Infant Eye Exam

INFANT EYE DEVELOPMENT

Healthy eyes and good vision play a critical role in how infants and children learn to see.

An infant’s visual system is not fully developed when they are first born but develops gradually in the first two years of life. Within the first month your baby can see about 8 to 10 inches in front of them. By the second month, an infant’s visual system begins to develop very quickly and your baby will begin to recognize a parent’s face. At 3 months of age, your baby will begin to fix and follow moving objects. Between 5 to 8 months old your infant will begin to develop color vision, depth perception and early hand-eye coordination skills. As your child begins to walk and explore their environment from 9 months to 12 months of age, they will rely on their visual system to grasp object and throw objects with improved accuracy. By the second year of life, a child’s eye-hand coordination and depth perception should be more developed allowing them to recognize picture books and scribble with a crayon.

INFANT EYE EXAMS

According to the American Optometric Association, babies should have their first eye exam around six months of age. By this age, babies should be able to focus, see color and have depth perception. Our doctors will make sure their eyes are developing normally, checking for signs of nearsightednesss, farsightedness, astigmatism, lazy eye, crossed eyes or severe cases such as cancer. Early detection of eye conditions is critical to ensuring your child’s vision develops properly so they may grow and learn.

InfantSEE® is an American Optometric Association’s public health program designed to ensure that eye and vision care becomes an integral part of infant wellness care to improve a child’s quality of life. Under this program, First Sight Vision Care provides a comprehensive infant eye assessment between 6 and 12 months of age as a no-cost public service.

For more information about infant eye exams please visit www.infantsee.org.