When & Why Do Babies Eyes Change Color?

Thursday, September 22, 2011, 17:04

The eye color of babies at birth is not their final eye color. You may have come across situations where you saw a baby in the hospital with deep blue eyes and on that baby's first birthday you see that the eyes have become black or brown. You probably brushed it off by thinking that there is a chink in your memory or it must have been an illusion. How can babies eyes change color? No you were not mistaken, babies eye color does get modified if not changed with age.

If you are new parents and excited about what color eyes your baby will have then there are few pertinent points to note for you.

When Do Babies Eyes Change Color?

The color of the eyes depends on the amount of melanin that if their in the eyes just like the skin. So light skinned babies are more likely to to be born with light eyes because they have less melanin all over.

Dark skinned babies show relatively less incidences of light eyes and if they are born with jet black eyes then they retain that color. Similarly, babies that are born with explicitly light eyes like clear blue or green usually retain that color life long.

Babies born with gray, brown or deep blue eyes change color. Babies eyes change color depending on the amount of pigmentation that happen in the eyes. This usually occurs in the first year of the babies life, mostly within the first 9 months or so.

Pigmentation of melanin happens due to the amount of light that goes into the eyes. So the more sunlight the baby's eyes get the darker they get. Thus an Indian baby born with light eyes may later have dark eyes due to plenty of sunlight but an European baby's eyes will not darken due to lack of sunlight.

Most babies are born with light eyes. They may have steel gray or brown eyes. There is nothing to fear because it does not mean that there is something wrong with their eyes.

Babies inherit eye color from their parents but if you both have black eyes and the baby is born with blue eyes don't despair. This is because this is not the final color of your baby's eyes. If there have been incidences of blue or eyes of colors other than black in your family then your baby may carry it one.

Even if both parents have black eyes, the baby could have a different color for its eyes. It may be an unique case where in recessive genes from the mother and father have combines to become dominant.

If you and your spouse have black eyes but one of each of your parents has brown eyes then the baby may have got the recessive gene pairs from both of you to have brown eyes.

This information can be used as parenting tips by new parents coping with their baby's eye color variations.