Predicting The Eye Color Of Your Baby: What Factors Contribute?

The color of the baby’s eyes is one of the most exciting things that expectant parents dream and guess about. Especially if they both have different eye colors. But why is this so? Maybe because often love happens at first sight or just because they can’t wait to see exactly what nature will create from their love? Whatever the answer to this question – facts are facts!

What you need to know about your baby’s ever-changing eye color – they can be a beautiful shade of blue or brown at first, but will they stay that way? In today’s article, #MommyVeronika will explain what role science plays in determining the eye color of babies, when to expect the final result, and how parents’ eye colors affect their children’s.

Photograph your baby’s blue eyes because there is a chance they will turn brown or go into the green range. African-American, Hispanic, and Asian babies are almost always born with very dark eyes that stay dark, although the shade may change slightly during the first year. Caucasian babies are usually born with dark blue or even at first glance gray eyes. In them, the eyes can change at least several times even before the first birthday. Which means you’ll have plenty of time to place your bets on the baby eye color. As it is called – gene!

Who is responsible for this seemingly magical transformation in a baby’s eye color?
The answer depends on the amount of pigment substances or so-called melanin in the iris. In our bodies, we have special cells called melanocytes whose job is to go around secreting melanin where it’s needed, including in the iris. This is the colored part of the eye, which, of course, scientists have found to be determined by the genes your child has inherited from you – the parents, as well as from their grandparents.

What role does melanin play in a baby’s eye color?
Melanin, produced by cells, is a type of pigment that is responsible for giving you the color of your skin and hair (or at least the hair color you had as a child). As everyone knows, sunlight darkens the skin, and again, it is the sun’s rays that affect eye color through the iris. When your child enters the world and is exposed to the bright lights of the delivery room, this slight shock initiates the production of melanin in the iris, which in turn causes changes in the color of the newborn baby’s eyes. Just a small amount of melanin and your baby will have blue eyes, add a little more melanin and you will have green eyes, keep adding more and you will have gray or hazel eyes, and with even more melanin, the baby’s eye color will reach a brown or even black color.

When does a baby’s eye color change?
The most rapid changes in eye color are likely to occur when your child is between 3 and 6 months old. By this time, the iris has hidden enough pigment that you will be able to better predict what the final eye color and shade will most likely be. But even if this is the case, the baby’s eye color can still change and bring some surprises! You may continue to notice subtle changes in eye color – for example green eyes slowly turning to hazel,  or hazel eyes deepen to brown by the time the child is about 3 years old. Just don’t expect baby brown eyes to turn into blue. They are more likely to remain dark.

What role does genetics play in a baby’s eye color?
A baby’s final eye shade and color depends on its mother and father, but also in the roll of the genetic dice. Because there is still much that is not understood in science about the interaction of genes and their part in determining eye color, it is difficult to make quick predictions about your baby’s eye color. 

Baby eye color prediction
Still, here are some guesses about the baby’s likely eye color compared to its parents:

– Brown eyes + Brown eyes
If the eyes of both partners are brown, but one of you has a blue-eyed parent (i.e. a grandparent), then there is a small chance that the eyes of the little one will remain blue. Brown eyes in the baby are 75% likely.
– Brown eyes + Green eyes
If one parent has brown eyes and the other has green eyes, then the chance of the baby having brown eyes is 50%, and the chance of having green eyes is 37.5%. The remaining 12.5% is for the baby to have blue eyes.
– Brown eyes + Blue eyes
If one of you has brown eyes and the other has blue eyes, then your child’s eyes have a 50-50 chance of taking the “blue genes” or the “brown genes”.
– Green eyes + Green eyes
If both parents have green eyes, the child has a 75% chance of having green eyes, a 24% chance of having blue eyes, and less than 1% chance that the baby’s eye color will be brown.
– Green eyes + Blue eyes
If one parent has blue eyes and the other has green eyes, there is a very small, almost zero chance that the child will have brown eyes, and the chances are 50/50 for the green or blue team.
– Blue eyes + Blue eyes
If both parents have blue eyes, then there is a 99% chance that those baby blue eyes will continue to dazzle you with their color for many years to come. Leaving 1 percent for them to be green.
– Waardenburg syndrome
If your child has one brown eye and one blue eye, you should consult a doctor because it is a rare genetic condition called Waardenburg syndrome.



Keep in mind: According to some studies, the color of a baby’s eyes depends not only on its parents, but also on its grandparents. That’s why any predictions about your child’s eye color can never be 100% certain, as the genetics of the generations before yours also play an important role.