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Baby · 6–18 months
Watery eyes, wandering eyes, and the milestones that matter in the first year and a half.
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When can babies see? The first year, month by month
Your newborn already sees you, just not the way you expect. Here is the quiet, ordinary unfolding of sight across the first year, and the small things worth a smile, or a second look.
Key takeaways
- A newborn's sharpest focus is about 20 to 30cm away, roughly the distance to your face when you feed them. They can see across a room from birth, but detail beyond that is blurred.
- By around three months the eyes should work together and follow a face or toy smoothly, without a constant turn.
- By four months babies usually reach for what they see, and colour and depth are coming together by about five months.
Warning signs
The white glow in a photo, and three other signs to know
One photo, one pale pupil, and a question that cannot wait until the next routine check.
Red, sticky & watery eyes
Blocked tear ducts: what's normal, what's not
Most clear on their own by the first birthday, helped along by one gentle massage.
Babies & first checks
When can babies see? The first year, month by month
The newborn who sees you best at feeding distance, and everything that follows in a single remarkable year.
Warning signs
Eye cancer in children: the signs and the numbers
Rare, and most children treated early survive it. The screening tool is your own camera roll.
Squint & lazy eye
Why do we have two eyes, and what happens when one turns?
Not an eye and a spare. Why a turned eye is really a question about a pair.
Squint & lazy eye
One of my baby's eyelids droops lower than the other
A lid muscle that did not finish developing, and why we watch it for vision, not for looks.
Babies & first checks
There's a hard lump at my child's eyebrow, what is it?
A firm painless lump at the outer eyebrow, and why it almost never means what parents fear.
Eye tests & check-ups
What the Buku Rekod Kesihatan actually checks for eyes
A growth chart, an immunisation record, and one page most parents never read. What it says about eyes, and what it leaves to you.
Warning signs
Big beautiful eyes can be a warning sign
The compliment every big-eyed baby gets, and the three signs that turn it into an appointment this week.
Warning signs
Cataract in children: not only a grandparent's problem
A cloudy lens in a baby is a different problem from a cloudy lens at seventy. The difference is time.
Eye tests & check-ups
An eye examination under anaesthesia: why, and what happens
Why some eye examinations happen while a child is asleep, and what the day actually looks like.
Warning signs
Wobbly eyes in a baby: what nystagmus is, and what it is not
Eyes that will not stay still. What the check is looking for, and why the head turn is a good sign.
Babies & first checks
A mole on my baby's eyelid: which ones need watching
Most eyelid moles are simply watched. Here is what makes a few worth a closer look.
Milestones & myths
Down syndrome and your child's eyes: a check-up schedule for the whole of childhood
The eye part of Down syndrome care runs the whole of childhood, not just the first check. Here is the schedule and why.
Warning signs
Two different-coloured eyes: when it is genetics and when it needs a same-day look
The genetic pattern that needs nothing, and the small list of signs alongside it that do.
Red, sticky & watery eyes
After the tear duct probing: what recovery at home looks like
Blood-tinged tears, the swimming rule that is shorter than you think, and the signs that mean call today.
Squint & lazy eye
My baby looks cross-eyed in photos: when it is the nose bridge, not a squint
Cross eyed in photos but fine in real life? What the nose bridge can do, what you can look at, and why to still book a check.
Babies & first checks
One of my baby's eyes looks smaller than the other
Small eye, low lid, flat head or a bigger eye next to it? Four causes, and when to be seen.
Squint & lazy eye
I had a squint as a child. Will my baby have one?
Squint can run in families. What the studies say, and what to watch for in your baby.
Babies & first checks
My baby sleeps with her eyes half open. Is that normal?
Sleeping with the eyes partly open: what you may see, what is not known, and when to have the eyes looked at.
Babies & first checks
What can my baby see at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months?
What a baby can see at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months, and when to ask for a check.
Squint & lazy eye
"It will fix itself" and "laser can fix a squint": what the family says about crossed eyes
Does a squint fix itself, can laser straighten eyes, and what glasses, patches and surgery each do.
Babies & first checks
Very fair skin and hair, light eyes and a wobble: albinism and how a child sees
What albinism does in the eye, the range of vision, what helps, and why sun care counts.
Screens & modern childhood
Screens before age two: what the guidance says, and what it means for a baby's eyes
What WHO and the AAP say about screens before two, and what is known about a baby's eyes.
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