An infant's brain is developing, absorbing, and processing their new surroundings and all of this is happening while their eyes are getting used to our world, and their vision is developing focus.
It can seem borderline creepy — what do they see up there? — but it can also be worrisome. If you're wondering why your baby stares are the ceiling instead of you, especially when you're right in front of them, experts say that it's completely normal.
Infant torticollis happens when the muscles that connect the breastbone and collarbone to the skull (sternocleidomastoid muscle) are shortened. Because your baby's neck muscle is shortened on one side of the neck, it pulls their head into a tilt or rotation, and often both.
It's normal for a newborn's eyes to wander or cross occasionally during the first few months of life. But by the time a baby is 4–6 months old, the eyes usually straighten out. If one or both eyes continue to wander in, out, up, or down — even once in a while — it's probably due to strabismus.
Tics – hard eye-blinking, eye rolling, throat clearing – may come and go, and may be accompanied by a verbal tic. Experts suspect tics come from an imbalance between the brain's frontal lobe – which helps control such behaviors – and the middle part of the brain where motor functions are stored.
They're trying to figure out how to control their eye movements and learn to focus on things. Also, it's not uncommon for a baby to roll their eyes when they're sleeping or when they're almost asleep, like when they're going to sleep or trying to wake up.
Key Pointers. Babies stare at moving objects, ceiling fans, attractive faces, and contrast colors out of curiosity and is part of their visual development. As they age, babies develop their vision and begin to focus on, track, and recognize objects.
Some early signs of autism in infants and young children may include avoidance of eye contact and delays in language development. Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a developmental condition that can affect how a person behaves, interacts, and communicates.
In retrospect, feeding difficulties are common in children subsequently diagnosed with autism and may persist for a long time (23). Hypotonia may start prenatally, and the abnormal postures can lead to a neck deformity called torticollis, that develops in some children who hold their head to one side (20, 24).
poor muscle tone in a baby's limbs, resulting in heavy or floppy arms and legs. stiffness in a baby's joints or muscles, or uncontrolled movement in a baby's arms or legs. difficulty coordinating body movements, including grasping and clapping. a delay in meeting milestones, such as rolling over, crawling, and walking.
Most kids who tilt their heads to see do so because their vision is better in one eye than the other. They instinctively know that there is a misalignment in their eyes. By tilting their head, they're trying to get their eyes to work together the way they should.
Crying, irritability, or twitching which does not improve with cuddling and comfort. A sleepy baby who cannot be awakened enough to nurse or nipple. Any signs of sickness (for example, cough, diarrhea, pale color). The baby's appetite or suck becomes poor or weak.
Research suggests that reduced or absent communication, including lack of response to their name, lack of gesturing, and language delays, are strong indicators of autism. For example: At 4 months of age , a baby should begin to make sounds, babble, or coo. At 6 months , babies often begin to respond to their name.
Sandifer syndrome (SS) is a type of movement disorder that constitutes paroxysmal spasms of head, neck, and back arching but spares the limbs. SS is often associated with gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) in children.
The behavioral symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often appear early in development. Many children show symptoms of autism by 12 months to 18 months of age or earlier.
Some children with autism smile to show they're happy but don't share their enjoyment. Others show little facial expression or have flat affect and rarely smile so you may not know when they're happy.
Autistic children can have particular sleep and settling problems, including: irregular sleeping and waking patterns – for example, lying awake until very late or waking very early in the morning. sleeping much less than expected for their age, or being awake for more than an hour during the night.
However, children with autism tend to be less observant of those around them. They often prefer to play alone, and may struggle to copy the words and actions of others.
In other words, when your wide-eyed munchkin is gazing intently at something, it's because her brain is processing new information and building a foundation for the world around her. On the flipside, sometimes your baby may stare off into space because he just wants to chill out from sensory overload.
Torticollis is a stiff neck that makes it hard or painful to turn your head. In older kids and adults, it can happen after sleeping in a funny position. Babies can be born with a stiff neck, but the condition is a little different and not painful.
Some of the autistic babies in the tapes never learned to roll over. Others did, but in a peculiar fashion, Dr. Teitelbaum said. Starting from lying on their sides, they rolled to their stomachs or backs by raising heads and pelvises.
During the first few months of life, newborns will frequently have dysconjugate eye movements, where the eyes appear to move independently. Eyes may transiently appear crossed or divergent. This phenomena is particularly noticeable when the infant is falling asleep or being woken from sleep.
Eye-rolling is a gesture in which a person briefly turns their eyes upward, often in an arcing motion from one side to the other. In the Anglosphere, it has been identified as a passive-aggressive response to an undesirable situation or person.