• Question: are all babies eyes blue when they are first born?

    Asked by aimeeenglish to Betul, Bridget, Ceri-Wyn, Laurel, Maria on 23 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Ceri-Wyn Thomas

      Ceri-Wyn Thomas answered on 20 Jun 2010:

      Yes I think this is true for most humans and cats too! The reason is that even if your genes say you should have brown eyes- when you’re newly born the pigment molecule melanin hasn’t been fully formed in your irises yet. Also, melanin darkens on exposure to UV light which of course you won’t have seen before.

    • Photo: Bridget Waller

      Bridget Waller answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      I think so, yes… The pigment doesn’t develop properly until they are a few months old, and eyes look blue when there isn’t any pigmentation to darken them.

    • Photo: Laurel Fogarty

      Laurel Fogarty answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Apparently most babies have blue eyes when they are born. This is because the melanin pigment in the eye has not been darkened by UV light yet (they haven’t even seen any light yet!). After about 6 months babies eyes should be the colour they will be for the rest of their lives!

    • Photo: Maria Pawlowska

      Maria Pawlowska answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Yes, it’s because pigment production hasn’t kick-started yet.

    • Photo: Betul Arslan

      Betul Arslan answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      because the color chemical: melanin is not exposed to UV light when the baby is still in there 🙂 it takes some time for the pigment to take action and go to target place (this time to our iris) , and the more it is exposed to light the faster it is to evolve to the actual color! yey chemistry!

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