware of hand movements (at 2 months of age).
Has difficulty moving one or both eyeballs in all directions.
The eyes often become squinted.

While on6 months of age, the baby may show the following symptoms:

One eye or both eyes cross most of the time.
The eyes become watery frequently.
Do not follow objects that are at close range (approximately 30 cm) or distant objects (approximately 2 meters) with both eyes

In addition, you also have to pay attention to several important things that are signs of abnormalities in the child's eyes:

The center of the eye which should be black (pupil) turns out to be white or there is a white shadow in the middle of the eyeball.

The eyelids that are not open or partially open can cover the baby's view.
The pupil that should be black (pupil) turns out to be white or has a white shadow.
Crossed eyes, can be caused by amblyopia (lazy eye) or abnormalities in the eye movement muscles (extraocular muscle).

When do you need to check your child's eye health?

In addition to knowing at what age or age the baby can see clearly and the development of their vision, parents also need to bring their child to do an examination.

This is useful to avoid the risk of serious vision problems. Parents need to start examining their child's eyes from the moment they are born and return after the baby is between 6 months and 1 year old.

Not only recognizing when the baby can see, if you see a baby showing strange symptoms in his eyes, immediately check with an eye doctor.

For this reason, these steps are important to ensure that your baby's vision is developing properly:

There are signs of eye or vision problems as mentioned above.
Immediately consult a doctor to find out what problems really happen to the baby's eyes and vision.
Talk to your doctor to find out what treatments you can take to train your baby's vision development.