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What your baby can see, hear, taste and feel

What your baby can see, hear, taste and feel

Newborn babies may aseem very helpless and vulnerable and, in many ways they are, but they can see, hear, taste, smell and feel. They can move their arms and legs (though they cannot control the movements) and they can suck! They communicate their feelings and needs (such as their need for comfort and feeds) by crying.

Seeing

Your baby can see quite well at birth, especially things that are close.

• She will be able to see your face and will soon learn to recognise you.
• She will be able to see objects that are further away, but they will be blurry. Her distance vision will devlop over the next few months.
• Babies can see the different colours, but as they do not understand colours they may like simple shapes, each in one colour.
• In the first few weeks, a baby’s eyes often cross, or wander in different directions some of the time.
• By the age of three months the eyes should be lined up so that they both look at the same object.
• If a young baby’s eyes are turned in or out most of the time, or if a baby over three months old has turned eyes, the baby needs to have his eyes checked.
• Some babies and young children have turned eyes some of the time (more often when they are tired or unwell). These babies should also have their eyes checked.
• Babies’ eyes may change colour and you may not know what colour their eyes will be for several months.

Hearing

• Your baby has been hearing since well before birth. He is familiar with your voice and the sounds of your household.
• You may notice that he tends to calm down if you make soft noises, and that he startles if there is a sudden loud noise.
• Babies seem to like high voices and animated faces (this might be why people often talk to babies in a higher voice).
• Your baby can hear voices, but he cannot understand any words yet. By talking to your baby from the time that he is born, you can help him start to understand that sounds make words and have meaning.
• Listen to your baby’s noises and sounds and copy them. When you copy your baby it is like saying ’I can hear you’ and this is the start of teaching your baby to talk.

Smell and taste

• Babies are born with senses of smell and taste. They are said to be able to recognise the smell and taste of their mother’s milk, and they may refuse to drink if the milk tastes different.
• Babies can tell different tastes such as salty, sweet, sour and bitter.
• They certainly react to unpleasant tastes such as some medicines.
• They do not need salt or sugar on their foods when they start eating solids and they learn to like to tastes they are given.

Feeling

• Babies are sensitive to touch from the time they are born and they can feel pain.
• Gentle, caring touch is very important so babies feel loved and cared for. Some parents enjoy learning how to give baby a massage.