In babies eye and vision problems are rare. This is because most babies will have healthy eyes to start with when they are born, due to mother’s  nutritional intake during pregnancy. Babies will develop the visual abilities that they need for their lifetime. Occasionally babies face problem with eye health and vision. Parents must look at signs of indications that baby might be facing. Any problem the baby might be facing should be bought attention to pediatrician and take care of baby’s eye health immediately. Some of the indications of baby’s eye health issues are:

• Excessive tearing that may be due to blocked tear ducts.
• Encrusted or red eyelids indicating infection.
• Babies eye turning constantly probably due to problem with eye muscle control.
• Sensitivity to light indicating elevated pressure in the eye.
• Sometimes appearance of white pupil that could be due to eye cancer.

If parents see any such symptoms in babies eye, immediately they must contact pediatrician and pediatrician will refer to specialist if needed.

Parents can help baby to develop good vision by  different activities . Depending on age of the baby some activities can be introduced in little ones life to improve the eye health and visual development. some examples of age-appropriate activities that can assist an infant’s visual development.

Birth to 4 months

• Let there be a nightlight or dim lamp in the baby’s room.
• Keep baby’s toys at baby’s reach 8-12 inches and baby will focus on toys
• Change crib’s position often and help baby to change the position.
• While walking around baby, keep talking to baby. As baby hears your voice she or he will try look at you.
• While breast feeding alternate right and left sides with each feeding.

5 to 8 months

• To pull and play hang soft toys, crib gym, or various objects across the crib for the baby to grab.
• Put baby on the floor and let her explore around.
• Give such toys that baby can hold in hands. Give light wooden or plastic blocks to hold.
• Play with baby with questers and rhymes. Moving hands and body will capture babies attention and they look at the person who is playing.

9 to 12 months

• Play hide and seek with baby. Do peek a boo and let baby try to see your face to develop visual memory.
• While talking to baby, show the objects and name the object. This improves babies recognition skills and the vision. IN addition, baby’s memory power will develop well. 
• Encourage baby to crawl and creep. Keep toy at a distance and have baby crawl to get the toy.

1 to 2 years

• Play with child with various colored toys. Rolling colorful ball back and forth will help baby to  track the objects and improves vision.
• To improve motor skills and eye muscle development provide building blocks with various shapes.
• Narrate stories and help baby to visualize the characters. Babies recognizes pets and small animals. Show the picture in the book and let baby tell you what is in image about. This not only improves learning skills, also improves the vision to read. 

Any problem with eye sight that you notice as a parent, take action immediately. Doctors might prescribe glasses to improve vision or might assist you to improve your baby’s vision and eye health.

Image credit: Image by Barrie Taylor from Pixabay (cc by 0, free for commercial use)

References: https://www.aoa.org/, mymyopia.com, https://www.brainbalancecenters.com/