Vision is the least developed sense at birth and the fastest to change. Here is what is happening, stage by stage.
Birth to 2 weeks. Acuity around 20/400. Your baby sees light, dark and movement, and can hold focus at roughly 20 to 30cm — enough to see your face while feeding, and little beyond. Eyes may drift or cross; at this stage that is usually normal. Best input: your face, and bold black and white shapes at close range.
3 to 6 weeks. Fixation becomes steadier. Babies start briefly following a slow-moving object, though tracking is jerky rather than smooth. This is the peak window for high-contrast patterns — simple, bold, few elements.
2 months. Colour vision begins, typically with red. Tracking smooths out. Babies start to prefer patterns with more structure — stripes, checkerboards, concentric circles — over plain shapes. Focal distance extends beyond arm's length.
3 months. A visible leap. Most babies now follow objects across the full midline, study their own hands, and recognise familiar faces from across a room. Acuity is improving quickly and depth perception is beginning. Complexity can increase — patterns within patterns hold attention where a single shape no longer does.
4 to 6 months. Depth perception and eye-hand coordination develop together. Colour vision approaches adult levels. Babies reach deliberately for what they see. High-contrast black and white becomes less compelling — this is the natural end of that phase.
By 12 months. Acuity is close to adult. The visual system will keep refining for years, but the foundational wiring is largely in place.
When to raise it with a doctor. Speak to your pediatrician if by around three months your baby is not making eye contact or following a slowly moving object, if the eyes consistently turn in or out after four months, if there is persistent watering, cloudiness in the pupil, or extreme light sensitivity, or if you notice a white reflection in the pupil in photographs. Early assessment matters — many vision conditions respond far better when caught in the first year.
Ranges here are typical, not rules. Babies vary widely, and a baby who reaches a stage a few weeks later than described is usually still entirely normal.