You must have wondered why babies rarely blink, and whether they blink at all. The short answer to this question is yes, babies blink but significantly less than adults.
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
A 1979 study involving 269 children aged two days to 18 years and 179 adults between the ages of 18 and 50 showed that adults blink between 10 and 15 times a minute. The youngest of the babies who participated in this research, on the other hand, blinked less than twice in one minute, on average. After the age of the infant, the frequency of blinking slowly increases, and when children turn 14, they blink as often as adults. Although science does not yet have an explanation for this phenomenon, there are three theses that could explain it.
1) "SMALL EYES NEED LESS LUBRICATION"
The idea is that since babies have smaller eyes and sleep more than adults, their eyes do not need as much lubrication. It makes some sense, since one of the main reasons for blinking is to keep the eyeball as moist as necessary. In addition, we blink to remove microscopic dust particles that could cause irritation.
2) "BABIES ARE TOO CURIOUS TO WASTE TIME BLINKING"
The following theory says that babies since they have just arrived in the world, are very interested in everything around them. As a result, they are extraordinarily focused, their brains are working all the time to process all this new information, and blinking would only distract them.
3) "THE PART OF THE BRAIN THAT REGULATES DOPAMINE IN BABIES IS NOT FULLY DEVELOPED"
The latest theory about why babies rarely blink is based on stages in brain development. How often we blink is related to the level of dopamine in the brain, a neurotransmitter that helps brain cells communicate with each other. Therefore, the frequency of blinking in adults is also used in recognizing certain medical conditions.
People with Parkinson's disease, for example, have lower dopamine levels and blink less than average, among other things. On the other hand, people with schizophrenia, whose dopamine levels are elevated, blink much more often.
Since the regulation of dopamine levels in babies is not fully established in the first weeks and months after birth, it is possible that babies do not blink due to the fact that their brains are not fully developed.
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