The surprising reason newborn babies don’t cry tears
Newborn babies cry a lot. It’s their only mode of communication to be able to tell mummy or daddy what they want and need. But what you may not have noticed, or noticed but never had the answer, is that newborn babies don’t produce tears. They just produce the sound of crying.
Dr Phillipa Sharwood, a Brisbane paediatric ophthalmologist and member of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists, explains all the causes and effects of this interesting situation.
And now for some biology, but bear with us here, it’s not as complicated as you might think.
Tears are produced by tear glands that are small almond-shaped organs that sit under the top eyelid, above the eyeball.
“It’s almost like a cloud that makes it rain. The tears then come down over the eye, and there’s a drainage system (the tear duct) in the inside corners of the eye that goes down into the nose,” Dr Sharwood told Mamamia.
“How much we actually cry – as in how much spills down our cheek – depends on how good the drainage system is, versus how much tears the glands produce,” she went on to explain.
Dr Sharwood shared that the tear production of newborns is limited: “Babies don’t produce a normal amount of tears when they’re born, because their tear glands aren’t completely developed yet.”
She continued to discuss the overall function and development of a newborn’s eye, stating that they have the basic developmental features to maintain good eye health.
“We have a few different types of tears, there’s a baseline level that keeps the eyes moist and healthy, newborns have that.
“The next is reflex tears, which are the tears that form when you get something in your eye, or you sneeze or cough. They start to develop that in the first few weeks after birth,” Dr Sharwood continued.
“Then there’s the emotional tears. That’s where newborns fall short. Emotionally triggered tears are produced at a higher volume, and their still-developing tear glands simply don’t have that output yet.”
The doctor then shared her knowledge of when babies start developing the ability to produce emotionally driven tears.
“Babies don’t produce enough from their tear glands to get full emotional tears, usually, until at least a couple of months after birth,” she revealed.
Shockingly, there are very few people who never fully develop tear production. Although the situation is significantly rare, Dr Sharwood informs that it is a possibility.
“As long as a child has nice, white, comfortable eyes, we wouldn’t be too worried,” she reassured.
If there is any irritation or noticeable difference in a child’s eyes, they should be taken to a doctor.