Understanding Potential Blindness Signs in Babies: Causes & Risks

According to MassGeneral Hospital for Children, blindness is uncommon in children. There are certain factors, however, that can make a baby more likely to have vision problems. If a baby is born blind, it is usually because there was a malformation during development, a hereditary condition, an injury at birth or a congenital infection that caused damage.

ROP

• Know that premature babies are more susceptible to blindness because of retinopathy of prematurity. The retina's blood vessels are not completely formed yet so scar tissue may develop leading to vision problems.

Time Frame

• There are no signs of retinopathy of prematurity until babies reach 32 weeks of gestational age. That's how long it takes the blood vessels to grow normally.

FPT

• A FPT or fixation preference test is used on children to determine their visual acuity or their ability to focus images with the part of their eye that handles details. If they are unable to do so, this will alert their pediatrician of possible blindness.

Recognition

• If your baby doesn't seem to focus on a particular object or person or his eyes move back and forth rapidly, he could be blind.

Spots

• If there is an unusual spot that occurs when you take your baby's picture with a flash camera, excluding "red-eye," she could have vision problems.

Motion

• If your baby is more than 1 month old but doesn't seem to notice distractions such as lights, overhead fans and mobiles, talk to his pediatrician.