Have you ever looked at a newborn and wondered if the newborn babies sense the world as “an overflowing confusion” or if they actually don’t sense anything?
Here are few facts about Neonates and infants.

Neonates see things as though they are looking through a fixed-focus camera. They lack visual accommodation – so don’t keep moving the toy in front of them, it’s hard for them to focus!

By 2-3 months they can see almost all the colours of the visual spectrum but they prefer red and blue to other colours. So, if you are confused about the colour of the toys or clothes you should buy…it’s blue or red!

They are near sighted and they can see objects only upto 7 to 9 inches away so don’t wave at them from the other end of the room, they can’t see you.
However, by the age of 4 months, they seem able to focus about as well as adults can.

They developed hearing even before they were BORN. So if newborns turn to you, it’s not because they can see you but because they can hear you. They reflexively turn their heads towards unusual sounds. They are preprogrammed to survey their environment.

Three days old babies prefer to their mother’s voices to those of other women but they do not show similar preferences for the voices of their fathers.

By the time of birth, they have had 3 months of experience already. They were capable of sensing sounds and they were learning, even inside the uterus. This learning contributes to their neonatal preferences.

Neonates can discriminate distinct odours like onions and even rotten eggs, they turn away from unpleasant odours.
Give a newborn infant a rotten egg to smell and they will literally spit or stick out their tongues or literally wrinkle their noses at the odour. But they smile or show licking motions to chocolates, strawberries or vanilla.

Newborns can discriminate taste as well. Give them anything salty or bitter, they will refuse it. They can discriminate sweetness on the day following birth.

Newborns are sensitive to touch but relatively insensitive to pain though sensitivity increases dramatically with just a few days – no wonder how they adapt to all the squeezing of birth processes.

YES! Newborns are capable of perceiving the world reasonably well soon after birth!