development milestone worries

[DeeBeee]

DS is 6 weeks old. He occasionally catches my eye and keeps it in focus briefly, usually after the morning feed. The rest of the time he looks somewhere above my head at the ceiling. If I put him in his bouncy chair he fixes his eyes on the border - it's white on black, and I cannot get his attention calling to him with my face by his, or a colourful toy. He super rarely looks at my face, it's as though he's avoiding it, always looking at the ceiling or over my shoulder. Is this normal? ?? Shouldn't he by now at least be looking at my face? It's my first child and I feel worried. He has pretty bad reflux and until he started gaviscon a week ago was constantly crying in pain, could that have slowed his development down?

apparently at this stage they haven't fully realised that you are a seperate thing to them, i.e., they think you are actually part of them so they're not having eye contact with you for longer than you would with, say, your own arm!! sounds weird but true apparently. Your face is part of his own body at this moment, just take it as you're really close and doing everything that you are supposed to, I think soon they will start focussing on you, I forget the scientific facts but probably after 8-10 weeks I seem to remember reading. oh, and black and white is the shade/shaping that they can see the most clearly at this stage too! :) do try not to worry.

he's too young, you've nothing to worry about at this stage.

Agree its really too early to worry. Babies are weird but I think you don't really realise until you have your own.

I don't think I felt ds was really Looking At Me until about 3 or maybe even 4 months.

Had exactly the same thing with mine and we panicked until she was about 4 months. Turns out it was the reflux, we went as far as an MRI scan to chech she was ok. It wasnt until we got referred to a specialist because of her development issues that the severity of her reflux got picked up. It wasn't until she was put in the proper medication (omeprazole/ Losec) that her eye contact improved.

Please don't worry as much as I did, and keep on to your doctor to get the reflux sorted.

The one thing I picked up on in your post, is that you say he fixes his eyes on the border, which is white on black. I remember reading somewhere that white, black and red are the first colours that babies are able to focus on, so maybe that has something to do with it?

He's only 6 weeks! Poor chap can barely focus more than a few inches.

DD was 3 or 4 months before we got eye contact and she took even longer to respond to sound - so much so that we worried she had a hearing impairment. Think she was 6 months before she looks at us if we called to her. Now she's absolutely fine.

ds wasn't that interested in looking at us for ages now he stares in to dp's eyes for a min or 2 every day when he gets home from work and stares in my eyes before he has a nap he's 16 weeks i wouldn't worry

Thank you all for setting my mind at ease. All the baby books say that by 6 weeks he should be smiling and focusing, even following my face with his eyes. I know this applies to the average baby but when it's your first it's so hard not to worry and obsess about what is normal.

Nikkim, thanks for sharing your experience, confirms my suspicion that this much crying and pain have to have had an impact on his development. Delaying the smiling at the very least, as the poor baby didn't have much to smile about. The gaviscon seems to be helping him, fingers crossed it continues to

Babies only see the shape of things until they are 2 months old (on average). He's too little to see you as in he cna't see your eyes, nose etc...only the shape of your face. I wouldn't worry.