12 week old limited eye contact

[ParentPerson]

Hi,
Just to preface this that I do suffer with health anxiety so often need input as to whether I’m overthinking and it’s my anxiety talking or a genuine concern, hence why I’m posting.

My 12 week old makes limited eye contact and smiles. When they are in my arms and looking up at me I’ll get eye contact, smiling and cooing but pretty much never when in their bouncing chair or on their play mat or on my lap looking at me. In fact, they’ll briefly look at me then look away or over my shoulder. They’ve recently had a long hospital stay and were looking/smiling a lot during this time when it was just us two in the quiet of the hospital room but hardly anything at home. They track people, objects, watch and smile at their sibling, grasp objects, focus on lights/mobiles and have good head control.

I do have an older child who makes lots of noise at home and I don’t often have time to spend looking/talking/smiling 1-1 with my baby so I am not sure whether it’s because there’s a lot of stimuli going on at home and that they haven’t had time to practice?

My oldest was chatting away and holding eye contact/smiling at this stage so I’m hyper aware of the difference.

Does anyone have any stories/encouragement/warnings please? And I know I should just be enjoying my baby, I try really hard and have CBT to work towards doing this; just sometimes I need some feedback.

Thank you :)

Direct eye contact is very over stimulating for young babies ans they often look away or even actively avoid it. DD1 would sometimes look everywhere except my face! She's 3.5 and totally NT.

Thank you @Hugasauras

@ParentPerson How’s your little one doing now? I’m having similar concerns about my bubba too x

Hi, my 10 week old is exactly the same! I only ever get eye contact when I'm feeding her... when she us in her Bouncer or lying on sofa next to me she is always looking off into the distance... she has just started tracking toys and happy otherwise, so I am not too worried! Hope this helps!

@poppet131 Hey, I’d completely forgotten about this thread! LO is doing so well, loads of eye contact, babbles, smiles, laughs, turns to you when you say her name…she’s more socially advanced than her sister at the same age (5m) so there was nothing to worry about; she just got started late.
Hope this alleviates some of your worries.

I know this is an old post but I was wondering if you had an update. My son doesn’t make a lot of eye contact and it’s really concerning me. Thanks!

I think it's normal at twelve weeks.

He’s 5 months :(

@Melodymama12 hey, my DD is 10m now and i don’t have any concerns about her social development. If you’re worried about your little one, your health visitor will be able to talk you through it :)

Thank you so much for responding? Do you remember when your daughter started making better eye contact?

@Melodymama12 five months is still really young and eye contact is a big thing really. I was concerned about all sorts to do with DD's social skills, and I would say it was only from 81/2-9 months she seemed to really come out of her shell and her little personalised popped :)

@Littlelighthouse good to hear, makes me feel so much better

@Melodymama12 I was wondering if you could update abt your little one please my baby is 12 weeks with limited eye contact and rarely smiles. Thanks