When does newborn starts making eye contact?

[vgahdmi123]

Hi everyone,

new parent 1st time, have one question:

My newborn is 2 weeks old, when I can expect him to make long term eye contact and smiling?
So far at 2 weeks I have feeling he is looking through me even I get close to his face.

I am anxious and monitoring development very close. All is going great so far except I cannot get his attention to look at me constantly while making eye contact.

Babies’ eyesight starts off very limited, you have to get really close for them to be able to see your face properly. It will get better and better.

They also have to learn what everything they are seeing represents… so a particular collection of shapes is a face. They aren’t born knowing what things look like. When my DS was little he didn’t recognise that he was going to be fed just by seeing the bottle - it wasn’t until he felt it that he realised what it was. Everything has to be learnt.

So don’t worry about the lack of focus/eye contact, it’s normal for this age. Smiling isn’t until 2-3 months.