Do babies blink?

Babies do blink, but not as frequently as adults or older children do. Between birth and 2 months of age, babies blink an average of two or three times per minute. Adults tend to blink between 10 and 15 times each minute.

The rate at which babies blink increases steadily throughout early childhood but begins to decline after age 6. A child's blink rate increases again after age 14 until she reaches adulthood. It is not known why babies blink at such a low rate, or why the rate fluctuates during childhood, but dopaminergic pathways in the developing brain are suspected of being the controlling factor.