Newborn Eye Movement: What's Normal?

Newborns make a lot of strange movements and exhibit unexpected behaviours during the first year of life. They can startle at nothing, suck at the air, cross their eyes, and breathe funny. New parents may be a little worried about what is and isn’t normal. A newborn's vision takes time to develop. In the first week of life, babies don’t see much detail. Their first view of the world is indistinct and only in shades of grey. It takes several months for a newborn’s eyesight to develop fully.

Newborns' eyes are sensitive to bright light

Infants start to develop the ability to see colours very quickly. One week after birth, they can see red, orange, yellow, and green, but it takes a little longer to see blue and violet. By three months, an infant's light detection threshold is only 10 times that of an adult, so you may want to dim the lights a bit while they're sleeping.

Newborns' eyes are extremely sensitive to glare, and their ocular media are permeable to ultraviolet light and blue light, as their pigmentation is not yet complete. For their comfort, strong light should be avoided.

Normal Eye Movement for a Newborn

A newborn's eyesight is between 20/200 and 20/400 at birth, and they see best from 8 to 12 inches away. This is the perfect distance for gazing at their parents' faces. Any further than that, and newborns see mostly blurry shapes because they're nearsighted.

During the first few 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 their eyes and reaching for them. By eight weeks, babies begin to focus their eyes more easily on the faces of their parents or other people near them.

Babies should begin to follow moving objects with their eyes and reach for things at around three months old. At this age, their eyes are becoming more sensitive to light.

How to Stimulate a Baby's Eyesight

• Decorate their room with bright, cheerful colours.
• Include artwork and furnishings with contrasting colours and shapes.
• Try hanging a brightly coloured mobile that features a variety of colours and shapes.
• Add new items to their room or frequently change the location of existing items, including their crib.
• Talk to your baby as you walk around the room.
• Keep a night light on to provide visual stimulation when your child is awake in their crib.
• Let your baby crawl. While infants should be placed on their backs to sleep to decrease the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), put them on their stomachs when they are awake and you can supervise them.
• Roll a ball back and forth to help the child track objects with their eyes.
• Give the child building blocks and balls of all shapes and sizes to boost fine motor skills and small muscle development.

Newborns can see best from 8-12 inches away

A newborn baby's eyesight is between 20/200 and 20/400, meaning they can only see objects clearly within 8 to 12 inches of their face. Beyond this range, newborns will see mostly blurry shapes as they are nearsighted. This is the perfect distance for a newborn baby to gaze into the eyes of their parents, a favourite activity!

Newborns are born with peripheral vision, meaning they can see objects around them at the sides of their visual field. However, they lack the ability to focus closely on a specific object, which develops over time. In the first month, a baby will be able to briefly focus on objects as far as three feet away. By the time a baby is 4 months old, their distance vision has progressed so much that they can stare out of a window or look at something on the wall with interest.

A newborn baby's eyes are sensitive to bright light, so they are more likely to open their eyes in low light. It is normal for a newborn's eyes to sometimes cross or drift outward, and this will decrease around 2 to 3 months when their eye muscles strengthen.

Newborns' eyes may wander or cross, which is normal

Newborns' eyes may wander or cross, and this is usually normal. Their eyes are still developing the ability to focus, and the muscles that move their eyes are not yet fully coordinated. These abilities develop rapidly in a baby's first few months.

Vision Development

Babies learn to see over a period of time, much like they learn to walk and talk. They are not born with all the visual abilities they need in life. The ability to focus their eyes, move them accurately, and use them together as a team must be learned. They also need to learn how to use the visual information their eyes send to their brain to understand the world around them and interact with it appropriately.

Newborns' Vision

At birth, a newborn's eyesight is between 20/200 and 20/400. Their eyes are sensitive to bright light, so they are more likely to open their eyes in low light. Their primary focus is on objects 8 to 12 inches from their face—the perfect distance for gazing at mom or dad. Any further than that, and newborns see mostly blurry shapes because they are nearsighted.

When to be Concerned

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

Strabismus

Strabismus is when the eyes don't line up or when one or both eyes wander. It is usually caused by a problem with the muscles that move the eyes and can run in families. Strabismus usually can be fixed when found and treated early. If left untreated, the brain will eventually ignore the visual images of the weaker eye, leading to a condition called amblyopia or "lazy eye," which can cause vision loss.

Newborns' eyes are not very sensitive to light in the first month

A newborn's vision takes time to develop. In the first week of life, babies don't see much detail. Their first view of the world is indistinct and only in shades of grey. It takes several months for a newborn's eyesight to develop fully.

Infants start to develop the ability to see colours very quickly. One week after birth, they can see red, orange, yellow and green, but it takes a little longer for them to be able to see blue and violet. Blue light has shorter wavelengths, and there are fewer colour receptors in the human eye for blue light.

To help stimulate a baby's eyesight during the first month, decorate their room with bright, cheerful colours, and include artwork and furnishings with contrasting colours and shapes. Try hanging a brightly coloured mobile that features a variety of colours and shapes.

A newborn's vision continues to develop over the next few months. By eight weeks, babies begin to focus their eyes more easily on the faces of a parent or other people near them. By three months, babies should be following moving objects with their eyes and reaching for things.

Newborns' eyes develop coordination skills over a few months

A newborn's vision takes time to develop. In the first week of life, babies don't see much detail. Their first view of the world is indistinct and only in shades of grey. It takes several months for a newborn's eyesight to develop fully.

Newborns make a lot of strange movements and exhibit unexpected behaviours during the first year of life. They can startle at nothing, suck at the air, cross their eyes, and breathe funny. These behaviours are often just a part of your baby adjusting to being in the outside world.

During the first two months of life, an infant's eyes are not well coordinated and may appear to wander or to be crossed. This is usually normal. Their eyes are sensitive to bright light, so they are 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.

By eight weeks, babies begin to more easily focus their eyes on faces. Baby vision makes several important advances during months two and three. Infants develop sharper visual acuity during this period, and their eyes begin to move better as a team. By this point, your baby should be following moving objects with their eyes and reaching for things they see.

At around five months, the eyes are capable of working together to form a three-dimensional view of the world and begin to see in depth. By six months, significant advances have taken place in the vision centres of the brain, allowing infants to see more distinctly and move their eyes more quickly and accurately while following moving objects.

Frequently asked questions