Re: Do babies blink less then adults

Yes.  Newborn infants blink less often than adults.  The measured average 
rate of spontaneous blinking in newborns is less than 2 times per minute.  
In other words, newborns take an average of over 30 seconds between 
spontaneous blinks.  The rate of spontaneous blinking increases steadily 
until the mid-teenage years, around 14 to 15 years of age.  Adults 
spontaneously blink about 10 to 15 times a minute, though this changes 
with attention, stress, and sleep deprivation.  Ten to 15 times a minute 
translates to once every 4 to 6 seconds, on average.

Tim Nicholls, MD
Berkeley, CA

Zametkin AJ, Stevens JR, Pittman R.  Ontogeny of spontaneous blinking and 
of habituation of the blink reflex. Ann Neurol 1979 May;5(5):453-7.