When Do Babies Make Eye Contact?

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When you bring home your newborn, you might wonder if they are familiar with you, or can even recognize you. You may be anxiously thinking, “When will my baby look me in the eyes?” 

It’s true that newborns don’t make eye contact right from birth, and that’s completely normal. It takes a couple of weeks to establish your baby’s vision and social awareness.

Eye contact is one of the most anticipated baby milestones. Because making eye contact with you is the foundation for all of the shared moments to come!

So, let’s talk about when babies make eye contact, what this milestone means for baby’s development, and how you can encourage it. 

Understanding Baby Eye Development 

When your baby is born, their visual cortex (the part of the brain responsible for processing visual information) is not developed. That’s why newborns can’t make eye contact right from birth. 

Your newborn can only focus up to 8 to 12 inches, which is just the distance between you both when you’re feeding or holding them. Their eyes may often appear crossed, seem unfocused, or just wander around. 

Over the first few months, your baby’s brain learns to interpret the signals coming from their eyes, and forms many new neural connections. That’s how baby vision development progresses rapidly from almost nothing to nearly perfect by four months. (1)

Why Does Eye Contact Matter?

Babies making eye contact is such an underrated milestone. Visual joint attention is crucial for nearly every aspect of learning and development for little ones. (2)

Eye contact is your baby’s building block for connection, and socio-emotional development. It’s how they begin to bond, communicate, and understand that you are their safe space. 

When babies make eye contact, they’re learning to read your facial expressions. This face-to-face interaction helps little ones develop secure attachment with you. 

How Far Can My Baby See?  

Understanding baby vision development timeline offers you peace of mind knowing what to expect and when. Here’s how your baby’s eyesight progresses week by week, and what they can typically see:

Birth to 2 Weeks 

At birth, your newborn’s vision is remarkably limited and blurry. They can only focus clearly on objects about 8 to 12 inches away. It’s roughly the distance between their face and yours when you’re holding them to feed. 

Your newborn may also be pretty sensitive to bright light, as they have previously  been in a dark environment for months. They may momentarily glance towards your face, but often appear to “look past” you. 

2 to 4 Weeks 

Around the second to fourth week, you’ll notice your baby beginning to track faces briefly as you move slowly from side to side. They may lock eyes with you for a few seconds at a time, especially during quiet, alert periods. 

At this age, your baby loves looking at high-contrast patterns, especially black, white and red colors. That’s why we say that  the best toys for newborns are black and white cards or high-contrast toys.

1-2 Months 

This is the period you’ve been waiting for! Between one to two months, your baby’s focus remarkably improves. 

Most babies make their first sustained eye contact around six to eight weeks. (3) This typically coincides with social smiling, which is another heartwarming baby milestone. 

They’ll try to hold your gaze, smile upon seeing your face, and start to coo back when you talk to them.

Little ones at this age love seeing faces. Get face-to-face with them as often as you can. And when you’re busy, let them look at themselves in a baby floor mirror. 

2-3 Months 

By three months, consistent eye contact is usually well-established. (4) Your baby can now recognize your face from across the room. They can also follow objects in a full arc from one side to the other, and are able to see a full range of colors. 

For more about newborns, check out this blog post for all the newborn milestones week by week! 

4 to 6 Months

Between four and six months, your baby’s eye contact becomes strong and intentional. You’ll see they are now using eye contact deliberately to communicate their needs, whether they’re hungry, tired, or just want to play. 

When Should My Baby Look Me In The Eyes?

While visual milestones have a natural timeline, here’s how you can encourage your baby to make eye contact with you, and support their vision development in first few weeks:

Get Really Close

The best way to encourage early eye contact is positioning your baby at the optimal distance. Hold your baby about 8 to 12 inches from your face. It places you within your baby’s vision range. 

Feeding time, whether breastfeeding or bottle-feeding, provides perfect opportunities for face-to-face interaction. Diaper changes are another excellent time for eye contact practice, as your baby is usually alert and you’re positioned directly above them.

Get Face-to-Face

Your baby loves looking at your face, especially when you get animated and exaggerate your facial expressions. Raise your eyebrows, open your mouth wide, stick out your tongue. These movements capture your baby’s attention and encourage them to focus on your face.

When your baby looks at you, respond with a smile or a greeting. Talk to your baby in a sing-song voice with higher pitches, as babies are more likely to respond to this type of speech. Here’s how to play with your newborn when they are awake and alert! 

Use High-Contrast Toys

The best toys for babies to support visual focus are high-contrast black and white toys. Look for toys or cards with simple, bold geometric patterns or face-like designs. 

Hold a toy in front of your baby’s face at an arm’s length, and move it left to right to help them track moving objects. If you’re wondering when babies will start playing more with the toys you’ve purchased, we answer that question here! 

Why Doesn’t My Baby Look at Me?

If your baby doesn’t make eye contact by three months of age, lacks social smile, or isn’t tracking objects by four months, it’s worth getting a professional evaluation. 

All little ones are unique, and their development happens at different rates in the first year. Try not to compare your baby with another. (It’s easier said than done, I know!)

We have a free resource that lists down all the gross motor, fine motor and speech-language milestones to expect from birth to 3 years.

Download Our FREE Milestone Checklist!

Now that you know what milestones to look for, here’s how you can make sure your little one actually meets them. 

Our Playbooks cover hundreds of milestone-focused activities to support your baby’s development (using only what you have at home)!

Get Our Best-Selling Playbooks!

Sources: 

1. Farroni, T., Csibra, G., Simion, F., & Johnson, M. H. (2002). Eye contact detection in humans from birth. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 99(14), 9602–9605.
2. Piron, A., Meron, J., Rayson, H., & Elsabbagh, M. (2020). Do the eyes have it? A systematic review on the role of eye gaze in infant learning and development. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 589096.
3. Moll, H., Számadó, S., & Tomasello, M. (2021). Sharing experiences in infancy: From primary intersubjectivity to shared intentionality. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 680333.
4. Von Hofsten, C., & Rosander, K. (2008). Development of gaze control and eye contact during infancy. Early Human Development, 84(2), 79–96.
5. CARTA (Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny). (n.d.). Maternal–infant eye-to-eye gaze.