Newborn have blurred vision and can see little beyond distance of about 18 inches.the baby can see everything he needs for now, most notably who holds him and the breast or bottle that provides his nourishment. the baby's eyes are sensitive to bright colors, such as red and yellow, and can already detect contrast between light and dark. He is selective on what to look at, showing more interest in human faces, patterns, sharp outlines and moving objects.

What does he hear?
Your baby is born with acute hearing and can almost immediately pick up a full range of sounds. Within 10 min. of birth he may be able to associate sound with source and will turn his head in the appropriate direction.
Studies say that a newborn may already have an ear for his mother's voice- possibly because he had been living with a muffled version of it in months in the womb. Concidentally, perhaps, newborns also show a preference for higher- pitch voices.

Taste, smell and touch
The baby's senses of taste and smell are well developed at birth. He can discriminate between sweet and bitter immediately, with salt ans sour soon following. Among these only sweet - a taste associated with both mother's milk and commercial infant formulas- seems to hold any appeal ti him.

The newborn can identify his mother by smell, too, within 5 to 10 days after birth. The identification sometimes become so strong that he will refuse to drink from a supplemental bottle of formula from his mother.

The sense of touch is so acute that it becomes a key form of communication between the newborn and his parents. From the beginning, your baby responds to skin- to -skin contact, becoming calmer or more stimulated depending on the kind of touching he receives. He responses favorably to close cuddling- possibly because the sense of confinement reminds him of the coziness of the womb