Learning to see First of two parts

One of the most treasured moments for parents is when their newborn first opens his eyes and makes eye contact with them. But what exactly does your child see? An infant’s vision takes time to develop. As your baby grows, his eyes will take in huge amounts of information about the world around him. His developing eyesight will help him learn to grasp, sit, roll over, crawl, and walk.

Birth to four months

When they are born, babies see in black and white and shades of gray. Because newborns can only focus eight to twelve inches from their eyes, most of their vision is blurred. One of the few things that they can see clearly is the face of the person holding him.

Babies first start to learn to focus their eyes by looking at faces and then gradually moving out to bright objects of interest brought near them. At first, infants have to move their whole head to move their eyes. But by two to four months, they should start to move their eyes independently with much less head movement and start to develop visual skills such as eye coordination and tracking.

By the time a baby is four months old, they begin to reach for objects, showing the beginning of hand and eye coordination. At this time, they have also developed the ability to see in full color. They become quite skillful at this age and will reach for almost everything they see, so watch out!

Four to six months

As babies learn to push themselves up, roll over, sit, and scoot, eye-body coordination develops and they learn to control their own movements in space. They are skillful with their eye-hand coordination, able to examine object closely, and are able to direct a bottle into their mouth or grasp at objects freely. Their hands become their most important tool-they reach for almost everything and are able to recognize and remember things they see.

By the fourth or fifth month, babies’ brains have finished learning how to blend the pictures coming in from both their right and left eyes into a single image with  strong depth perception. A child’s sharpness of vision, have usually developed to 20/20 by the time he reaches six months. 

Six to eight months

Most babies start crawling during this time.  Their vision is much clearer now, almost like an adult’s, and can see longer distances and set visual goals, seeing something and moving to get it. Though a baby’s short-range sight is still better than his long-range sight, his vision is good enough to recognize people and objects across a room.

Sources: http://www.childrensvision.com;  http://www.babycentre.co.uk; www.davisvision.com

The Freeman and the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. is running weekly features on Early Childhood Care and Development to emphasize the importance of Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) and to increase public support for ECCD. For comments or suggestions, e-mail [email protected].

Eating for health

Everybody knows the importance of having a healthy diet, however, due to unlimited access to information, one will normally find it very difficult to sort through the right nutrition and food choices one has to take. From diet books to newspaper articles, everyone seems to have their own opinion on what one should be eating. This article is no exception. 

To help those who are seriously considering of taking the road to a healthier lifestyle, here are four simple ways from an article in ChoosMyPlate.gov entitled “Let’s eat for the health of it”. 

Build a “healthy plate”. One should know the type of food that contains the  nutrients that one needs.  One can try any of these tips:

• Make half your plate fruits and vegetables. Remember, you only need nature’s original fast foods. 

• Switch to skim or 1 percent milk. They have the same amount of calcium and other essentials nutrients as whole milk but less fat and calories, or try calcium fortified soy products as an alternative.

• Make at least half your grains whole. Most food packages bear an ingredient list that you can check on. Look and choose 100 percent whole grain cereals, breads, crackers, and rice including pasta.

• Vary your protein food choices. Beans are natural sources of fiber and protein. Or you may opt to choose seafood as the protein source on your plate.  Remember, always keep meat and poultry portions small and lean. Always keep in mind, all foods should be safe to eat.

Cut back on foods high on solid fats, added sugars, and salt. Many people are eating foods high in solid fats, added sugars, and salt (sodium).  Added sugars and fats are loaded with extra calories you don’t need, and too many sodium may increase blood pressure.

• Choose foods and drinks with little or no added sugar. Go natural.

• Look out for salt (sodium) in foods you buy, it all adds up (If cannot be avoided). Compare sodium in food packages, choose the foods with lower number of sodium.

• Eat fewer foods that are high in solid fats.  Major sources of saturated fats must belong to occasional choices, not everyday foods.  (examples of sources of saturated fats: cookies, ice cream, pizza,and sausages and hotdogs)

• Switch from solid fats to oils when preparing foods.

            Examples of solid fats and oils          

            Solid Fats        Oil      

            Beef, pork and chicken fat     Canola oil

            Butter, cream and milk fat      Corn oil

            Hydrogenated oil        Olive oil

            Partially Hydrogenated oil      Tub (soft) margarine

            Shortening       Vegetable oil

Eat the right amount of calories for you. Note that different people has different calorie requirement, know yours.  Staying within your limit will help you get to or maintain your healthy weight.

• Enjoy your food, but eat less. Ask yourself, is it worth the calories? Remember, stop eating when you are satisfied, not full.

• Cook more often at home, where you are in control of what’s in your food.  When eating out, choose lower calorie option.

Be physically active your way. Pick activities that you like and start by doing what you can, at least 10 minutes at a time. Every bit adds up, and the health benefits increase as you spend more time being active. 

Special note to parents:

What you eat and drink and your level of physical activity are important for your own health, and also for your children’s health.

 You are your children’s most important role model. Your children pay attention to what you do more than what you say.  If you want your children to develop healthy habits for life, show them.

The Freeman and the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) is running features on various cancer topics to emphasize the importance of early detection in preventing cancer and to increase public support for cancer initiatives. For comments and suggestions, e-mail [email protected].