One of the most common questions of parents, when I visit them at the first review of the newborn, is about vision. They are not sure if the baby sees or stops seeing and apparently the information they receive from outside, or that they have read somewhere, is that babies are born something like blind.
If not, I do not quite understand how it is possible for many parents to believe that they still do not see. After the typical doubts of when we can cut the nails, why the skin is peeling and how it goes weight, come the ones that generate more curiosity, and the queen of them I think is this question that I will now give reply: When do babies start watching?
The eyes of the fetus are developed in week 26
My answer is always the same: "You see". "Already? Do you see us well? "And then the nuance:" Come since they are born, but they do not look good. "This means that, to give a perfect answer, I would have to go a little further back, at the time of the nine months of pregnancy in which the eyes have just developed. This happens in the 26th week of pregnancy, when the eyes are ready to start seeing. If they see or not inside the uterus I don't know anymore, because everything must be very dark there and unless the woman goes to sunbathe I doubt that a minimum of light will arrive (and I still don't know it very clearly).
In Babies and more The GIF that shows us how a baby sees from birth to the year of lifeWhat do they see then, when they are born?
At birth, as I say, you see. What happens is that they don't see how we adults can see that we have a completely mature vision. They see relatively well everything that is at a distance between 20.3 and 30.5 cm. This is, curiously, the approximate distance between the baby's eyes when breastfed and the eyes of the mother who breastfeeds him. Come on, it seems that human babies are "programmed" to meet and recognize the mother when she eats, and look at her to know her well.
On the other hand, this can also be an evolutionary solution to get babies to claim closeness. If the baby is far from his caregivers, he doesn't see them. If you don't see them, you can complain to be caught. When they catch him, when he is in the arms of his mother or father, he sees their faces and feels that everything makes sense again (everything is no longer blurry). In this way, he is also completely safe and far from any of the dangers that loneliness makes him feel.
Beyond 30.5 cm it becomes cross-eyed
If you are close to the baby, it looks good, but if you start to move away, no. Then, not seeing well, try to solve it by moving your eyes and getting crossed, as if trying to focus things separately with each eye. Many parents get scared, but there is no reason because it is normal. As the child grows and the vision improves, they learn to focus at the same point with both eyes at the same time and stop putting asymmetric eyes.
This happens from the second or third month, so if you continue to do so later, if we continue to see that the eyes go independently, we must consult with the pediatrician in case he could have strabismus.
In Babies and more, how does a newborn see you? (and how far he recognizes you)And the colors look good?
This is another question that accompanies the first: do you see in color or black and white? Apparently, come in color, what happens is that not all colors look good. In some tests carried out with children it has been seen that when you put contrasting colors, such as white on one side and black on the other, they differentiate them well. If they turn yellow on one side and red on the other, too. But if you put colors of a similar range it seems that they do not attract attention and they could be seeing all those colors the same, or so similar that they hardly differentiate them.
Similarly, as the weeks and months go by, the range of colors and come better and better.
Photos | Thinkstock
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