Infant Vision Care

Sitting, crawling, reaching for toys, and talking are all signs of infant development. They are also signs of visual development. Visual development is crucial to a child’s development, since the visual system guides motor movements. Vision is the stimulus for crawling, reaching for toys, and walking.

Vision affects balance and language development (identification of objects, watching word formation with the lips and mouth). By 6 months of age, vision becomes your baby’s dominant sense.

This is an example of how your child sees her first 6 months:

Newborn

4 weeks

8 weeks

3 months

6 months

Infants are not born with good eyesight or good visual skills. Both develop over time as the nervous system matures. The ability to see clearly is dependent upon the optical components of the eyes, as well as the functioning of the retina (back of the eye) and the brain. Color vision and depth perception take a few months to develop. A newborn’s eyes do not coordinate well for the first few months. They may appear to drift in or out. If they do not look straight by 6 months old, consult a Developmental Optometrist for an evaluation.

Symptoms of vision problems in infants include:

• One eye that drifts inwards or outwards (after 3 months of age)
• A pupil that appears milky or white instead of black
• Inability to follow toys or moving objects with both eyes
• Lack of eye contact
• One eye looks significantly different than the other eye
• Eyes “jump” or move rapidly from side to side
• Sensitivity to light
• Epiphora (excessive tearing when not crying)
• Blepharospasm (excessive blinking)

(The last 3 are the classic triad of symptoms for congenital glaucoma.)

If the eyes do not work well together because one eye is misaligned (strabismus), or one eye has a significantly different power than the other eye, the brain may ignore or “shut off” the weaker eye. This suppression occurs to avoid double vision and/or to avoid seeing one clear and one blurry image simultaneously which causes visual confusion. The resulting condition is called amblyopia. If the underlying problem is not treated early, it can lead to a permanent loss of vision in the weaker eye which impairs depth perception, eye hand coordination, and contrast. Premature babies born before 35 weeks, have a 30 percent higher chance of developing strabismus and amblyopia.

Your baby should have his first eye exam at 6 months old. Our developmental infant eye exam includes an evaluation for:

• high, or unequal amounts of refractive errors such as nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism
• serious infantile eye diseases such as retinoblastoma, and congenital glaucoma
• strabismus or amblyopia
• age appropriate development of eye teaming, tracking, visual acuity, and depth perception

Infant eye exam

Infant eye exam

We can determine how your child is seeing without them reading an eye chart. We do an objective measurement of the power of your baby’s eyes which lets us know how well your child is seeing without having to ask them any questions.

Early infant vision exams can detect vision problems before they interfere with development. The American Optometric Association recommends all children have their first eye exam by the time they are 6 months old.

Dr. Brisco did a post doctorate Fellowship in Developmental Vision, and is a consultant to over 40 schools in Los Angeles.