Eye Contact

Hi!
This may sound like a weird question...but one of our boys doesn't make very much eye contact with us, if he does it's very sporatic, and it's usually while we aren't looking at him. When we notice and make eye contact back, he diverts his eyes...is this normal??
Not to compare, but our other son makes much more eye contact! (ok I guess I am comparing! ahah)
He's way ahead of his other milestones...any thoughts??

TIA!
reb

 

At their age (especially considering their adjusted age), I think it is very normal. I know I had the same worry about one of my boys (also 35 weekers) around the same actual age as your boys - and I can't remember when it happened, but suddenly he made eye contact all of the time. I'm thinking the good eye contact started about 1-2 weeks before they started socially smiling which was 1 day before they turned 8 weeks old.

 

It's normal. They can't really focus until they are a few months old--well many babies can't.

 

Mine were exactly the same way, and I had wondered the SAME thing. DD made good contact, DS did not, for much longer, and I'd say he was at LEAST a month and a half old before doing so.

 

I worried about this too with Max because Lily seemed to look right into our eyes from day one and hold eye contact. It took Max awhile, I think he was close to 3 months until he was consistent with holding eye contact with us.

I know it is so hard not to compare, but we definately notice with ours that Lily always seems to be ahead of Max on most every milestone. We keep telling ourselves that they are two separate babies who each do things in their own time. Plus because Max had open heart surgery at 8 weeks old we think he had some more hurdles to overcome, so it is taking him longer to do things like rolling over and crawling. Due to that we really can't compare the two babies.

 

Yes, it is way to early for eye contact issues. Usually it starts happening about the 8 week mark, but can take longer due to prematurity. It was probably closer to 12 weeks for us.

 

Totally normal, especially for their adjusted age. My DD seemed to actively avoid eye contact in the early weeks, but before long she'd seek it out. One theory I've heard is that eye contact is just too stimulating, even overwhelming, that early.

 

Thanks everyone! I'm feeling much better about this, knowing that this is normal, and even others have experienced this!
We actually noticed today, he held our gaze for a brief time during a feeding!
You guys are soooo much better than our pedi...isn't that awful??

thanks again!
reb

 

Just an update...

Ryan started making contact yesterday morning...and LOTS of it! YAY!