Eye color in children and parents. What eye color will a newborn baby have if his parents have brown, blue or green? Stages of eye color formation

Since ancient times, poets have praised real men and beautiful women in their works. Moreover, as soon as it came to appearance, the main element of the image remained the eyes: mysterious green, deep blue, alluring brown, cold gray. For many thousands of years, a variety of magicians, shamans and priests have tried to unravel the mystery of the eye color that a particular person gets.

Today everything is much simpler. Modern scientists are quite likely to be able to predict what eye color a child will have. So, in more detail.

What eye color will the child have, or genetic predisposition?

More than a hundred years ago, Gregor Mendel (a learned monk) discovered a special law of research. They proved that black (brown) color is the dominant color in nature. In a word, a baby with blonde parents will most likely be born fair. But if dad or mom has dark hair, then in most cases the baby is born dark-haired. The same applies to the question of what eye color the child will have.

Possible options

So, in most cases, if you believe the basic formulas, it turns out something like this. Parents with blue eyes usually give birth to a baby with eyes of the same color. This is quite natural. If one parent has green eyes and the other has brown eyes, most likely the child will have brown eyes, although there is a small chance that they will be green. In rare cases, blue-eyed babies are also born as an exception. If one parent has blue eyes and the other has brown or green eyes, the child will be born with brown eyes in the first case and green in the second. Brown and green colors will dominate. In most cases, green-eyed children are born to green-eyed parents. Although sometimes the eye color can be blue. Brown-eyed children almost always have brown eyes. Although, as an exception, there are also green eyes, and in the rarest cases blue.

In a word, it is not so difficult to determine what eye color a child will have. Therefore, you can be 90% sure of this even before birth.

Eye color may change

Thus, it becomes absolutely clear which parent the future baby will be more like. You can bet on what eye color your baby will get before birth, but as soon as the baby is born, pay attention to the pigmentation of his iris. She will most likely cross the finish line in a year or even two. During a routine examination at two months of age, parents often ask the doctor what eye color the child will have. In fact, the answer to this question can be wrong. Although most often the guarantee is almost one hundred percent.

In a word, brown or dark green eyes, as a rule, remain dark. This is what happens most often. Lighter ones (gray or blue) can behave completely unpredictably. During the first three months they change their color many times. After this, the approximate direction in which the color will develop is already determined. It will darken to its final shade by six to twelve months.

Don't worry if your eye color is different from yours

In general, every family that is expecting a child is very interested in who the future baby will be more like, whose character he will inherit, facial features and, finally, what color of the child’s eyes you will see at birth.

Most importantly, don't worry if it looks different from your dad's or mom's. It's not scary at all. In newborns, the eye color is often different from what it will be as soon as the baby grows a little. One can speak with certainty about a permanently established shade only at the age of one, and preferably at about three years of age.

Grandparents gene

What color a child’s eyes should be is determined not only by looking at his parents; a lot also depends on the genes of his grandparents. The child often resembles the third generation in the family, or maybe the fourth or even the fifth.

Not so long ago it became known that the main colors and shades of the eyes differ in the polygenic feature of the heritage, the types and number of pigments concentrated in the iris. Its pigmentation, as it turned out, depends on six different genes. This gives a considerable variety of shades and colors.

However, this question has been open for several years, that is, it is a rather serious problem in the debates of geneticists. They conduct various studies to find out the direct dependence of various factors on the determination of color.

No one can give one hundred percent certainty

However, one can be guided by a wide variety of assumptions and schemes. However, it is impossible to say with one hundred percent certainty what color the eyes of newborn children will have in the future.

Once again, it is worth recalling that the shade is mainly determined by the genes of the child’s parents. A secondary role is given to the third and fourth generations. Of course, the gene for dark eye color will dominate over light shades - they are much weaker. Therefore, if, for example, dad has brown eyes and mom has blue eyes, a daughter or son will most likely be born with brown ones. However, if both parents are light-eyed, the baby can have eyes of any light shade, no matter what color.

That seems to be all. But in any case, you should not perceive the baby’s eye color as already established and determined. As the child grows, it will most likely change.

While expecting a child, parents think about what the eye color will be and who they will look like.

The tone of the organs of vision is influenced by many factors; it can be calculated.

Shade is a physical trait determined by the eyes of the parents.

A child inherits 50% of his genetic material from his mother and father. Genes mutate to produce alternative forms called alleles, and each allele is different from the other.

The tone of a newborn's iris depends both on the color of the parents' visual organs and on whether the alleles are dominant or recessive. It is affected by the amount of melanin.

What determines the color of a child's iris?

Texture, pigmentation, tissue and vascular factors in the organs of vision. They constitute a unique characteristic of a person.

What determines the color of a child’s eyes is of interest to new or expectant mothers and fathers.

There are 2 conditions that help determine the tone: the amount and pattern of dark brown pigment (known in medicine as melanin) in the part of the visual organs located between the cornea and the lens.

What role does melanin play?

Melanin is produced by cells called melanocytes. This is a pigment that is responsible for the tone of the skin and eyes. Just as sunlight turns the skin into a dark tone, it does so with tint through the iris. When a baby is born and exposed to bright light, this light triggers the production of melanin in the choroid, which leads to a change in color.

Excessive accumulation of melanin leads to the development of pathological conditions and irreversible changes in the tone of the iris.

Genetic trait

Color inheritance comes from mother and father. Genetics plays a significant role. Normal diploid cells have 46 chromosomes, divided into 22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes and a pair of sexual chromosomes, X and Y. An embryo (an early stage of human development) inherits one from each.

Human cells are composed of fragments of deoxyribonucleic acid. Scientists have discovered that up to 16 material carriers of heredity take part in determining color. OCA2 and HERC2 are considered responsible for this; they are part of the 15 nucleoprotein structure in the nucleus of eukaryotes. Genes consist of different forms of the same gene located on the same homologous chromosomes.

For each trait that the baby will inherit, there are 2 allelic genes. If they are similar, they are called homozygous. If different, then heterozygous. For each trait, one allele (dominant) is expressed, while the other (recessive) is not expressed (the trait it represents does not appear). Recessive are expressed only in the absence of a dominant.

Alleles for shades are usually divided into blue, green and brown. Greens suppress blue, and browns suppress green and blue. If the baby got blue and brown, the eye color will be brown because it is dominant. If a daughter/son has a blue iris, this means that he received blue alleles from his mother and father.

Genes determine color. The material carrier of heredity determines how much melanin is produced in the iris. The more pigment produced, the darker the color. Because melanin production begins at birth, babies' irises appear blue.

It follows from this that heredity affects the shade of the newborn’s visual organs. It is transmitted from parents along with DNA fragments contained in chromosomes.

Have you noticed how people's irises change depending on the brightness of the room? This happens because the choroid is made up of two layers. Sometimes the pigment is present in both layers. Depending on the brightness and diffraction of solar energy perceived by the organ of vision, it can change color.

On some faces they are of different tones. This occurs due to a condition called heterochromia.

When the color changes

The most dramatic changes in tone occur when the baby is 6–9 months old. At this point, enough pigment has accumulated to predict what the final shade will be. But there is a high probability that the color will change.

Green eyes slowly turn to brown, or brown to brown. Changes will occur until the age of three. In approximately 10% of the population, eye shade can change in adulthood.

The baby's eyes will remain blue

Most newborns have blue irises, which may change color over time. Eyes remain blue if both parents pass on their recessive blue genes to the baby. If this is not the case, the color changes to permanent (brown, green or any other).

Most babies of Caucasian origin have dark blue eyes at birth. However, the original tone changes.

Similarly, babies of Asian and African descent have a brown or dark gray tone at birth. Over time they turn black or brown.

Table of possible eye colors for a child

On the left side is a combination of the father's and mother's eyes. They are depicted in the form of color drawings. The right column shows the iris tone that a newborn will get. The percentage is indicated below them; it means what color the baby is most likely to get.

For example:

  • Both parents have brown eyes - the probability that the child will have the same is 75% (brown is dominant, which is why babies rarely have blue eyes).
  • If one parent is green and the other is brown, the latter is dominant, green is recessive. This means that as the baby grows older, there is a greater chance of getting a brown tone - 50%, and only 37.5% is allocated to the fact that the newborn will have a green iris.
  • If the mother and father have green eyes, then in 75% of cases the baby will have a similar color, in 24% - blue and 1% chance of brown eyes.

Information on other options is understood in the same way.

Yellow eyes are very rare. This variation occurs when there is an excess amount of lipofuscin (this is the end product of oxidation within cellular lipids and proteins). More often than not, this tone indicates the presence of kidney disease.

Amber shades are also associated with excess lipofuscin. Eyes can be light amber or dark.

Black eyes in a newborn mean an excess amount of melanin. There is so much of it that light rays are almost completely absorbed. This color type is common among people of the Mongoloid race, in East and South Asia.

Exceptions to the rules

According to Mendel's laws, dominant genes suppress the totality of biological properties and characteristics of an organism with light-colored recessive genes. It is believed that dark-skinned people give birth to the same baby, the same goes for hair and color.

Not only parents, but also close relatives can influence coloration. Grandparents also influence skin and eye shade. If light-colored parents gave birth to a dark-skinned baby, it means there was a dark-skinned great-grandmother in the family. This also applies to babies with eye colors different from their parents.

Some babies have violet-colored visual organs. This is due to the lack of melanin in the iris. This phenomenon is normal. Such eyes are incredibly beautiful and attractive.

You should be concerned if your eyes are different colors and there are other signs indicating the development of a disease. For example:

  • Heterochromia is a rare phenomenon in which a newborn's eyes have two different tones. The cause is believed to be a gene change that leads to excessive pigmentation in one of the irises. In rare cases, different colors of different parts of the iris of one visual organ are observed.
  • Waardenburg syndrome. A gene mutation occurs that causes changes in the level of pigmentation of the hair, iris and skin. Waardenburg syndrome is also accompanied by sensorineural hearing loss in some children.

It is important to know that eye color changes depending on the color of clothing, environment, stressful situations and emotional turmoil.

Eyes are the mirror of the soul. Probably everyone has heard this expression. But what is hidden behind this mirror? For thousands of years, sorcerers and witches have tried to unravel the mystery of eye color. Some eye colors were worshiped, others, on the contrary, were declared “witchy”. Today everything has become much simpler and more prosaic. Genetic scientists can most likely predict what eye color a child will have based on the eye color of his parents. Let's look at this issue in more detail.

Eye color is inherited by a child from its parents according to Mendel's basic laws and is determined by the amount of melanin pigment in the iris. This same pigment, by the way, is responsible for hair color, as well as for human skin tone. Among the various spectrum of colors and shades, at one pole there will be blue eyes (the amount of melanin in them is very low), and at the other - brown eyes (the amount of melanin is maximum). In the interval between these poles all other colors are located.

It is possible to determine the future eye color, but do not be surprised if the newborn turns out to have eyes that do not resemble either his mother or father.

Interestingly, 90% of babies are born blue-eyed. As they age, their irises will change color.

This happens because melanin will be produced and accumulated in it until the eyes acquire the shade that is genetically determined. This happens at about one year of age, but it is better to talk with certainty about the final eye color at 3-4 years.

The influence of genetics on a child's eye color

According to the basic laws of genetics, the color of the iris is determined by six different genes. Among them there are dominant genes, that is, stronger ones. Those external signs for which they are responsible take precedence and manifest themselves in appearance. There are recessive genes. They are weaker. And although these genes are present in the genotype, they may not appear in appearance.

It is traditionally believed that genes for dark colors are dominant, and genes for light colors are recessive.

However, it is a mistake to think that a child with brown-eyed parents will necessarily have brown eyes. The fact is that the baby copies two versions of one gene (they are called alleles): one from the mother, the second from the father. In each such pair, one allele will necessarily be dominant, but the child may also receive a recessive allele. And the trait transmitted by him can appear in appearance even after a generation. Therefore, grandparents can also contribute to the formation of the baby’s eye color.

The genes that transmit eye color interact with each other according to certain patterns, knowing which, you can find out the eye color of the unborn child even before his birth with an accuracy of 90%.

Interaction of genes that determine eye color

As can be seen from the table, it is possible to predict with maximum accuracy that blue-eyed parents will have a child with blue eyes. And only 1% allow a green-eyed miracle to appear in such a family. But this chance immediately increases to 50% if in a pair one parent has blue eyes and the other has green eyes. A child with a combination of brown and blue eyes will have the same chances.

But even if both parents are green-eyed, it cannot be guaranteed that this eye color will be passed on to their baby. This probability is only 75%. Another 24% is given to blue eyes, and there is even a 1% chance of having a brown-eyed baby.

Mom has brown eyes and dad has green eyes? In half the cases the child will be brown-eyed. But the possibility that he will pass on his father’s green eyes is not so small: as much as 37.5%. And again, an unexpected result is possible! 12.5% ​​allow such a couple to have a blue-eyed baby.

If both parents have brown eyes, then in 75% of cases the child also inherits this iris color. Another 19% may have the gene responsible for the formation of green eyes, and only 6% of babies may turn out to be blue-eyed.

Therefore, it is difficult to make any predictions about a child’s eye color. The debate among geneticists on this topic has not yet subsided. The most experienced specialists can give the correct answer to this exciting question only in 90% of cases.

  • Since melanin is produced under the influence of sunlight, eye color depends even on the country in which a person was born. The less sun, the lighter the eyes and hair.
  • Green is the rarest eye color on Earth. And the fact that the gene that transmits it is recessive suggests that the number of green-eyed people will only decrease.
  • Brown eye color is the most common in the world. But the Baltic countries are an exception.
  • In purebred Russians, the most common eye colors are gray and blue.
  • All people with blue eyes are descended from a common ancestor. It has been established that 6,000-10,000 years ago there were no blue-eyed people, and then a genetic mutation occurred, which led to the appearance of blue eyes. Most blue-eyed people live in Northern Europe and the Baltic countries. For example, in Estonia, there are 99% of them.
  • Yellow eye color (amber) is called “wolf eyes” because this rare eye color for humans is common among animals such as wolves, cats, owls, eagles, pigeons and fish.
  • Eye color changes not only in babies, but also in older people. The eyes turn pale, “fade”, which is explained by the loss of transparency of the mesoderm layer.
  • The red color of the eyes in albinos is associated with a complete lack of melanin and is determined by the blood in the blood vessels of the iris.

In conclusion, I would like to note that the color of the eyes of an unborn child is determined only by nature. No folk methods, signs, calculations of days of conception and horoscopes can be guaranteed to influence this process and activate the desired gene. Which means you shouldn’t trust them. And by and large, it doesn’t matter at all what color your baby’s eyes will be. The main thing is that he grows up healthy and happy. And this completely depends on you – the parents!

A child is a great joy for every family and, of course, his parents will love him anyway; this generally does not depend on what color his eyes are or what hair structure he has. Although many couples still try to imagine their future child even before his appearance in our world and try to predict what eye color the child will have. A table developed by scientists and based on genetics can really help to at least approximately determine what color a child’s eyes might turn out to be.

What determines the color of the irises

Before you get acquainted with the very table, which with one degree of probability or another can help determine which of the possible shades the iris will be painted in, it is worth understanding what the color primarily depends on, what affects the color of the eyes in principle. So, in any person or even animal, the color of the iris is determined by the presence of a special dark pigment called melanin. It is its concentration that will have the maximum impact on the resulting color. It’s not difficult to guess - the more dark coloring substance there is in the iris, the brighter and darker the eyes will turn out, and the less of it, the lighter.

On a note! If there is no melanin in the body at all, then people are born albinos, having very light skin and pale hair. They will also have red eyes. This unusual and even frightening color appears due to blood vessels visible through the tissue.

The amount of coloring pigment in the body actually depends only on genetics, that is, it is determined by heredity. There are more people with dark eyes in the world relative to the total number, but those who have light eyes are much smaller. So the likelihood of having a dark-eyed baby is significantly higher than that of a light-eyed baby. Also, in some cases, the shade may change during life. For example, people with light-colored irises may notice over time that they have darkened - scientists associate this with the process of increasing and accumulating melanin. In older people, the irises may, on the contrary, become very light. Sometimes the shade changes due to some pathology.

What shades are there?

Usually there are only 4 main shades of eyes - daring green, romantic blue, attractive brown and strict gray. But in fact there are several more of them than we think.

Table. Basic eye colors.

ColorDescription

The stroma of the eyeball is of moderate density, its fibers are grayish. Scientists note that the denser the stroma, the lighter the human eye. It is generally accepted that the blue tint is the result of a mutation in a certain gene that affects the production of melanin. According to research, this mutation formed in nature at least 10 thousand years ago.

In this case, the person has a dark blue iris. There is very little melanin contained. The result of the appearance of this color is the effect of the scattering of light rays in the stroma. The inside of the iris is always dark, and the stroma in blue-eyed people has little density. Newly born children usually have such eyes.

Green irises appear due to a small amount of melanin and a special pigment called lipofuscin, which is characterized by a yellow or brownish color. The effect of this “symbiosis” is green eyes. In this case, by the way, the iris can have a number of shades and be unevenly colored. The presence of such a shade is very rare. They occur more often in women than in men.

This shade is due to the presence of a higher density in the stroma. With a relatively low density, the iris is colored bluish-gray. Gray-eyed people may have slightly grayish eyes due to the presence of some melanin.

That's great rarity. This color variation is associated with the presence of a large amount of lipofuscin. But often this color is associated with certain health problems - for example, kidney disease.

These eyes can often appear golden yellow and sometimes coppery. The phenomenon is associated with the content of lipofuscin. There are light amber and dark amber shades, among which it is customary to distinguish others, up to red-brown.

There is a lot of dark pigment. The irises take on a distinct brown color. This shade is the most common in nature.

Also, an iris of this shade is called green-brown. Melanin is present, but in fairly moderate quantities. The combination of melanin and a blue-blue tint is the brown color of varying intensity. The irises can be somewhat yellowish or greenish due to the heterogeneity of color.

A shade that appears due to a significant amount of dark coloring pigment. By the way, the eyeball itself in this case may have a slightly yellowish or grayish tint. Mongoloids usually have this color. Even their children are often born with dark eyes, and not blue, like others.

On a note! There are also people who have radically different iris colors. This unusual phenomenon is called. Because of this “joke of nature,” the eyes may be completely different in color from each other or partially. The phenomenon occurs more often in animals; it occurs less frequently in humans, although it also occurs.

Baby's eye color

Most children (at least 90%, according to statistics) come into this world with blue or deep blue eyes. But during the first few months of life, the iris darkens. So the eyes of a child who has just seen the world are not an indicator of what color they will be in the future. It is possible to finally say what color it will be only when the young person turns 10-12 years old. Before this, serious changes in shade can be noted.

Only 10% of all children born in the world have dark, almost black eyes immediately after birth. This aspect is associated with certain factors, including race, as well as heredity, etc. Moreover, if a child has light-colored eyes (for example, blue), then they can gradually change from light to dark color, while dark, most likely, they will only lighten a little with age.

Video: When does a child’s eye color change and why?

Forecasts

Finding out the eye color of a child expected in the near future is a desire that comes to every parent. But without proper knowledge, it will be extremely difficult to imagine even a possible option. There are several hypotheses that allow us to predict the shade of a baby’s eyes. But so far, in fact, scientists rely only on Mendel’s law. It is this law that allows us to assume not only the color of the iris, but even the color of the baby’s hair and is based only on genetics.

On a note! The dark gene can be called the main one, it is dominant. That is, it almost always prevails over light. Mendel himself described this process, and other scientists also spoke about it. They fully described this pattern and recorded possible exceptions to the rules.

According to the law mentioned above, A dark-eyed father and mother are more likely to produce a brown-eyed child than a light-eyed one.. But descendants in subsequent generations can easily appear with very light eyes if the gene that determines this feature is present in the parents’ family.

Video: How to find out the eye color of your unborn child

If the father and mother themselves have a different shade of the iris, then their babies will most likely inherit the darker one. Or the iris will turn into an average color between the two shades of the ancestors’ eyes. A light-eyed father and mother can hope for a blue-eyed baby.

On a note! Knowing your ancestors well and understanding genetics, you can really calculate and find out what your son or daughter will look like before birth. But sometimes babies can be fundamentally different from their ancestors, not to mention the similarity in eye color. Genetics is to blame for everything.

If you believe the tables that scientists have developed, if both parents have blue irises, children with a significant probability of 99% will also be born with blue ones. And only 1% admit that the fruit of love will have green irises. If the parents are green-eyed, then the chances of getting a green-eyed child increase to 50%. And they become approximately the same if one of the pair has brown eyes.

But parents with green eyes, as a rule, do not always give birth to green-eyed children. The probability of such an outcome of the situation is 75%, and no one can accurately and confidently state that the child will not belong to the other 25%, among which there is a 24% chance that he will be born blue-eyed, and 1% - brown-eyed.

If you have a green-eyed father and a brown-eyed mother, you can expect a brown-eyed child with a 50% chance. But it is possible (and the probability is 37.5%) that the child will inherit green irises from his dad. In 12.5%, the child may even turn out to be blue-eyed. If both ancestors have brown eyes, then the probability of having a child with a different shade of irises is approximately the following: 19% - green, 6% - blue.

Genetics

It will not be possible to determine the color of your son or daughter’s eyes as accurately as possible in advance. But you can try to guess what shade their iris will be. It is also recommended to remember that the genes of great-grandparents, and not just the parents themselves, influence the appearance of a child.

On a note! The color of the iris, as it turns out, is controlled by six genes at once, interacting with each other according to a special pattern. Previously, scientists thought that only 2 genes were involved in creating shade.

One of the genes, which, according to the theory, is responsible for coloring, is located on chromosome 15, the second - on chromosome 19. And both of them have copies that are passed on to the child both from the mother and from the other parent.

Brown, brown, dark colors, whatever one may say, are dominant. So a light-eyed man will “lose” to a brown-eyed woman - the child will most likely turn out dark-eyed. But the eyes of this couple’s grandchildren can have any color and shade.

How to determine the eye color of your planned baby

Step 1. It is required to evaluate the color of the irises of the father and mother, that is, the parents.

Step 3. You need to understand at least the basics of genetics in order to understand how a person’s eye color is formed.

Step 4. It is necessary to understand what any shade of the iris generally depends on.

Step 5. It is recommended to compare all the features and facts and, based on Mendel’s law, derive an assumption that will make it possible to understand what color of the irises the baby will end up with and with what probability.

Step 6. You can do it simpler - open a ready-made table that allows you to evaluate the combination of different eye colors, and use it to see what your eyes might turn out like.

Video: What will your baby look like?

Genetics is a very interesting, but not easy science, but it is precisely this that will allow us to guess and try to calculate what color the baby’s eyes might turn out to be. But, be that as it may, it is not the color of the eyes that is important in a child, but the presence of good health. So trying to determine the shade of the iris of a new family member can only be for your own interest.

Many future parents, while still happily awaiting their baby, think about who he will be like. Will he be fair-haired and gray-eyed, like mom, or will he have brown hair and dark brown eyes, like dad? Or maybe they will turn out to be green, like grandma’s. And how much new parents are surprised when in the maternity hospital they are shown a newborn with bright blue or sky blue eyes, which none of their immediate relatives have.

When it changes

As a rule, the eyes of newly born people have a different shade from the one they will acquire later. It is useless to try to guess what they will be like by peering into the face of a newly born baby, because his eyes will most likely turn out to be cloudy blue. This is due to the fact that the iris of newborns does not contain melanin at all, the amount of which determines the shade.

It is impossible to say exactly when a newborn's eyes will acquire a permanent color. All children develop individually and the color of their iris also changes at different times. For some, it becomes permanent already in the first months of life. For others, this happens around the age of one year, or even later. And it happens that the process of changing shade drags on for years. However, on average, eye color changes between 9 and 12 months.

Newborn baby eye color

Most children come into this world with dark blue or grayish eyes. Exceptions are possible only if the baby is very dark-skinned or belongs to a dark-skinned race: then they will immediately turn out to be brown.

The color of a newborn's eyes depends on nationality. So, most little Europeans are born with an iris of a light blue, blue or even purple hue. Children belonging to the Mongoloid race will have greenish-brown hair immediately after birth. And for dark-skinned children of the Negroid race, they will turn out to be dark brown.

Factors affecting iris color

The color of a newborn's eyes is determined not only by the shade of his mother's and father's irises. It is also influenced by factors such as:

  • Genes of relatives, and not necessarily close ones. Sometimes the eye color of grandparents, both relatives and cousins, is passed on to the baby. And sometimes children inherit it from their ancient ancestors.
  • Skin color, race and nationality of parents.
  • Amount of pigment. It can be different already at the birth of a newborn, and their eye color depends on how much melanin is in the iris.

Melanin- a pigment that performs an important function - it colors the iris a certain color. Melanin accumulates in chromatophores located on the outer layer of the iris. The most common color is dark brownish. The less melanin in the chromatophores, the lighter the shade. This is what causes blue, cyan or gray shades. With a large amount of melanin, the iris will be brownish.

Sometimes, under the influence of pathological changes in the liver, the iris becomes yellow. And if the process of melanin production in the body is disrupted, the iris becomes pink or reddish.

If your baby's eyes have acquired a distinct yellow tint, this is a reason to consult a doctor. Yellowness of the iris most often appears with jaundice and liver diseases.

Blue

They are observed in most babies in the first months of their life, but do not always remain so. By the age of one year, such eyes may become brown or grayish.

This is the most changeable color of the iris - as a rule, its shade changes several times until it becomes permanent. If the child’s eyes remain blue, then their final color is established by 2-4 years.

As a rule, the milky blue shade of a newborn's eyes changes to darker or lighter, it may even become greenish or grayish. Most often, blue-eyed people are fair-skinned people with golden or ash-colored hair.

Blue eyes appear in humans due to a mutation in which very little melanin is produced in the iris.

The blue tint is due to the fact that there are collagen fibers in the outer layer of the iris, although there are no blue or cyan pigments there at all. This shade itself is due to optical scattering of light.

Gray

Gray is a common iris color. If the density of collagen in the stroma is high, then the child’s eyes will be light gray; if the density is lower, they will become gray-bluish.

The presence of melanin gives a yellowish or brownish tint. Gray color, like blue, depends not on the presence of pigment, but on the scattering of light.

If a baby is gray-eyed from birth, then most likely the color will not change significantly with age. They may only lighten or darken slightly, or acquire a bluish or greenish tint.

Blue

Blue is also associated not with the amount of melanin in the iris, but with the scattering and refraction of light rays. It occurs when the collagen fibers on the outer layer of the iris are less dense and have very little melanin. The lower the collagen density, the brighter or darker the blue shade you will get. Sometimes it can be very deep and dark - indigo shade.

Brown

As already noted, almost all babies are born with blue or sky blue eyes. As melanin accumulates in the iris, its color in many of them acquires a brownish tint, which will become more saturated over time.

The brown color is due to the large amount of melanin in the iris, which absorbs most light rays. And reflected light gives a brownish tint.

Greens

It is determined by a small amount of melanin and the presence of a yellowish or light brownish pigment called lipofuscin in the outer layers of the iris. Due to the fact that the blue or blue scattered in the stroma is superimposed on it, this color is formed.

Bright and rich green is a rarity, since most often green eyes have grayish or light brownish inclusions. More often found in Northern or Central Europe. Sometimes found in natives of southern Europe.

Green eyes of various shades are found in only 2% of the world's population.

If a newborn’s eyes are grassy or emerald green, they will remain that way for life. Over time, they may only lighten or darken slightly.

Table of what color it can be

It is impossible to determine exactly what color a newborn's eyes will be. One can only guess with what probability he will inherit it from his parents or another relative from previous generations. A table has been developed for this purpose.

Parents eye color Probability percentage
Brown Blue Greens
Brown Brown 75% 6% 19%
Brown Greens 50% 12% 38%
Brown Blue 50% 50% 0%
Greens Greens 0% 25% 75%
Greens Blue 0% 50% 50%
Blue Blue 0% 99% 1%

How it changes

In children in the first year of life, especially if they are blue-eyed from birth, the shade can change repeatedly. There is nothing wrong with this, provided that the iris does not turn yellowish.

Light eyes in babies tend to temporarily change color under a variety of circumstances, such as stress, weather conditions, lighting.

Brown eyes can also change under the influence of circumstances. For example, if the baby is hungry, they may turn greenish, and if they are upset or stressed, they may turn grayish. The shade changes greatly during illness.

If there is a disruption in the formation of melanin in the iris, the child experiences heterochromia - a difference in the color of the right eye from the left or uneven coloring of areas of the iris.

A few color suggestions

  • A dark-eyed child primarily pays attention to the color of an object, while a light-eyed child pays attention to its shape.
  • Dark-eyed children love everything bright and warm tones, while light-eyed children prefer muted cool shades.
  • Brown-eyed children are prone to spontaneous actions and are more emotional. Gray-eyed, blue-eyed and green-eyed children are restrained, have better control over their feelings and emotions, and are better oriented in space.
  • Brown-eyed people are more sociable than light-eyed people.
  • Light-eyed people, as a rule, have their own opinions, while dark-eyed people often use generally accepted categories.
  • Blue-eyed people have a scientific mindset, while brown-eyed people have creative personalities.

The eyes of most children at birth have a completely different shade than the one that is genetically determined. Many of those who develop shades of amber, cinnamon or silver are born with bright blue eyes, which then either darken or become lighter. The table will tell parents what shade of iris the baby will have. But sometimes it turns out that the shade is inherited from a great-grandfather or great-grandmother. In any case, it is not so important whether the baby is blue-eyed, green-eyed or brown-eyed, because the main thing is that he is healthy and happy.

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