When a baby is born and they first open their eyes, you may see a pair of beautiful blue, brown or green. However, there is a lot of discussion around how eye colour changes, when and why. The after-hours home doctor experts at House Call Doctor have straightened the facts about your baby’s eye colours.
- It takes at least 6 months to stabilise eye colour
Try not get too attached to the colour of your baby’s eyes when they are first born. The most dramatic changes occur between the ages of three and six months old. Babies’ eyes tend to fully change colour between 6 and 12 months, however in some cases it can take as long as 3 years of age for the permanent colour to set in.
- Not all babies are born with blue eyes
While there is a common myth that all babies are born with blue eyes, this is not the case. Caucasian babies are typically born with grey or blue eyes, whilst many African American, Asian and Hispanic babies are born with brown or darker brown eyes, sometimes even looking black.
- There’s no way to accurately predict eye colour
There is a lot that is not understood about how genes impact the eye colour of a baby. However, the final hue or colour of the eyes does depend on both parents’ eye colours and your genetic line. Below are some probabilities to note when it comes to a baby’s eye colour:
- If the mother and the father both have blue eyes, it’s significantly more likely the baby will also have blue eyes. It’s important to note it won’t happen every single time though.
- If both parents have brown eyes, it’s very likely the baby will have brown eyes. However, if a grandparent on both sides of the family has blue eyes it is possible that the parents will pass on the blue eye gene.
- If one parent has brown eyes and one parent has blue eyes, there is about a 50/50 chance the child will have blue eyes.