If you’ve welcomed a little one into your life, one of the greatest moments you’ll cherish is looking into their eyes for the first time. Not every baby makes eye contact, but there’s good reason for that. Much like walking or talking, the visual system of an infant takes some time to develop—in fact, in the first weeks after birth they don’t see much detail and only see in black and white plus shades of gray. While it takes several months for your child’s vision to develop, there are some steps you can take to ensure they have proper vision.
Once your baby is born, your doctor will quickly examine her eyes to rule out any serious problems. While such problems are rare, it’s vital to detect any issues right away in order to treat and minimize their impact on your child’s visual development.
During your child’s first few months, she will start to focus on objects that are 8 to 10 inches away from her face, which is generally the distance at which you keep your face from hers. This is also the period when eye-hand coordination starts to occur, as your baby will start to be able to track moving objects with her eyes and try to reach for them.
With important vision milestones such as these, the development of your baby’s eyesight will be checked during well baby visits. While you’ll make frequent visits to your baby’s doctor, it’s recommended that you also visit an optometrist after she has reached an age between six and 12 months for a more thorough eye examination. Generally, your baby will be tested for excessive or unequal amounts of nearsightness, farsightness, or astigmatism; eye movement ability; and eye health problems. Just like at birth, if any issues are found early on, it will be easier to deliver corrective treatment to your child.
If you need to schedule an appointment for your baby, please give us a call today!
No comments:
Post a Comment