Have you found yourself looking into an infant’s eyes and wondering if they can really see everything around them? Until recently the consensus among the medical community was that infants were unable to see very well till they were about 3 months old. However, during the past thirty years, extensive medical research that has been done to determine the visual development of babies has given us greater insight into how babies view the world around them from the time they are born.
From Birth to 2 Months – The World’s a Foggy Place
Latest research indicates that an infant’s eyes are physically capable at birth of focusing on objects at any distance. However, this does not mean that their vision is good yet. At birth, babies have little control of the ciliary muscles in their eyes, so their focus is generally inaccurate.
Ciliary muscles are special muscles in the eye that automatically control the shape of the lens of the eye by contracting or relaxing to allow a clear image to be projected onto the retina. To envision how ciliary muscles work, think how a camera lens adjusts to offer a clear image. Around the age of 2 months, as the baby gains control over ciliary muscles, they are better able to focus with clearer images being projected onto the retina. However, vision is still not clear for babies at 2 months.
The World’s a Clearer Place at 2 Months
At two months the baby is physically fit to see clearly but lacking the visual acuity to do so due to the brain/retinal interaction. Even though the baby’s optic system is ready to see clearly, the area of the brain responsible for vision is not mature. Also, the fovea (that part of the retina specializing in color and detail vision) is not mature enough to transmit clear images to the brain even if the brain were mature enough to receive them.
Basically, even when a young baby is physically able to focus, they are not physically capable of seeing a clear image due to the immaturity of the fovea and the area of the brain responsible for vision.
Getting a Perspective on a Baby’s Vision
To get an idea of what babies see and when, think of the standard eye chart. The current belief is that babies in the first month of life can see the big “E”, also referred to as a reading factor of 20/120. That factor improves to 20/60 by around 4 months of age and by 8 months the factor improves to 20/30 or close to normal 20/20 vision. During the next few years vision gradually improves but obviously the most dramatic changes take place during the baby’s initial 8 months of life.
It’s A Wonderful World at Any Age!
What the last 30 years of studies has shown is that while babies do see better than was traditionally thought; their vision is far from perfect. Newborn visual acuity is far worse than that of an adult, at least six times worse to be exact. This is not due to the baby’s inability to focus but rather due to physical immaturities in the nervous system.
However, even though they may not see clearly, your baby enjoys a rich visual environment. They easily see your eyes, your smile, their fingers and their toes. What can be more important at that age anyway?
