Your baby's eye color at birth will likely change by their first birthday. Their basic eye color—blue, brown, green, or hazel—should be evident by about 9 months old. However, eye color can continue to shift and refine until around age 6. A newborn's eye color is based on genetics.
Predicting when your child's eyes will stop changing color can vary. “The range of time when a baby will develop their 'true' eye color varies, but it usually happens between six and nine months of age,” Dr. Zepeda says.
What color will GRAY babies' eyes turn? If your child is born with gray eyes they may stay light or actually turn hazel or brown during the course of your child's first year of life. It's part of what makes being a parent so much fun.
It is true, however, that you may not be able to tell your newborn baby's final eye colour straight away, because not all babies are born with the eye colour they'll have later on in life. For example, a child may be born with grey eyes that turn brown several months later.
It can take as long as 9 to 12 months for your baby's permanent eye color to be determined and the change is so gradual, you might not even notice it happening. But by baby's first birthday, you can be pretty sure whatever big eyes are staring down that smash cake are the ones they'll have for life.
The most noticeable ones will occur around 3 to 6 months after birth. At this point, you can most likely predict the baby's final eye color. However, wait a few more months for a more stable eye color. According to eye experts, most babies will have their lifetime eye color by the time they're 9 months old.
Your children inherit their eye colors from you and your partner. It's a combination of mom and dad's eye colors – generally, the color is determined by this mix and whether the genes are dominant or recessive. Every child carries two copies of every gene – one comes from mom, and the other comes from dad.
What is the rarest eye color? Green is the rarest eye color in the world, with only 2% of the world's population (and fewer than one out of ten Americans) sporting green peepers, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO).
In the first few years of life, more melanin may accumulate in the iris, causing blue eyes to turn green, hazel or brown. Babies whose eyes turn from blue to brown develop significant amounts of melanin. Those who end up with green eyes or hazel eyes develop a little less.
It might! Most babies with lighter skin are born with blue or grey eyes. Some stay blue or grey while others gradually change over time to green, hazel or brown. Most, but not all, babies with darker skin are born with darker eyes that stay brown.
Two brown-eyed parents are likely (but not guaranteed) to have a child with brown eyes. If you notice one of the grandparents has blue eyes, the chances of having a blue-eyed baby go up a bit. If one parent has brown eyes and the other has blue eyes, odds are about even on eye color.
Flexi Says: Two brown-eyed parents (if both are heterozygous) can have a blue-eyed baby. If both the parents have brown eyes, then there is generally a 25% chance for their child to have blue eyes. Because both the brown-eyed parents have a recessive blue-eye gene and can pass it to the next generation.
The genetic switch is located in the gene adjacent to OCA2 and rather than completely turning off the gene, the switch limits its action, which reduces the production of melanin in the iris. In effect, the turned-down switch diluted brown eyes to blue.
“The changes are always going to go from light to dark, not the reverse,” Jaafar says. “If you have brown early on, they're not going to become blue.” What's more, about 10 percent of babies will continue to experience changes in eye color (albeit subtle) until they're adults.
Generally, changes in eye color go from light to dark. So if your child initially has blue eyes, their color may turn green, hazel, or brown. But if your baby is born with brown eyes, it is unlikely that they are going to become blue.
If the color of one or both eyes changes suddenly and significantly, see an eye doctor as soon as possible. It is particularly dangerous for eyes to change from brown to green, or from blue to brown. Major changes in the iris' pigment can indicate illness, such as: Horner's syndrome.
This one is true! A baby's eyes can shift in hue over the first 12 months of life, especially if your little one has fair skin and light eyes. We connected with some experts to learn more about why some babies' eyes change color, and when you can expect to see your little one's true shades emerge.
A condition is considered Y-linked if the altered gene that causes the disorder is located on the Y chromosome, one of the two sex chromosomes in each of a male's cells. Because only males have a Y chromosome, in Y-linked inheritance, a variant can only be passed from father to son.
Most people feel as though they look more like their biological mom or biological dad. They may even think they act more like one than the other. And while it is true that you get half of your genes from each parent, the genes from your father are more dominant, especially when it comes to your health.
The allele for brown eyes is the most dominant allele and is always dominant over the other two alleles and the allele for green eyes is always dominant over the allele for blue eyes, which is always recessive.
The colors in your environment, including lighting and your clothes, can give the illusion of eye color change. "The factors that can cause eyes to change colors—or appear to have different colors—include genes, diseases, medications and trauma," said Omar Chaudhary, MD, an ophthalmologist in Potomac, Md.
Since the blue-eye gene is recessive over that of brown eyes, which is dominant, it could lead us to believe that blue eyes will cease to exist one day. However, this is not the case, according to the researchers.