Baby has gray eyes. When does eye color change in newborns?

The main thing that parents of a newborn are trying to make sure of is that the child is healthy. A little later, there is a desire to understand which of the relatives the baby looks more like, what color his eyes are. Friends and acquaintances vied with each other to convince mom and dad that the offspring is similar to one of the parents, using such concepts as the shape of the nose, shade and shape of the eyes. However, the appearance and color of the iris can change with age. We will understand why this happens.

Why do newborns' eye color change?

Most often, children with fair skin are born blue-eyed, and it is this shade that can eventually transform into brown, green, or remain blue. A small percentage of newborns look at the world with brown eyes and remain with this color of the iris for life. What is the reason that in blue-eyed children with age, the celestial hue can change dramatically?

The color of the iris is due to the concentration of melanin in the human body - a substance that gives the hair, skin and eyes the desired shade. Melanin is necessary - its particles absorb ultraviolet rays and, thereby, protect a person from them. harmful effects. If the cells of this substance are distributed in the deep layers of the iris, its shade will be light (blue or gray). If the pigment has filled its upper layers, the eyes look darker. Green eyes imply a random distribution of melanin in different layers of the iris.

A child who has just been born does not yet have significant reserves of melanin in the body. Over time, the amount of pigment increases, so the color of the baby's eyes may change. Studies show that in brown-eyed children, melanin is produced more intensively, and by the age of three months their iris acquires the desired shade.

It should be noted that the most subject to change are Blue eyes. Color transformation always occurs from light to dark. If the baby was born with a brown iris, most likely it will remain so. There is another category of babies whose bright iris is full of brown or greenish dots. In these babies, most likely, the eyes will change their shade to a darker one.

Factors affecting the shade of the iris

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The most obvious factor influencing the shade of the eyes is the heredity of a newborn baby. Scientists have calculated that the probability that the baby will be blue-eyed is high only if both mom and dad have bright eyes. Interestingly, in parents with the same brown color of the iris, only in 75% of cases a child can be born with exactly the same shade of it.

Relatives of the older generation have a huge influence on the shade of a person’s hair and eyes. It happens that the baby inherited the eyes from his grandmother, or even from his great-grandmother. The nationality of the parents also affects the color of the eyes. However, no one will undertake to predict with a high probability the shade of the child's iris.

The dependence of the eye color of a newborn child on parents:

When will the eye acquire its primary color?

Many mothers wonder, after how many months or years will the color of the child's eyes acquire a permanent shade? Most often, the pigment fully comes into its own during the first year of a baby's life. However, there are cases when the sky-blue look of the crumbs turned green or brown after the baby had time to celebrate its fourth birthday. Moreover, sometimes the color of the baby's iris changes several times throughout the entire developmental stage.

Especially carefully it is worth watching the baby in the period from 6 to 9 months. At this age, the body produces melanin especially intensively. It is by nine months that in most cases the color of the iris changes.

Eye color and visual acuity

Many believe that the color of the baby's eyes affects his visual acuity. Is it so? There is no reason to believe that the color of the iris can somehow affect visual acuity. However, scientists have found that a newborn sees much weaker than an adult who does not complain about his vision. At first, the baby can only respond to light, then visual acuity is gradually improving. It is believed that after three months of life, an infant sees approximately 50% of what the organs of vision of a healthy person should distinguish.

Future character

Some believe that the shade of the eyes affects the character of a person. There is no exact data on this, however, there are popular observations:

• Owners of brown eyes are reckless, amorous, have a quick temper. These people are diligent and hardworking, quickly get carried away, but also quickly cool down. To please a brown-eyed person, you do not need to be pragmatic, but rather try to look at the world from his point of view and be prepared for any turn of events.
• Blue-eyed have steel endurance and know how to subdue. They also fall in love, but are not inclined to forgiveness. Such people know how to count money and quickly learn how to earn it.
• People with gray eyes have a determined and purposeful character. They are loyal, generous and at the same time, romantic. Gray-eyed people value friendship and will always support a comrade in difficult times.
• For green-eyed people above all - love, while they possess strong character and amazing intuition. Green-eyed are vulnerable, they combine such qualities as stubbornness and changeability.

What else can affect the color of the iris?

Eye color can change not only in infants, but also in adults. If the iris is light, it can respond to many factors:

1. During illness, headache, grey eyes may darken, the color saturation changes, and the hue ranges from marsh to steel gray.
2. Also light color iris depends on lighting and weather. On a sunny day, it may appear blue, and on a rainy day it may appear gray-green.
3. During a calm, relaxed state, the gray iris seems to lose color intensity and looks almost transparent.

These factors also make it difficult to assess and accurately determine eye color in a newborn.

If the child's parents now and then argue about what kind of eyes the baby actually has, it's worth waiting a few months, after which the baby's body will accumulate the right amount of melanin. Then the color of his iris will become more pronounced.

Curious facts

Songs are composed about the color of the eyes; poets and artists are inspired by them. Scientists have calculated the number of inhabitants of the planet who have one or another shade of the iris. There are others Interesting Facts on this topic:

1. Most of the world's population has brown eyes. Green color is inherent in the smallest percentage of people.
2. According to scientists, blue eyes are the result of a gene mutation that occurred approximately 6-10 thousand years ago.
3. The Scandinavian countries grabbed the palm in terms of population with light color eye: 80% of their inhabitants have a blue, gray or green eye.
4. Red hair is most often combined with a green iris.
5. Blue-eyed inhabitants are often found in the Caucasus.
6. Man with dark color The iris first of all reacts to the color of the object, and with light - to its outlines.
7. Heterochromia (eyes of different colors) - may be due to heredity, or may be the result of a serious illness. A child with such an anomaly should be regularly shown to an ophthalmologist.

Each baby develops according to individual characteristics, and it is quite difficult to find out what eye color he will have. If we sum up all the factors that affect the color of the iris, we can draw preliminary conclusions. However, every mother knows that more attention should be paid to the health of the baby, his proper development and timely examinations than to get hung up on possible features appearance. The main thing is that the child is healthy, and everything else is only secondary.

There is an opinion that the eyes of a newborn are necessarily blue, but this is not entirely true - it can be absolutely anything. But the content of pigments that determine the shade of the iris changes with age, so the appearance of a newborn will say very little about how he will look when he grows up a little. About when the color of the eyes of a newborn baby changes and how this happens, we will tell further.

The color of a person's eyes is determined by a coloring pigment - melanin. It is located in the iris - a small area of ​​the choroid of the brain, which is adjacent to the front surface.

It has round shape and surrounds the pupil. The main function of the pigment is to protect the retina from excessive solar radiation. Eye color depends on the location and amount of melanin.

In addition to melanin, lipofuscin may be present in the eyes - it gives a yellowish tint. The complete absence of melanin occurs in albinos, while the eyes have a red or pink tint.

Features of the distribution of melanin is a hereditary trait, but the amount of melanin can change with age.

Change with age in a child

During prenatal development melanin is produced in a small amount - this is due to the fact that the need for it will appear only after birth. Therefore, at birth, they often have blond hair, eyes, and skin tone.

Depending on the distribution of melanin, the eyes of newborns may be pale blue, light gray, greenish or amber. Some babies are born with a pronounced gray or brown iris.

The distribution of melanin remains unchanged, and its production increases with age. Because of this, there is a gradual darkening of the eyes to their final color. How much it will change depends on the individual characteristics of the child, the color can remain almost the same (most often this happens with gray eyes) or darken sharply from light gray to brown.

When should I change

The most significant changes in appearance occur before 3 years. At this time, the color of the eyes, hair, skin tone may become darker or lighter than it was. In the process, the shade of the iris can change several times, so it's still too early to talk about the exact color of the child's eyes.

Until what age does this happen?

Most often, the final eye color is formed by 3 years. During this time, several color changes can occur, sometimes quite strong. If the color continues to change after three years, then the baby is a happy owner of chameleon eyes, and this feature of appearance will adorn him.

But if parents are worried about this, or the baby shows any symptoms of impaired vision, then it should be shown to an ophthalmologist. If the eye color was determined earlier, there is nothing to worry about.

Will it change or stay the same

Most often, the eyes become darker as the child grows older. But this may not happen, and then the color of the iris will remain the same or almost the same as at birth.

This happens quite often. As a rule, in cases where the baby was already born with dark eyes - brown or black, which simply cannot darken even more. The opposite situation is that the child has inherited a small amount of melanin from the parents, and his eyes will only darken slightly, remaining gray or blue.

How to determine the final eye color

Eye color is an inherited trait, so it must be determined not only by the shade of the baby's iris, but also by the color of the eyes of parents and more distant relatives. Based on the statistics, the following regularities were derived:

• If the baby was born with brown eyes, then their color does not change;
• The child of brown-eyed parents in most cases will be brown-eyed, green or blue eyes are much less common;
• Parents have gray eyes - the child may have gray, brown or blue;
• Blue eyes in parents - children will have the same;
• Green eyes in parents - the child will be green-eyed, less often - brown or blue eyes;
• The combination of brown / gray in parents is any option in a child;
• Parents have brown / green - brown or green, less often blue;
• The combination of brown / blue - brown, blue or gray, but never green;
• The combination of gray / green - any eye color in a child;
• Gray / blue - gray or blue in the baby;
• Green / blue - any of these two options, but not brown or gray.

In fact, the inheritance of eye color is somewhat more complicated. If parents have doubts about where this color came from, you can consult a medical geneticist. This is an expensive, but very accurate procedure.

When does heterochromia occur?

Heterochromia is different coloring one person's eye. In this case, both eyes can have a different color (one brown, the other blue - the most common option, complete heterochromia), or one sector of the iris is colored in a color that differs from the rest of the circle (sectoral heterochromia), or the inner and outer edges of the iris differ in color ( central heterochromia).

The central or sectoral manifestation of the condition may or may not be symmetrical, appearing in one or both eyes. Heterochromia is not considered a pathology.

The reason is a hereditary violation of the distribution of melanin. It may not be visible in a newborn, but becomes noticeable after the final establishment of eye color. She does not pose any danger to the baby.

In some cases, a change in the color of the iris may be a symptom inflammatory processes(iritis, iridocyclitis, vascular lesions), but then other signs of pathology appear along with it.

What affects eye color

First of all, heredity affects eye color. Since brown eyes are the most resistant to solar radiation, they have become the most common eye color on Earth. The green and gray irises cope with their function a little worse (there is little melanin in green, and it is located too deep in gray), these eye colors are approximately the same.

Blue eyes do not protect well from the sun, so they are often found among representatives of the peoples of Northern Europe. Most rare color- blue, it is associated with a small amount of melanin, located deep, and at the same time with a low density of iris fibers. It is advisable for owners of such eyes to wear sunglasses.

Diseases that affect eye color

Except normal factors, the color of the iris can also be affected by pathological ones. The most famous among them is albinism. This is hereditary disease, in which the production of melanin is impaired - it stops partially or completely. With partial albinism, the eyes may be blue or green color, but usually rather weakly expressed. With complete albinism, the color of the eyes becomes red - this is the translucent vessels.

In glaucoma, the color of the eyes becomes lighter due to increased intraocular pressure, and some drugs from it, on the contrary, cause darkening of the eyes. The bright blue color of the eyes of a newly born baby may be a sign of congenital glaucoma.

Inflammatory processes in the iris can lead to a decrease in the amount of pigment or its complete disappearance in the affected sector.

How does eye color affect vision?

Eye color does not affect vision at all - the iris is not involved in optical system eyes. But the amount of melanin affects the patient's ability to tolerate exposure to bright light. sunlight without harm to the retina. At blue-eyed people eye irritation, photophobia and fatigue after intense visual stress are more often noted.

Caucasian children, as a rule, are born with cloudy blue, blue or grayish eyes, rarely with dark ones. This feature is normal and should not cause concern, including about the baby's vision. The blue color of the iris does not always remain for life. There are certain periods when the color of the eyes in newborns changes. The rest depends on a number of factors, including heredity.

The working theory of genetics is the transmission of eye color according to Mendel's law, which refers to strong (dominant) and weak (recessive) traits. The dark pigment of the iris is considered dominant and will appear in offspring in almost 100% of cases, especially if grandparents also had dark eyes. In light-eyed parents, if their ancestors were light-eyed, the child is also likely to be a carrier of the recessive gene.

Approximately 1% of children have heterochromia, that is, eyes of different colors, for example, one is gray, the other is brown. This is a variant of the norm, a “play of nature”, but it will not be superfluous to have a periodic examination by an ophthalmologist in order to exclude the possibility of pathology, in particular, genetic.

What causes eye color

Sometimes, even if the child was born light-eyed, after six months, a year or three years, he can become brown-eyed. Why do eyes change color? The fact is that the accumulation of melanin pigment (responsible for " color type of a person, including behind the iris) occurs gradually, as the functionality of melanocyte cells grows. The density of the fibers of the iris is also important. Much depends on the heredity and individual characteristics of the baby. Accordingly, heredity is also responsible for the final amount of melanin.

If the iris turns brown, this is a sign that a lot of melanin is being produced. If it remains green, gray, blue, then there is little pigment. Genes are responsible not only for eye color, but also for how it changes with age. In about 15% of white people, the shade of the iris changes during puberty or adulthood.

Melanin protects the body from exposure ultraviolet rays. In the process of its formation, the amino acid tyrosine and the fat-like substance cholesterol, which is present in animal products, are involved. Therefore, such food stimulates the production of melanin. Increasing the level of pigment "artificially" can only affect the color of the skin (it darkens), but not the eyes.

You can notice whether the color of the eyes in newborns changes, even within a day. Usually in light-eyed babies under the age of six months, the color of the iris is pale blue during wakefulness. Immediately after sleep, during crying or when the baby is hungry, the iris is darker, sometimes cloudy.

Some changes in the "dark" side may be noticeable already in the first month of a baby's life. If dark specks appear in the blue iris, it will most likely darken over time. Changes to the "bright" side never happen. The color of the iris is determined only by three or four, sometimes by five years.

Eye color and vision

Sometimes parents are worried about the color of the eyes in newborns, they wonder if the kids are able to fully see. Doctors test this by observing the pupil's reaction to light. The eyes of newborns are the same in structure as those of adults, but their vision has not yet acquired the fullness of functions. About insufficient formation visual system, in particular, the oculomotor muscles, says the physiological strabismus in many babies.

The visual acuity of the newborn is low: he distinguishes only light and shadows, but not objects or images. In addition, the baby still has farsightedness (he does not distinguish close objects well) and a narrow field of vision (he perceives only what is directly in front of him). But already in the second week, it is noticeable how the child stops looking at something for a few seconds, and at two months he already focuses his attention well and is able to follow moving objects. At the age of six months, the baby begins to distinguish simple figures, a year - understands what kind of drawing is in front of him, and consciously examines it.

By about a year, a child's visual acuity is 50% of the "adult" norm. Despite the fact that at this age the color of the eyes also becomes clearer, experts are sure that the shade of the iris and visual function are not connected in any way. But there are situations when the color of the eyes of infants changes.

Eye tint and diseases

As with adults, the condition of the child sometimes affects the shade of the iris. The cause may be physiological jaundice, which is quite common in newborns. The organs of a newly born baby are not yet capable of in full perform their tasks, this also applies to the functions of the liver. The skin and eye sclera (whites) become yellowish. Eye color is also difficult to determine.

The way oxygen enters the body of a newborn baby has changed - now he breathes with lungs, and he no longer needs fetal hemoglobin. Red blood cells (erythrocytes) are destroyed as unnecessary, which causes yellowing of the skin and sclera. Physiological jaundice goes away on its own after a few days, when the last destroyed cells are removed from the body. If this condition is prolonged, doctors will check the child for various functional disorders and liver diseases, up to hepatitis. Problems like these can affect a baby's ability to see.

Thus, when eye color changes in newborn babies, it is usually associated with normal processes growth, formation of the body. Predicting what the eyes of the baby will be is quite difficult, since modern science does not yet have comprehensive information on this subject. Even the most experienced doctor or a geneticist will not tell you what shade of the iris the child will “get” - not only because a number of factors affect this, but also because there are exceptions to any rule.

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Every mother looks forward to the birth of a baby. Relatives wonder: a boy or a girl, who does he look like, what kind of face, hair, ears does he have ... Naturally, all mothers sooner or later ask themselves questions: “What color are the eyes of newborns?” and “When does a child’s eye color change?”

Usually, babies have the same light color of the iris - dull gray or dull blue. Some time after birth, gray and blue eyes can turn into brown or green. This metamorphosis often becomes a matter of concern and raises a number of questions among young mothers, although the baby is absolutely healthy.

Long before birth, starting from the 11th week of pregnancy, the iris of the fetal eye is formed. It is during this period that the color of the eyes of the newborn is finally determined. With full confidence it can be argued that a brown-eyed baby will never become light-eyed.

Some mothers observe a change in the iris of their newborn baby even during the day. When a child wants to eat, he has one color of the iris. In the evening before going to bed - a completely different, more cloudy shade. When awake, the iris may be clear blue. Such changes raise the question in young mothers: “So at what age do children change their eyes?”

What determines the color of the eyes of the unborn child

The color of the iris of the eye depends on the amount of melanin pigment in the child's body. While the baby is in the womb, melanin is almost not produced, since this pigment is formed in the light. The color of the iris depends on the saturation of pigmentation. The more melanin, the darker the eyes. And vice versa, the smaller it is, the brighter the iris. Thus, the amount of melanin determines the color of the eyes in a child.

The color of the eyes of a newborn depends on the state of his health. Babies in their first days of birth have jaundice due to the fact that the liver does not quite cope with its function. Because of this, the whites of the eyes acquire a yellowish tint, which makes it difficult to determine the color of the iris. As a rule, jaundice passes in, and the color of the iris is then determined without difficulty.

The influence of heredity on eye color

Exist genetic predisposition to the inheritance of the color of the iris. The amount of melanin produced depends on hereditary factors. Therefore, the final color depends on the genetic information that the baby inherited from both parents.

On the Internet, you can find graphic data that well demonstrate the influence of hereditary factors. Possible color the eye of newborns is given in the table. You need to understand that these data are very relative, but they can be taken into account. With a certain degree of probability, it can be argued that:

• Brown-eyed parents usually have brown-eyed babies.
• Parents with a light iris tend to have children with the same light eye color.
• Parents with different color eyes, children can become owners of an intermediate shade - green or gray.

But this hypothesis is not entirely viable, since brown-eyed children can also be born in a Slavic family of blue-eyed parents. This is due to the mixed marriages characteristic of our country, which have long been in Russia. For example, at the time Tatar-Mongol yoke Russian princes often married the daughters of the Polovtsian khans.

Russia is a multinational country. Probably, every resident can be proud of the rich history of their ancestors. Multinational genes may later appear in the baby. A child can inherit a lot from great-grandparents on both sides.

When permanent eye color is formed

At what age do the eyes acquire permanent color? How many months does this process take? The final formation of the color of the iris of the eyes is completed by the age of two. In medicine, cases have been recorded when a permanent color was established only by 5–6 years. Parents should not worry about this, as this is the norm.

A change in the iris later is possible due to:

• stress
• prolonged illness;
• change of residence;
• eating habits;
• child's lifestyle.

Moreover, in medicine, cases are described when the iris of an adult can also change due to illness or severe stress. This is due to increased production of melanin pigment in various physiological and psychological conditions.

In the world, only 10% of babies are born with a very dark iris. This eye color in newborn children is typical for the inhabitants of Africa and Asia, that is, for peoples with dark or swarthy skin.

The most common eye color in the world is brown. This is due to the laws of genetics. By inheritance from parents, the baby receives a dominant gene with greater production of melanin pigment. If one of the parents has brown eyes, his gene will suppress the gene for light shades.

Blue eyes are considered quite rare. The rarest color - green - is found only in 2% of the inhabitants of our planet. You will not meet people with this eye color in South America and in Africa.

Sometimes babies are born with different eye colors. This phenomenon is called heterochromia. This feature is fixed in less than 1% of newborns. Heterochromia can be sectoral. This form is characterized by the fact that the iris is painted in different colors sectors. Also, sectoral heterochromia can occur after a severe long-term illness or be hereditary.

In medicine, cases are described when children were born with. In ancient times, such children were called the fiends of hell, not realizing that given color due to the complete absence of melanin in the body. Doctors call this phenomenon albinism. Red eyes become due to the fact that blood vessels are visible through them.

What will be the color of the baby's eyes, whether it will change, and when the color in the eyes of newborns changes, not a single doctor can say. Agree, it's not that important. The most important thing is that the child is born healthy and strong. And in the future I saw a world consisting only of bright colors and smiles!

The eye is one of the most important organs feelings. Through the visual function, a person perceives the world, explores objects and objects. Some diseases and congenital pathologies, which negatively affect people's ability to see, can be diagnosed in the first few days after birth. That is why it is important to know how vision should be formed in a newborn child, to be able to distinguish between the norm and pathology in order to contact a specialist in time and avoid complications.

How a baby sees

As you know, the sense organs in infants function somewhat differently than in adults. It is associated with complex lengthy processes adaptation to the environment through which small man in the course of its development and growth. It is especially important to diagnose the existing pathology in the first few weeks of life: this will greatly facilitate the further treatment process.

Features of the visual apparatus of newborns

Unlike adults, children of the first days of life see the world in a completely different way. This is determined by some features of the development and structure of the oculomotor muscles, the eyeball and the lens in a child:

• spherical eyeball;
• thin and delicate cornea, rich in blood vessels;
• the weight of the eyeball is not more than four to five grams;
• small refractive power of the cornea;
• incompletely formed tear ducts;
• lack of tear fluid in the canals for the first few weeks of life;
• a small amount of melanin pigment in the iris;
• narrow pupil (no more than two millimeters in diameter);
• large curvature of the lens, which leads to distortion of vision and the formation of an "inverted" picture;
• the presence of ten layers of the retina (in an adult there are six of them).

Due to the structural features of the children's visual system, it is very vulnerable to external influences factors environment. That is why in the first days of life, babies quite often suffer from various inflammatory and infectious diseases eyes (conjunctivitis, keratitis), which may seriously affect the quality of vision in the future.

Video: how newborn children see the world around them

Vision of babies in the first days of life

Immediately after birth, the visual function of the newborn is significantly limited. He can only see thirty degrees to the right and left, ten degrees up and down. Objects that are more than one meter away from the eyes will not fall into its field of view.

In the first days of life, a newborn sees all objects as blurry spots.

Visual acuity in an infant in the first days of life is much lower than in an adult. This is due to the large refractive power of the lens, which makes all children physiologically farsighted. Yellow spot on the retina (the area of ​​greatest visual acuity) is formed by the time of birth by less than sixty percent.

Changes in the child's vision in the first month of life

Ten days after birth, the baby already becomes capable of fixing the gaze on a moving object for a few seconds. Usually, doctors recommend starting at this time the first workouts with cards. Monthly babies perceive black and white patterns and drawings with large pictures better, since the retinal cells that perceive colors are not yet fully formed.

Vision of an infant of the second or third month of life

By the second month of life, the infant independently fixes his gaze on the object for a long time, his gaze becomes more meaningful. The baby already reacts brighter to the change of faces and environment. When traveling in the arms of an adult, a child who already knows how to hold his head actively looks around, trying to find an object that is slipping out of sight.

Further changes in vision in a child up to a year

After three months of life, the color-perceiving apparatus of the retina begins to actively develop. The child likes bright and colorful toys more than black and white. And also the baby begins to be interested in the shapes of objects: he runs his finger over them, draws patterns in the air. By six months, the baby is trying to independently explore the world, actively examines the objects of the environment, fixes his gaze on them and asks his parents to give him certain toys.

Stages of development of the visual apparatus in a premature baby

The retina, rods and cones, which perceive light and color information, are formed at the fortieth week of intrauterine development. Babies born before thirty-five weeks often have serious problems with the visual apparatus, which is fraught with a lag in psychomotor development.

Table: timing of the formation of visual functions in premature babies

Vision problems in newborns

Pathological conditions associated with dysfunction visual apparatus are increasingly common in children during the first months and even days of life. Many doctors attribute this to the general dynamics of the deterioration in the health status of the population over the past twenty years, but another part of the experts single out entire groups of factors in connection with which this or that pathology appears.

Possible causes of vision problems:

• genetic predisposition;
• hereditary connective tissue diseases;
• exposure to radiation, chemical, chemical-biological and physical pollution;
• intrauterine infection of the fetus;
• syndrome of growth retardation and development of the fetus;
• mother's use of alcohol, nicotine, illicit drugs during pregnancy medicines with teratogenic effect;
• accession bacterial infections in the first year of life;
• primary and secondary immune deficiencies.

If the baby's relatives had any genetic disease from visual organs, the likelihood of developing such complications in a child increases one and a half times.

Strabismus

Strabismus is an altered position of the eyeball, which occurs due to the weakness of the oculomotor muscles that perform the function of fixation. Strabismus is not only a cosmetic, but also a functional defect: with this pathology, an abnormal binocular vision is formed in an infant. In the future, this can serve as a serious obstacle to further psycho-emotional and motor development, so the disease is recommended to be eliminated at the earliest possible date.

Strabismus can be either congenital or acquired in the first days of life.

With strabismus, the baby cannot perceive the world in volume: one eye sees the correct position of objects, while the other is directed in the completely opposite direction. This can lead to serious violations of object-spatial thinking. Congenital strabismus is the result of hydrocephalus, increased intracranial pressure, prematurity, or connective tissue disease.

Acquired pathology occurs after suffering inflammatory diseases muscular and nervous tissue. The oculomotor muscles can no longer maintain the desired position of the apple, which leads to a change in its position in the eye socket. Treatment of pathology can be both conservative (massages, gymnastics), and operational.

congenital myopia

More than thirty years ago, myopia, or myopia, was considered a disease mainly of older children (from five to seventeen years old). Currently, there are many scientific treatises and studies that prove the existence of congenital myopia.

Myopic parents have a 40% chance of having a baby with congenital myopia

With congenital myopia, the baby is born with a changed shape of the eyeball: it is longer than normal. This leads to the fact that the rays of natural and artificial light entering the eye do not reach the retina, where the rods and cones that perceive visual information are located. Such children begin to fix their gaze on objects much later, do not recognize their parents, and are often frightened of their own limbs.

Thanks to the funds modern ophthalmology myopia in infants is diagnosed and treated immediately after birth. Properly selected therapy will facilitate the process of formation and formation of the visual apparatus, so that the child will be able to fully learn and develop.

Infant farsightedness

With farsightedness, children see very well into the distance, but practically do not orient themselves in objects that are located at a distance from them. outstretched hand. All babies are initially born farsighted, but this phenomenon is not pathological character: by six months the eyeball acquires correct form, increases in size, and the focus is normalized and set on the retina.

Congenital farsightedness is otherwise called hypermetropia, which is associated with an increase in the ability of the baby's eyes to focus on a distant object.

In cases with abnormal farsightedness, this does not happen. An underdeveloped eyeball cannot refract the rays of light at the required interval, due to which the adaptive ability of the organ of vision suffers greatly. Parents should be concerned about possible farsightedness in an infant if:

• does not examine his hands, which indicates a violation of the normal reaction for children to their own limbs;
• does not pay attention to toys lying nearby or hanging in the immediate vicinity;
• does not respond to the close faces of the parents;
• fixes his gaze on objects located at a distance of more than sixty to seventy centimeters from his eyes.

Blindness

Blindness is the most severe visual impairment of a congenital or acquired nature, as a result of which a person loses the ability to see the world around him. It can be either one-sided or two-sided. The cause of the formation of congenital blindness in children can be both pathologies optic nerve, anomalies in the development of the eyeball, retina and its cells, as well as some atrophic infectious and inflammatory processes transferred in the womb.

In some cases, congenital blindness can be noticed not from the first days of life.

The main signs by which you can suspect the presence of blindness in a baby include:

• clouding of the cornea;
• lack of pupillary response to light;
• violation of the basic blinking reflexes when touching the lower eyelid;
• lack of squinting when presenting a stimulus;
• chaotic and erratic movements of the eyeballs.

In each individual case, it is necessary to consider the cause that led to the occurrence of blindness. Sometimes a baby needs urgent operation, after which it becomes possible to fully restore the lost function of vision in a short time.

Nystagmus or shifty eyes

Many parents notice that the child's eyes are not always in the same position: from time to time you can observe involuntary movements of the eyeballs that occur without the action of any external factors. This can lead to certain difficulties in further learning: such babies fix their gaze worse and cannot focus on objects for a long time.

Nystagmus is quite common in people with albinism, which is associated with underdevelopment of the oculomotor muscles that fix the eyeball.

Physiological nystagmus is observed in infants during the first ten days of life. If after this period the phenomenon has not passed, it is worth visiting a doctor. Such children are assigned special gymnastics to strengthen the muscular frame and restore the normal position of the eyeball.

congenital glaucoma

Glaucoma is an increase in intraocular pressure, which leads to the formation of degenerative and dystrophic processes in the tissues of the eyeball, which can cause a significant decrease in vision. Currently, the number of children born with congenital glaucoma is steadily increasing. Scientists speculate that this may be due to large quantity harmful factors acting on a woman during pregnancy.

Congenital glaucoma is diagnosed in the first weeks of life

The pathogenesis of glaucoma is due to violations of the formation in the prenatal period of the angle of the anterior chamber and the excretory system of the eye. The fluid does not flow out, causing the pressure inside the eye to increase.

Clinical manifestations of pathology in an infant are:

• swelling and clouding of the cornea;
• violations of fixation of the gaze;
• abnormal pupillary reactions;
• the appearance of lacrimation in the light;
• increased pressure inside the eyeball.

Congenital glaucoma is treated with surgical techniques. The duration of recovery after this operation is no more than three months. After that, the baby's vision returns to within acceptable limits.

Upper eyelid droop

Omission upper eyelid that interferes with normal vision is called ptosis. This pathology is quite common in premature babies of the first year of life. Ptosis is divided into congenital, which was formed during the period of intrauterine development of the fetal organism, and acquired, which arose as a result of ocular infectious and toxic diseases of an inflammatory nature, neurological pathologies, paresis or paralysis.

Upper eyelid prolapse occurs in children of all ages.

The upper eyelid droops, obstructing vision and making it difficult for tear fluid to drain. It is especially important to diagnose a decrease in visual acuity in the eye, which covers more than half of the lowered eyelid: it develops much worse. Symptoms that are detected in the presence of ptosis in newborns:

• change in the size of the palpebral fissure;
• flaccid, rigid eyelid;
• blinking disorders;
• accumulation in the corner of the affected eye a large number protein-fat deposits;
• violation of concentration on the object when viewing it with a sore eye;
• lack of response to color or light stimuli.

The degree of ptosis is determined by an ophthalmologist. To correct a slight defect, you can apply gluing the upper eyelid to the forehead with an adhesive plaster, special massages and exercises. Treatment of severe and moderate degrees is carried out using surgical intervention: doctors reduce the volume of the eyelid by cutting it and tensioning the intraocular muscles.

How to check the eyesight of a baby at home

To determine how clearly your baby sees the world around you, you can do some simple research at home. Keep in mind that in the first few months of life, the vision of an infant differs significantly from that of a newborn, and home research is not one hundred percent reliable. In order to receive full information about the condition of the baby's eyes, you need to contact a pediatric ophthalmologist.

Baby's favorite toy is perfect for fixing the eye

To check your baby's vision, you will need:

• a large card with a large object depicted on it, for example, a ball or a square;
• a light source that will be located so that the subject does not cast shadows;
• baby's favorite toy or rattle.

Take in right hand a card with the object depicted on it and place it in front of the baby at a distance of forty to sixty centimeters so that the child has time to focus his eyes. When you notice that his attention is completely focused on the card, try slowly moving it to different sides: left and right, up and down. If the baby follows the movement of the picture, this is a variant of the norm. If you lose concentration, try to study a few more times, changing the pictures to other shapes and objects. If, in this case, the child cannot track the movement of the object, this is the first bell that it is necessary to visit an ophthalmologist and pediatrician.

Another study involves using a favorite toy. Place it opposite the baby, one by one covering his eyes with your hands. At that moment, when one eye is covered, move the rattle out of sight, observing the reaction of the baby. If he starts crying because the toy has disappeared from his field of vision, then this may indicate visual impairment of any eye. To clarify the diagnosis, be sure to consult a doctor.

Infant vision training

In the first days and months of their lives, babies actively explore the world and try to fix their eyes on the faces of their parents, toys, various figures and drawings. The more all kinds of motor and visual information a child receives, the more intensively development takes place. hemispheres the brain, spatio-temporal thinking and perception of the surrounding reality are activated.

The presence of parents at the first attempts of the child to fix the gaze is especially important.

Best for psycho-emotional state a growing person is influenced by the faces of the closest people - parents. If a child regularly sees mom and dad in front of him, he will begin to fix his eyes on his own, smile and walk much faster when they appear.

Pictures for the development of visual skills in the first months of life

From the moment of birth and up to six months, it is especially important to develop visual skills at the baby. At this time, the process of growth and development of the eyeballs, ascending and descending pathways, which transfer information from the eye to the cerebral cortex, where it is processed and the formation of response emotional and motor reactions takes place. Many child psychologists note this stage as especially important period physiological and neuropsychic development, with proper stimulation of which many visual functions improve.

To work with a baby, you will need:

• changing table or crib with hard mattress;
• a light source in the form of a window or lamp, which will be behind the baby's head;
• cards with black and white figures;
• color pictures.

Activities with a newborn

Purchase cards with contrasting black and white large images various items. You can fix some of them over the crib. The exercise consists in a gradual slow change of pictures. After a few weeks of training, black and white photographs or drawings can be added to the visuals.

Large contrasting objects are well fixed by the eye

If a special children's mobile hangs over the child's bed, it is recommended to replace colored toys or pendants with black and white large details. The backlight should not be flashing or too bright. You can buy the right mobile in a children's store, after consulting with the seller. Toys are easy enough to make yourself.

Mobile - a universal toy for the development of vision and motor skills

To train the oculomotor muscles, take a card with a black and white image in your hand and bring it up to a distance of no more than thirty centimeters to the baby's eyes. Move the picture left and right without changing the main distance from the child's eyes. When the baby begins to fix his gaze and follow the object of interest, make slow rotational movements.

Lessons with a baby from one to three months

In the period of up to three months, the child already knows how to fix his gaze well on large images, thanks to which it becomes possible for him to study the edges of the object and its shape. It is especially good at this time to show the baby pictures of various animals, geometric objects and buildings.

Pictures with clear contours stimulate the development of spatial thinking

To train your vision, hold the picture at a distance of no more than forty centimeters from the baby's face. When the child focuses on the edges of the object, slowly move it up and stop at a distance of sixty centimeters from the baby. To enhance the effect of classes, hang black and white images on the walls of the nursery and other surfaces of the apartment. When the baby is in the hands of adults, he will be able to watch them during the entire playing period.

Lessons with a child older than three months

At this stage of development, children like more complex drawings, they pay attention to bright colours and paint, more broken lines. The child remembers what he saw better, he has preferences. This is due to the active formation of cones and rods in the retina of the eye: the baby begins to perceive colors and shades better, the transition from dark to lighter tones.

To complete the exercise, take two bright cards and place them in front of the baby. Gradually move first one of them, and then both at once, waiting for the child to fix his eyes. For the second exercise, take a clean white sheet and carefully cover part of the color picture. After a few minutes, remove it and evaluate the reaction of the child.

Clinical signs various pathologies the eyes of the baby have much in common symptomatic picture. In some cases congenital diseases remain undiagnosed for years. Remember that monthly preventive medical examinations and visits to the pediatrician will help to identify the disease on early stage: This will greatly facilitate its treatment. A follow-up examination by an ophthalmologist should be carried out at least once every six months, which will allow you to track the dynamics of vision indicators, as well as identify infectious and inflammatory processes occurring in the body involving the eyes.