At what age can babies see?

At what age can babies see? That’s a question that’s been asked a lot. A logical thing if we consider that sight is the least developed sense – by far – of a newborn human being.

However, 90% of the information a baby receives comes from what they see, requiring a long learning process to process it and understand their surroundings.

The view of the baby when they are born is like a camera out of focus. In fact, it is estimated that they can only see objects – in the form of shadows or silhouettes – that are no more than 25 centimeters away, perceiving the background always totally blurred, but being able to perceive mom’s breast perfectly.

From the outset, you will see that your baby reacts to light stimuli, doing so negatively if they are excessive. Therefore, at least until the age of 3 months, we recommend that parents opt for soft lighting. However, their color palette is not yet developed, so they live in a world of black, white and grey for the first few days.

At that age, the first big turning point occurs: it is when babies start to become interested in a more distant environment at 30-60 centimeters away. Your baby’s ability to focus has already improved considerably, so they start to analyze the details of everything around them.

For example, your own hands. You’ll see that in this period they begin to study them as the best detective.

This is the second big moment in the development of a baby’s eyesight. The color palette has been completed and by now they will be able to recognize and differentiate them. From here on, they will be able, for example, to recognize and differentiate objects at a glance.

Also, at 16 weeks you will see that they can follow moving objects without too much trouble.

By 7 months, your baby’s eyesight will be almost fully developed. The range of colors they will be able to distinguish will have reached 100%, and depth perception will be the definitive link to complete one of the most important senses for any human being.

It will be at the age of 12 months when we can say that your child’s eyesight is identical in normal situations like an adult person.

They will have a whole world of colors and sensations before in front of their eyes!

Your baby’s eyesight will be in full development and maturation during their first 12 months of life. Therefore, you can help them to develop it in the most effective way possible by stimulating them, for this purpose, we propose some practical advice.

We recommend that you keep your baby as long as possible in rooms with natural light.

It will also help if your crib and stroller are relatively open spaces that do not cut off their range of vision and allow them to explore with their eyes.

In any case, this is a natural process of the baby’s development that parents have little to do with. The baby will discover the world at their own pace as their eyesight progresses day by day, and their pediatrician will follow up on your baby’s gradual check-ups.