The Saturday briefing

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

- by CAROLINE FORD

Is there anything you’re yearning to know? Send your questions, on any subject, to the contacts given below, and we will do our best to answer them...

Are babies born with full-size eyeballs? Young animals always look like their eyes are too big for their heads.

Sylvia Thompson, Leeds

Babies are not born with fully grown eyes, which grow in the early years, but not by very much, especially compared to the brain. Eyeballs grow and develop significantly from birth to age two as a baby becomes used to the surroundings outside the womb. At birth, the eyes are nearly 70% of the size they'll be in adulthood.

According to ophthalmologists, a baby’s eyes measure around 16.5mm from front to back at birth and will eventually be about 24mm when fully grown.

This is made possible by two main growth spurts: one in the first two years of life and one in puberty. In their first month, babies begin to see colour and by months two and three, they develop sharpness of vision.

The only human body parts that are mature at the time of birth are the ossicles — the three small bones located in the middle ear. They are about 3mm at birth and do not change during your lifetime.