Jen Fuller, founder of Etta Loves, explains how by understanding babies’ developmental stages, we are able to most appropriately stimulate their vision.
Most parents are aware that their new baby’s vision isn’t very good. Perhaps they know it’s blurry, perhaps they believe that they can only see in black and white (which is in fact a myth) but one thing is for certain – watching your baby grow and change in their first year is a truly magical experience.
When it comes to baby vision, there is so much going on in their eyes and brains that is both interesting and useful to know as a parent. By understanding our babies’ developmental stages, we are able to most appropriately stimulate their vision.
My journey of discovery about infant vision started the moment my then four week old daughter Etta locked eyes onto my monochrome jumper during a feed. It sparked an idea that led me to set up the first visually sensory baby company, Etta Loves, which takes the science of how and what babies see to make baby essentials do more than just their primary purpose.
With an idea in my head, and no former knowledge about the science of vision, my first hire for Etta Loves was our orthoptist Laura (aka an expert in infant vision). Laura works in NHS hospital clinics, seeing infants that are referred with suspected visual problems, as well as lecturing on orthoptics. Laura was, and still is, critical to the business. From our very first patterns, to now – six years on – Laura provides us with the knowledge for accurate scales, spacing and shape preference that go into our design brief. This ensures that every print we produce is perfectly optimised to a babies’ visual ability.
For example, did you know that babies can detect a strong red and green from birth, but the colours appear very muted and unsaturated compared to how we see them as adults? In addition, babies don’t have 3D vision until around five months old. This is because the muscles that hold their eyes straight and enable a 3D image to be sent and processed by our brains are immature at birth – which also explains why babies go cross-eyed on occasion. These facts, and many more like them, are what enable us to create our age-appropriate products from birth to 12 months and beyond.
Because the area of infant vision is so vast but also has many unknowns, I also wanted to see how we could put Etta Loves at the forefront of visual research and, in turn, use new research to create even better products and patterns. I investigated universities with specialist baby vision divisions and far and away the most highly respected one was The Baby Lab at the University of Sussex, which prompted me to invest in funding our very own PhD student to drive the latest learning into my brand. What’s fascinating about working with the university is that not only can we test and optimise our current prints, but we can take questions that we don’t have the answer to – like our most recent study regarding infant colour preference – and design research that provides new and previously unknown answers to how babies’ see and what they like to look at.
In a nutshell the world around us offers a wonderful sensory experience for babies every day. What we do at Etta Loves is take everything that is known about baby vision and translate it into beautiful patterns placed on things parents and carers need anyway – playmats, muslins, pram toys and more – that make your day that bit easier while baby stares contently and makes babies even more magical and mesmerising while supporting their vision.
Our latest project with Laura and the university was to look at the dizzying array of baby sensory videos on YouTube and work out how we could make one far better for infant vision, and far more relaxing for parents too. So, we have created the optimum sensory animation for little ones, for free, on YouTube. This clever animation is rooted in science and features patterns that research shows us babies love to look at, movement speed that babies can track and a connecting soundtrack to optimise their visual learning through watching. It’s just one of the many ways we are innovating to bring you and your little one the best possible experience for their incredible eyes and brains.
