When Can Babies See in Color?

#Babies see color. Although babies’ color vision is not as sensitive as adults, newborns are capable of seeing colors. The only difference is that their brains may not perceive the colors as vividly as older children or adults do. However, babies can only see bold colors such as red if it’s close enough to their eyes.

It is believed that newborn babies only see in black and white, at least for the first one or two months. But while newborns have limited vision considering they spent nine months inside a womb, recent studies show that their vision is not as bad as we think. In fact, there are studies now showing that babies can see colour a few days after they are born.

Baby’s Visual Development

As you would imagine, a baby’s vision is a little blurry when they come into the world. After all, their eyes were closed for the better part of those nine months, and there was no light inside your belly. According to experts, a newborn's visual capacity is 5 percent of an adult's sight, and this is limited to about 30 cm distance.

Coincidentally, 30 cm is the distance between the mom's face and chest. This means your baby can see you as you hold them in your arms. At first, the baby can only focus on one facial feature at a time and eventually zero in on your entire face at once. Within 3 to 4 weeks, your baby can respond to your smile and see a little farther than 30 cm.

Between 8 and 10 weeks, your baby will learn to follow movement with their eyes. Not only can they tell the difference between their mother and someone else, but they clearly see what is around them. This is the point when a moving toy above their cot comes in handy because the child can appreciate movement and train their eyes to follow things.

It’s also at this age from month two that your baby’s eyes start to work together as a team, which means they can see things more clearly.

So, when exactly do babies start to see color?

The idea that babies start to see color when they are four to five months old has been floored by several studies. According to research, newborns can see large patches of red. In addition, your baby can distinguish between reds and greens by week eight or earlier, though this is impossible to test. One thing is for sure though, the bolder the color, the easier it is for the baby to see it.

That said, the ability to distinguish different colors develops quickly like the rest of their visual capabilities. By 4 months, the baby can identify colors the same way adults do in categories of red, yellow, green, blue, and purple.

Can Parents Help with Visual Development?

Absolutely. Human eyes can only learn what they see. Parents can encourage their child’s eye recognition abilities by making sure the baby sees different colors. Start by providing toys and books with bold colors like red and green. By month two, you can provide bright primary and rainbow shades like orange, blue, red, and yellow instead of muted hues like greys and browns. The more time your baby spends with these colors, the easier it will be for the eyes to recognize them.

While it’s not possible to know whether your baby can see color or not until they are big enough to communicate, the AOA recommends all babies have an optometric exam before preschool or earlier. An ophthalmologist can identify any problems with your child's vision, including color blindness or eye disease.