Even if you consider yourself a veteran mom, the fear of making the wrong decisions can leave you breathless.
Should I carry my baby when he cries for it? Will she be too attached if I carry her too often?
Why does he stop wailing when he is held upright and starts wailing when I put him down on the cot?
Carrying my baby to see the world is good stimulation for her developing brain. But should I carry her facing in or facing out when I am using a carrier?
All these questions are basically linked to the growth and development of your baby, which will be the topic that we will discuss.
Along with the convenience of transportation, and the popularization of babywearing, it is very common for parents to bring along their babies wherever they go. I for one, had my 2 babies explored all of the shopping malls in Klang Valley even before they turned 1.
The fact is, there are stages towards baby’s development. Hence as parents, we need to help stimulate their mental and physical growth according to these stages, instead of hastily sprouting them.
Firstly, let us look at their Vision Development.
Although babies are able to see at birth, they are unable to process the information as their visual system are not fully developed. Everything in the first few months will appear blurry to them.
Baby Vision Development Milestones
| Months | Milestones | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Babies can only see objects about 8-15 inches in front of their face. | ||
| 1 Month | The distance improves to 15-30 inches, they can see light and shadow and their mother’s face while they are feeding. Anything beyond that will still be blurry. | ||
| 2 Months | Their eye focus becomes more obvious, and they can coordinate better to track an object. Their color vision begins to develop, but are unable to distinguish between similar colors. | ||
| 3 - 4 Months | Your baby’s vision starts to get sharper and will be able to see objects about 75cm away, with a visual acuity of 0.1. They are drawn to bright colors, especially red. | ||
| 5 - 6 Months | The frequency of their blinks increases, and are able to see objects in front of them clearly. They begin to follow moving objects with their eyes and are able to see further objects such as pedestrians or cars on the streets. | ||
| 7 - 8 Months | They have better depth and space perception towards objects. | ||
| 9 - 10 Months | Control of eye movements continues to improve, and they are able to distinguish size, shape and the speed of moving objects. | ||
| 11 - 12 Months | Their stereoscopic visions are better developed by now, with a visual acuity of 0.2. | ||
| 1 - 2 Years | They can differentiate objects and mirror actions. With continuous stimulation from their surroundings, their visual acuity is at 0.4 at the age of 1.5. They can now see small objects like bugs, mosquitoes and are able to focus on toys 3 meters away. | ||
| 2 - 3 Years | Their well developed space perception allows them to identify sizes, depths and distance. Their binocular visual development are at its peak, with a visual acuity of 0.5 - 0.6, which is almost of an adult’s but have a higher risk of visual loss. | ||
| 4 - 5 Years | Their visual acuity is about 1.0, with most of their anatomy and physiology formed and stabilised. | ||
| 6 - 7 Years | They now have the adult’s vision, while their stereoscopic visions continue to develop till they are about 9 years old. | ||
Therefore, please allow your baby to develop at their pace before they are able to fully process the images and information they receive through their eyes.
In Part 2, we will look at the baby Brain Development.