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Infant - newborn development
SENSORY DEVELOPMENT Vision -- the newborn infant can see within a range of 8-12 inches, color vision develops between 4-6 months, by 2 months can track moving objects up to 180 degrees, and prefers faces.
LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT Crying is a vitally important means of communication. By the third day of life, mothers can distinguish their baby's cry from others. By the first month of life, most parents can tell if their baby's cry means hunger, pain, or anger. Crying also elicits a nursing mother's milk letdown. The inherent biological response in most humans to crying insures the infant's survival. The amount of crying in the first 3 months varies in a healthy infant between 1 to 3 hours a day. Infants who cry more than 3 hours a day are often described as having colic. Colic in infants is rarely due to a physiologic problem. It may also be associated with overanxious mothers. Excessive crying can be associated with child abuse. Regardless of the cause, it is a complex problem that deserves a medical evaluation. BEHAVIOR The behavior of the newborn is characterized by six states of consciousness: quiet sleep, active sleep, drowsy waking, quiet alert, fussing, and active crying. The ability to move smoothly from one state to another is one of the most reliable signs of neurologic maturity and integrity. Heart rate, breathing, muscle tone, and body movements vary with each state. Many physiologic functions are not stable in the first months after birth. This variability is normal and differs from infant to infant. Temperature control, skin color, stooling, yawning, gagging, hiccupping, and vomiting are easily affected by stress and stimulation.
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