6 Week Old's Vision

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Our eye specialist worked on fitting a horse with contact lenses and her office is filled with babies and toddlers with glasses or lazy-eye patches. So yes, it can be measured even if baby cannot respond. But checking with a colorful toy about 10" from his face and moving it slowly would be an easy test. Does he respond to your smiles when you are close? If you are worried, mention it to the pediatrician next visit. All babies develop at their own pace.

My son looked at me and everyone else who held him straight in the eyes the day he was born. We asked the drs to NOT put the antibiotic gel on his eyes, which can interfere w/their sight. I don't think what you're describing is normal, but you may want to wait for someone to weigh in who has had that as part of the baby's "care" after delivery.

A simple test is to take something eye-catching, shiny, etc and put it in front of his nose. When he locks on to it, move it from side to side and see if his eyes follow.

At about 7 weeks and again at 11 weeks, babies' eyesight makes drastic improvements. They're not supposed to see or focus really well at this age. It's a natural development that they only see shadows beyond 10-12 inches since the only people who would have reason to be so close to them would be their parents. At six weeks, he would still be learning how to focus his eyes and strengthen the muscles. Staring into your eyes isn't something that he would know you want him to do, you know? Looking around at whatever he's able to see, even if it's just shadows or shapes on your shirt or the shapes of your body, is a lot for him to take in. He could be concentrating on how things feel and smell and sound in addition to how things look.

If you have any objects that are sharply black and white (since he likely can't see more than shades of gray right now) I would hold those at about a foot away and see if he can follow those yet. He may have another week or two before he can do that, though. Then his vision will sharpen up and focus. And each week it will get better.

Still too early to focus on you. Don't worry. Just try to relax and enjoy these
early days. They go so quickly.

I had the same issue with my second child. My daughter used to stare at me, but my son didn't at all. I wasn't so much concerned about his vision as with perhaps he was autistic because he didn't seem to like looking at people's faces, which babies are supposed to love. My son is now 18 months old, and he has absolutely no problems, vision or social-wise. My guess is that perhaps because he is the second child, and the fact that his older sister was so "into" him, that perhaps he was overstimulated by so much human interaction, that he didn't want to look at my face so much!! Either way, don't be concerned just yet. I don't remember when my son started acting "normally", but give it a few months. He is probably perfectly fine.

If you are still concerned about his vision in a few months, go to www.infantsee.org It's an program run by the govt(?) that provides free vision exams at participating doctors for infants up to a year old. I remember making an appt for my son, then cancelling it because of a scheduling conflict, and also because I was no longer concerned about him.

Kate:

Most babies vision doesn't really "develop" until they are about 8 weeks old...I admit I freaked when my first one didn't really respond to my face unless I was UP RIGHT CLOSE....

You'll be coming up with the 8 week well baby check up - talk to your ped then!!

CONGRATS on the baby!!