What color will my baby's eyes be? 

You cannot tell when your baby is a newborn. Most babies are born with grayish-blue eyes. Darker pigmented children with have a darker version of this. Your baby's true eye color may not be clear until around nine months of age.

Sometimes my baby's eyes are crossed. Is there a problem with his eyes?

You may notice that your baby appears cross-eyed sometimes. While this looks disturbing, it does not indicate a problem at this age. For more information see our article Crossed-eyes and your newborn

Can she see me?

Your baby can only see about six to eight inches (15 to 20 cm) away and can only really see contrast (such as black and white) well at this age. Color vision is not fully developed. Babies are near-sighted at birth. Do not worry if he does not seem to be looking at anything in particular for very long. This is normal. For more on visual development and milestones see our article Visual development and your newborn.

For ideas on how to stimulate vision development see Activities for sight development.

Eye goop, drainage and blocked tear ducts

Most newborns are given antibiotic eye ointment at birth to prevent serious eye infections. However, this does not work 100 percent of the time. If your baby has continued eye drainage after birth, you should call your doctor. Very often, the eye drainage is not a sign of infections, but is a sign of a blocked tear duct.

Many babies have blocked tear ducts that can result in buildup of mucus, which then results in a gooey discharge. The tear duct drains tears that our bodies make to lubricate our eyeballs. The tear duct in a newborn is extremely small and can get clogged easily.

If you notice just a little drainage from the eye, clean the eye with a wash cloth as needed. If a lot of mucus is present, sticking the eyelids together, sometime an antibiotic ointment is needed to prevent or treat infection. Your doctor will help you with this.

Massaging the tear duct may help to remove any mucous that is blocking the tear duct. To massage the tear duct:

1. Put the tip of your clean finger on the bridge of your babies nose.
2. Rub gently with a slight amount of pressure outward from the bridge of the nose toward the inside corner of the eye that has discharge. Repeat this three times as you try to 'milk' our the material that is blocking the tear duct.

Red spots on eyeball

As your baby is born, there is a lot of pressure applied to the head and body. This can sometimes cause small blood vessels in the whites of the eyes to burst, resulting in a small red spot on the whites of your baby's eyes. This will not hurt the baby and will usually disappear in one to two weeks. Occasionally, after the red spot disappears, a light purple or gray spot is left on the eye and will remain there. There is nothing that needs to be done for this. If the red spot is getting larger instead of disappearing, call your doctor.

Next: Visual development and your newborn

By Dr Sandy Chung - FAAP Extract from "Dr. Sandy's Top to Bottom Guide to Your Newborn"