Eye Health Kid's Eye Health Will My Baby's Eye Color Change? By Troy Bedinghaus, OD Troy Bedinghaus, OD LinkedIn Troy L. Bedinghaus, OD, board-certified optometric physician, owns Lakewood Family Eye Care in Florida. He is an active member of the American Optometric Association. Learn about our editorial process Updated on January 14, 2023 Medically reviewed by Jonathan B. Jassey, DO Medically reviewed by Jonathan B. Jassey, DO Facebook Jonathan Jassey, DO, is the founding pediatrician at Concierge Pediatrics in Long Island, New York. Learn about our Medical Expert Board Fact checked by Angela Underwood Fact checked by Angela Underwood LinkedIn Angela Underwood's extensive local, state, and federal healthcare and environmental news coverage includes 911 first-responder compensation policy to the Ciba-Geigy water contamination case in Toms River, NJ. Her additional health-related coverage includes death and dying, skin care, and autism spectrum disorder. Learn about our editorial process Print 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. Genes trigger the production and distribution of pigments. A precise combination and concentration of pigments make up a person's eye color. This article discusses baby eye color, including how and when a newborn's eyes change color. It also explains the probability of having a brown- or blue-eyed baby based on the parents' and grandparents' eye color and how to predict eye color. Barbara Peacock Collection / The Image Bank / Getty Images What Determines a Baby's Eye Color? Baby eye color is determined by a substance called melanin. Melanin is a dark pigment contained in the iris, the structure that controls how much light is allowed into the eye. The color of the iris is determined by the amount of melanin in the iris. Light eyes have very little pigment, whereas darker eyes have a lot. In newborns, the pigmentation process of the iris isn't yet complete. Babies with darker skin are usually born with dark eyes that stay relatively dark. Iris color in lighter-skinned babies is usually a blue or bluish-gray color at birth, then changes as they grow. Melanin production changes during the first year of life, usually resulting in a darker, deeper eye color than is seen at birth. When Is Eye Color Set? Permanent eye color is not set until a baby is at least 9 months old, so wait until your child's first birthday to determine what color they will be. Even then, sometimes you may find little surprises. Subtle color changes can still occur all the way up until about 6 years of age. For example, green eyes may slowly turn hazel or hazel may slowly grow to a darker brown. An infant's eye color is influenced by the eye color of their parents. Eye color is often studied in the field of genetics because of its inheritance patterns but is still not fully understood. Eye color inheritance patterns are much more complicated than what we learn in basic genetics taught in high school biology. Your baby’s final eye color depends a lot on you and your co-parent. We used to think that brown was dominant and blue was recessive. But modern science has shown that eye color is not at all that simple. Eye color is controlled by three basic genes. Researchers understand two of those genes really well, and one of them is still a bit of a mystery. These genes control the development of green, brown, and blue eye color. Gray, hazel, and other combinations are more difficult to predict. Eye Color Genetics Baby Eye Color Predictor It's hard to predict the exact color a baby’s eyes will have. However, there are some strong probabilities depending on the parents' eye colors. Some examples: If both parents’ eyes are brown, but one of them has a blue-eyed parent, then you have more of a chance that your baby’s eyes may stay blue.If both parents have blue eyes, then there is a pretty good chance that your baby’s eyes will stay blue.If one parent has blue eyes and the other brown, then your baby’s eyes have a 50% chance of either shade.If one parent has blue eyes and the other has brown eyes, the children could end up with green or hazel-colored eyes. You might assume that neither eye color seems to be the dominant gene, so they are a perfect mix. However, science shows that eye colors don’t come out as an exact blend, but rather as pairs of genes that can create multiple possibilities. Frequently Asked Questions Do your eyeballs grow as you get older? Yes, your eyeballs grow as you get older. Infant eyeballs are around 16.5 mm in length while adult eyeballs are about 24 mm. The eyeballs see the most noticeable growth in the first two years of a baby's life. Around the time of puberty (10 or 11 years old), the eyes undergo a growth spurt. When can a baby see color? A baby can see color at birth, but compared to adults, they are not as capable of distinguishing different shades of color. In most cases, by the time babies reach five to eight months old, they will have stronger color vision to analyze color hues more effectively. Which parent does a baby get their eye color from? It depends. Your baby's eye color may match either parent or be a different color altogether. Eye color is determined by multiple variations of genes that control the production and distribution of pigments.Each person has two versions (alleles) of a gene, one from each parent. Eye color genes are either dominant (brown) or recessive (blue). If the two alleles are different, the dominant gene will be expressed. Recessive genes are only expressed when both alleles match. 9 Sources Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. MedlinePlus. Is eye color determined by genetics? American Academy of Opthalmology. Your blue eyes aren't really blue. Cleveland Clinic. Eye colors. Ludwig CA, Callaway NF, Fredrick DR, Blumenkranz MS, Moshfeghi DM. What colour are newborns’ eyes? Prevalence of iris colour in the Newborn Eye Screening Test (Nest) study. Acta Ophthalmologica. 2016;94(5):485-488. doi:10.1111/aos.13006 Mackey, D.A. What colour are your eyes? Teaching the genetics of eye colour & colour vision. Edridge Green Lecture RCOphth Annual Congress Glasgow, May 2019. Nature Eye. 2022;36:704-715. doi:10.1038/s41433-021-01749-x White, D., Rabago-Smith, M. Genotype–phenotype associations and human eye color. J Hum Genet. 2011;56:5–7. doi:10.1038/jhg.2010.126 The Tech Interactive. Eye color. American Academy of Ophthalmology. Is it true that we are born with our eyeballs already full grown? American Optometric Association. Infant vision: Birth to 24 months of age. Additional Reading Rosenbloom Jr. A, Morgan M. Principles and Practice of Pediatric Optometry. J.B. Lippincott Company. 1990;0-397-50917-0. By Troy Bedinghaus, OD Troy L. Bedinghaus, OD, board-certified optometric physician, owns Lakewood Family Eye Care in Florida. He is an active member of the American Optometric Association. See Our Editorial Process Meet Our Medical Expert Board Share Feedback Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! What is your feedback? Other Helpful Report an Error Submit