Question about new born

[cambodia]

I've got a lovely 18 day ds. When should he start making eye contact and smiling? Sometimes I think he is looking at me and my eyes (but he's got very dark blue eyes and hard to see pupils) but often he's looking around at everything else. Is this normal at this point? I don't really know so advice welcome, as I have the stupid anxiety about development at this stage

They can make eye contact from birth generally but do seem to gaze around a lot, their eyes look out of focus and sometimes crossed. There's a whole range of normal. Your midwife/hv will be looking at your baby when visiting. Do ask if concerned but I'm sure your baby is fine.

The average age for smiling is between 4 and 6 weeks so it's still a bit early.

At this age they often like to look at the edges of things, as there is more contrast and they can't focus that well - DS when he was tiny used to keep looking over my shoulder, which was very disconcerting, but he was really looking at the edge of my head.

Really normal, I think most are smiling by around 6 weeks.

Way too much anxiety. Just enjoy him!!

That's a really helpful reply wannabeglam, cheers