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How eye color changes in infants. When, why and how do newborns change eye color? What determines the color of the iris

Is it true that all children are born with blue eyes? What color the eyes of newborns actually are, read the material.

If you are a first-time mother, then, of course, you have much less experience than mothers with several children. And this is absolutely natural. And it is also natural that you have encountered stories that may or may not be true.

For example, you've probably heard that all children are born blue-eyed. But in reality? Unless you're a nurse in a maternity ward who sees hundreds of babies every day, it's hard to know the truth, even if you read regularly. Well, let's find out.

What is the truth? First of all, not all babies are born with blue eyes. African-Americans, Spaniards, and Asians have dark eyes from birth, which remain so throughout their lives. This is because these ethnic groups naturally have pigment in their skin, eyes and hair. The pigment is called melanin, and it predominates in darker-skinned representatives of the human race.

White-skinned people have less melanin, which is why the color of their hair, skin and eyes may change. People with blue eyes have the least amount of melanin in the iris, while the average amount of pigment results in green or brown eyes. Those people who have the most melanin have dark brown eyes, and the shade can vary.

Yes, it is true that white-skinned children are most often born with blue or gray eyes, which change color over time. This happens because the pigment level increases compared to the original level. Thus, the eye color of newborns does not always remain the same as the child grows. So, if your baby has light eyes now, this does not mean at all that they will remain so when he grows up a little - even in infancy, they can turn green, brown or dark brown.

The eye color of your partner and other family members will help predict what eye color your child will have in the future. To make it easier for you, look at the table, which shows the percentage probability of a baby's eye color depending on the parent's eye color.

So now you know everything you need to know what color your baby's eyes will be when he grows up.

Eye color changes in many children, parents wonder when this happens in children and what it depends on. After all, most babies are born with indigo eyes.

Subsequently, bright blue eyes will change their color to one that will remain with the person for the rest of his life, changing only from the emotions or light experienced.

Features of vision in children

The structure of the visual organs in children has the same structure as in adults. The only difference is visual acuity, the final formation of which occurs by 12 months. A one-month-old baby can only distinguish bright light by turning its head towards its source.

A one-month-old baby is unable to focus his gaze on one object, and the pupil reacts only to a source of bright light. In the first and second months of life, the ability to focus on one point is formed, and by six months the child can clearly identify figures.

By the first year, the organs of vision operate at only 50% of the total potential of visual function, as in an adult. The color has not been determined at this stage. The exception is children who are genetically born with brown eyes.

All babies have dark blue, smoky eyes from birth. This phenomenon occurs due to the extremely low concentration of melanin in the body - the pigment substance that gives color to the eyes and hair.

The absence of pigment is due to the fact that its formation does not occur immediately, but appears only after accumulation. A change in color can only occur in the direction of darkening, and depends on genetic predisposition.

Why can the color of the iris change?

The color of the iris in babies can change, and this depends on the emotional mood. When crying, the eyes may turn green; when the child feels hungry, the iris darkens; in a calm state it remains blue.

Does eye color change in newborns?

In some fairly rare cases, a newborn baby's eye color will be brown and will remain that way. Eyes that are blue at birth will change color over the course of several years until they are fully formed. This usually takes three years.

Sometimes the color formation process can last up to 4 years. In some cases, the shell may change its color more than once. The reason lies in the gradual production of a pigment substance - melanin.

Its concentration changes as the child grows and develops. The change in eye color, which occurs several times during infancy, most cases occurs in children with blond hair.

You can track the process of changing the eye color of a baby who was born with blue eyes between 2 and 4 months. If the eyes change to dark, the child will have dark spots on the iris. This is how the process of filling the iris fibers with pigment occurs.

When the final color of the eyes is formed

What a person’s eyes will be like is determined by nature at the initial stage of fetal development, at about 10 weeks.

The first change in iris color occurs at 6-9 months in newborns, when enough melanin has accumulated.

The iris will never brighten if it was initially filled with melanin. The final formation of the iris occurs at 3, less often at 4 years.

In some extremely rare cases, children have different colored eyes, for example, the left eye may be brown and the right eye blue.

Pathological eye color is called heterochromia, it occurs in 1% of people. If a person is genetically programmed to have brown eyes, the final formation of the color of the iris occurs, in most cases, by 3-5 months.

The special role of melanin in infants

The pigment produced in the body plays an important role in protecting the body from exposure to aggressive ultraviolet rays. The concentration of pigment in the human body depends on individual characteristics and genetic predisposition.

Most of the planet's inhabitants have dark eyes. Brown color can have different shades - light brown (tea), brown, dark brown and black.

Blue eyes are a mutation of the HERC2 gene. The blue color is formed due to insufficient concentration of melanin in the body. Light eyes are characteristic of representatives of the peoples of the European part of the continent.

In extremely rare cases, melanin is completely absent in the human body. This phenomenon is called albinism. In albino people, the eye color appears red due to small blood vessels called capillaries.

The amount of melanin depends on heredity. Even if both parents have blue eyes, but there are close relatives with brown eyes, there is a high probability that the child will inherit dark eye color.

Newborns have virtually no melanin, which is why most babies are born with blue eyes. Over time, the body begins to produce a pigment substance, which, when accumulated, gives the eyes a certain color. The process of pigment production, its quantity and the time required for accumulation in the body are individual for each person.

Video

What time does the eye color change?

The level of melanin in the blood and heredity are two factors that affect the color of a child’s eyes. There is no connection between blood groups, the state of the body and the presence of diseases.

The influence of heredity can be traced through several generations. The gene for dark eyes always turns out to be much stronger, but this does not mean that if, for example, the father has dark eyes and the mother is blue-eyed, the child will have a dark iris color.

There is a so-called blue-eyed gene, which is carried by people with brown eyes. Mom has blue eyes, dad has brown eyes, but one of the dad’s parents had light eye color, he is a carrier of the gene, which means that such a couple will have a blue-eyed child.

At what age can children change eye color?

In small children under 3 years of age who were born with blue eyes and have not yet passed the period of final formation of the color of the iris, the shade may change depending on the emotional state of the child:

if a child is hungry, the eyes darken;
when crying, the eyes turn green;
the baby is not bothered by anything, he is in a good mood - the color of the iris is bright blue.

The shade of the eyes depends on how tightly the fibers of the iris are woven. In people with blue eyes, the fibers of the iris have extremely low density and are filled with a minimal amount of melanin.

Light passing at low frequencies through the back layer of the iris is absorbed in it, and high-frequency waves of light are reflected from the iris, as a result of these processes the eyes become blue. The lower the fiber density, the brighter the color.

In blue eyes, the fibers of the iris have increased density. The color of the iris is grayish, with a dark tint. Gray and green eyes are characterized by a dense plexus of iris fibers, which are filled with yellow and brownish pigment.

Pure green eye color is an extremely rare phenomenon, which is mainly found among residents of northern Europe. Brown eyes are obtained due to the presence of dense fiber, which is filled with a large amount of melanin. Light passing through the iris is absorbed, reflecting a brown tint.

Predicting eye color in children

Almost all parents try to guess whose eyes their offspring will inherit, especially if the parents themselves have different eyes:

Both mom and dad have dark eyes - the color of the child's iris is more likely to be brown. The probability of green eyes is 16%, blue eyes are 6%.
Mom has green eyes, dad has brown eyes - the child may have brown eyes (50%), green eyes (38%), blue eyes (12%).
Father's blue iris + mother's brown eyes - the child can inherit brown eyes (50%) or blue eyes (50%). There is no chance of green eyes.
Green eyes + green eyes - the probability of a child having brown eyes is no more than 1%, green eyes (75%), blue eyes (25%).
Green eyes + blue eyes - the probability of a child having green eyes is 50%, blue eyes - 50%. There is no chance of inheriting brown eyes.
Both parents have blue eyes - the child has a 99% chance of having blue eyes, and a 1% chance of having green eyes. There is no chance of inheriting brown eyes.

This data is generalized. It is not possible to say in advance with one hundred percent certainty what kind of eyes a person will have. Eye color is always influenced by the genotype of immediate relatives.

Despite the fact that the color of brown eyes is always stronger than the gene for blue eyes, a mother with brown eyes and a father with blue eyes can have a blue-eyed child if the mother’s immediate family had blue eyes. Genes can be passed on through several generations.

Or maybe it's a hereditary factor?

Three genes are responsible for the color of human eyes, which are passed on from parent to child. One of these genes carries information about how tightly the fibers in the iris will be woven together and the amount of melanin in the human body will be produced.

The remaining two types of genes carry information about what color is assigned to the child at the genetic level - whether the eyes will be dark or bright blue, black or tea-colored. It depends on the way the genes of both parents are intertwined. If the father has brown eyes (genotype AA) and the mother has blue eyes (aa), the child's genotype will be Aa.

By interacting with each other, the genes of the parents form 4 genotypes in the child. Each “A” of the father’s genotype is associated with an “a” of the mother’s genotype. The genotype of brown eyes “A” is stronger than the blue-eyed genotype “a”, which means that the child will have brown eyes, since in his genotype “Aa”, “A” of the father is stronger.

When the mother with brown eyes has the genotype “Aa”, and the father with blue eyes “aa”, when they interact, they can form 4 types of genotype in the child - “Aa”, “aa”, “Aa”, “aa”. This means that a child can equally inherit either the “Aa” or “aa” genotype - that is, the probability of getting blue or brown eyes is the same, and is equal to 50%. An important role in the inheritance of eye color is played not only by the genotypes of parents, but also by immediate relatives.

Why does it depend on blood type

Does eye color change depending on blood type? There are no reliable facts or evidence that the formation of eye color depends on a person’s blood type. There is an unproven theory that a person with negative Rh blood often has blue eyes, and people with the first blood group have a dark iris.

This theory is based on the fact that previously only the first blood group with positive Rhesus existed on earth, which was later divided into 4 groups.

Considering the fact that blue eyes arose as a result of a gene mutation, and in ancient times all people had brown irises, a version is being built about brown eyes and the first blood group, but in practice it has not been proven.

The only connection between blood and eye color can be traced when a person has serious diseases that can affect the color of the iris, making it darker or leading to discoloration, which occurs, in most cases, in older people. This phenomenon is associated with a gradual decrease in the concentration of melanin and the cessation of its production.

There is a theory of a connection between eye color and nationality. The majority of indigenous people in European countries are blessed with light eyes - blue or gray. Children belonging to the Mongoloid race. They are born predominantly with green eyes, with brownish inclusions.

Representatives of the Negroid race always have brown eyes at birth, which is associated with a high concentration of melanin. The green color of the iris is very rare, mainly among the indigenous population of Turkey.

There are always exceptions, e.g. Due to gene mutation and mixing of nationalities several generations ago, a representative of the Negroid race may have light eyes.

Beautiful mutation heterochromia in a child

In the rarest cases, in one eye the iris is filled with dark pigment, while in the other it remains blue. This rare pathology is associated with a disruption in the distribution of melanin across both irises.

Heterochromia does not pose a risk to human visual function. The pathology can be congenital or acquired. Congenital heterochromia can be inherited.

Acquired heterochromia occurs due to the development of various diseases. Regardless of the causes of the pathology, the child must be regularly shown to an ophthalmologist.

The main causes of heterochromia:

The congenital form is caused by weakening of the sympathetic division of the cervical nerve. Does not pose a threat to human health.
Occurs as a result of the development of Fuchs' disease. May lead to eye diseases.
Develops as a result of mechanical injuries, tumors, inflammatory processes in the eyes.

The difference in color appears in the iris of one eye, which will be partially brown and blue. This type of change is called sector heterochromia.

Another type of uneven color of the iris is central heterochromia, which is characterized by the presence of several rings around the iris that have a distinctive color from the main one.

The pathology must be corrected, as it can lead to serious diseases of the organs of vision, in particular, provoke darkening of the lens, cataracts, and the development of precipitation (white spots).

Heterochromia is a very unusual manifestation of improper filling of the iris with pigment, and always makes a person stand out from the crowd. Only acquired heterochromia can be dangerous to vision, which indicates pathological changes in the human body and the presence of diseases.

If a child was born with different eye colors, the phenomenon is physiological in nature and is caused by a hereditary factor.

According to numerous scientific studies, most people have brown eyes. This fact is explained by the dominance of the brown eye gene over other genotypes.

Melanin is a pigment substance produced by the human body to protect it from ultraviolet rays. The main components of the pigment are cholesterol, tyrosine and amino acid.

Frequent consumption of foods high in these substances can trigger rapid melanin production. But in such cases, only the skin tone may change, and these changes will be temporary.

We also know from our school biology course that the dominant eye color is brown. That is, if one parent has dark brown eyes and the other has green eyes, then their baby will most likely be brown-eyed. This is why many parents are surprised when they discover that their newborn’s eyes have a blue or purple tint. But there is no need to panic - the eye color of newborns will not always be the same.

It has long been known that all children are born with the same eye color, which changes over time. When? Let's try to figure it out.

Why are all children born light-eyed?

It's all about melanin, which is responsible for the formation of color pigment in the iris of the eye. Melanin begins to be released when exposed to light. This is why a newborn's eye color changes only after birth. In the mother's belly, in the absence of light sources, melanin is not released in the child's body, so the baby's eyes have an indeterminate blue-gray-violet color.

When a newborn is born, he opens his eyes, looks at the sun, at a burning light bulb, or just out the window, and this seems to trigger the production of melanocytes. Their number depends on genetic predisposition.

Regardless of what eye color the baby had at birth, it will certainly change over time. Blue color can turn into bright blue or gray, and brown color can darken, acquire a reddish or yellowish tint. It all depends on the heredity that the baby was given by his parents.

As stated earlier, the predominant and dominant color is dark brown. There are more people in the world with this iris color. In second place are blue-eyed (gray-eyed) people. There are fewer people with green eyes; their genes are less involved in the formation of eye color in newborns.

Thus, we can make the following forecast:

parents with brown and green eyes have a greater chance of giving birth to a brown-eyed child;
if one parent has blue (gray) irises and the other has brown ones, then the chances are divided in half;
the combination of “green” and “blue” genes excludes the possibility of having a brown-eyed child, but the likelihood that the baby will be blue-eyed is greater;
if both parents have blue eyes, then the baby’s eyes will be 100% the same color;
but brown-eyed parents have a chance to give birth to a child with light eyes.

However, it is important to remember that all calculations are conditional, and anything can happen in life. Even the genetic system sometimes fails.

When do babies' eyes change color?

It is impossible to answer this question unequivocally, since all children are different and the development of each newborn occurs according to an individual program.

In some newborns, the color changes to a permanent color in the first months of life. This usually applies to dark-skinned and brown-eyed babies. After just a couple of months, the color of their eyes changes to green or brown.

But usually the eye color of newborns begins to change at 6-9 months, and this process can drag on for up to 3-5 years. There is also a later change in the color of the iris.

That’s why you shouldn’t panic if your two-year-old baby’s eye color hasn’t changed yet. This does not mean at all that he will remain this way forever, just as it does not indicate the presence of deviations in the child’s development. Often the shade changes very slowly, and this process is not always noticeable to parents. Blue irises may gradually turn gray-green and then turn brown-green. Or, on the contrary, they may lighten and become blue.

But sometimes a baby's eyes can change color as a result of some illness or even stress. Such seemingly insignificant factors as weather, lighting, and mood can also influence.

Do not be surprised or panic if during the first year of a newborn’s life the color of his eye changes several times. This is especially true for fair-haired children. Their eyes can take on a variety of shades - from light blue to bright blue.

Only 2% of the population of our planet has green eyes.
Eye color depends on nationality and place of residence. Among Russians, gray and blue colors are more common, and brown is only 30%; among Ukrainians and Belarusians, brown-eyed people are 50%, and among Spaniards, Latin Americans and Brazilians - 80% or more.
A rare genetic disorder in newborns is heterochromia. The color of the eyes of these babies varies.
The absence of melanin pigment in a newborn is called albinism. The eye color of such a baby is red.
It is impossible to determine with 100% accuracy what your baby’s eyes will be like.
Eye color can be affected by jaundice. With this disease, the whites turn yellow, and it is not possible to say exactly what color the baby’s eyes are.

Conclusion

No matter what the baby is, for his parents he still is and will be the most beautiful and beloved child in the world.

Remember that you can find your reflection not only in the color of the child’s eyes and facial features. It is much more important to raise the baby correctly and raise him to be a real person. Then, looking at your son or daughter, every time you will experience a feeling of satisfaction and pride, no matter what color of your child’s eyes.

The first, but far from the only, surprise greets moms and dads when a newborn baby opens its eyes for the first time. And instead of daddy’s amber shine, everyone sees gray-blue eyes. Has it really been changed?

What color are the eyes of newborns?

Our body is amazing, it is formed in utero and after birth throughout life it is constantly changing. There are fewer bones with age, the thymus (responsible for the creation of immune cells) disappears by the age of 15, and even the eye color that we are accustomed to in adulthood could be a different color at birth.

Genetics guarantees a predisposition to the child's eye color depending on the color type of the parents' eyes, but it is impossible to say for sure that your blue-eyed baby will look at the world with light eyes.

This is due to various factors:

skin color, nationality of parents;
genetic relationships;
% melanin content in the body.

Dark-skinned parents with dark eyes cannot give birth to a blue-eyed baby: the dark pigment is dominant in most cases. For light-eyed parents, the process of establishing the color of the baby's eyes is more interesting and less predictable.

Everything depends not only on the parental genes, but also on the ancestors: it is impossible to predict which dominant gene will be transferred at the moment of conception, and it is also unclear how much pigment a small organism can produce on its own in order to determine the final color of the eyes.

Subtleties of the process of establishing eye color

Why does a newborn's eye color change? The main reason for the instability of the eye color of a newborn is an increase in the body's production of melanos, melanin (translated from Greek as “black”). This substance:

consists of high molecular weight compounds;
responsible for coloring the tissues of living organisms;
to date has not been fully studied.

We can reliably talk about a direct correlation between eye color and melanin. The higher the pigment content in the body, the darker the baby's eyes will be.

The basis of the iris is made up of textural, pigmentation, tissue and vascular factors in the structure of the eyeball. Melanin colors the thin layer on the back wall of the iris.

The mechanism of its production is activated after birth by special cells - melanocytes. In the first months, the body forms, adapts to the external environment, accumulates pigment, and by six months of the baby’s life, changes in the color of the iris are visible, although the final color tone is established at 2-3 years.

In what cases does a newborn's eye color not change?

In some cases, it is possible to accurately predict the color of a newborn's eyes.

If both parents are brown-eyed and the child has dark eyes at birth, then they will remain so for life.

Danish scientists conducted a large-scale study and came to the conclusion that initially all the inhabitants of the earth had brown eyes.

When the parents have a mechanism for disabling the formation of melanin fixed at the genetic level, the baby inherits the factor of “light” eyes, which cannot change with age.

During the course of evolution, a certain mechanism appeared in human genetics that “turns off” the gene that produces melatonin. A decrease in pigment affects the appearance of the entire body, including the eyes. So people with bluish and gray-green eyes gradually began to appear.

Another option when the child’s eye color is stable from birth is albinism. This is a severe form of gene mutations associated with the inability to produce pigment, and then children’s eyes are very light from birth.

Depending on the severity of the disease, they may develop a fear of light and sun, and there is currently no treatment.

Genetic and anatomical and physiological characteristics of eye color

In the 19th century, G. Mendel laid the foundation for genetics by identifying dominant and recessive genes of heredity. Dominant always dominates, recessive always yields, with the possibility of becoming paramount in subsequent generations. This also applies to eye color.

The dark color of the iris will dominate the light ones, but there is always a small chance that grandmother's gray eyes will appear after several generations. These are simple rules, but geneticists have found that for the formation of eye color, 6 genes are involved in different areas, and combinations of even one color can reach up to a thousand.

Eyes come in different colors, this is due to the thin iris containing clumps of dark pigment - the same one on which skin color and tan depend. If there is little pigment in the shell, the eyes are light; if there is a lot, they are almost black.

Most newborns have blue eyes because lumps of pigment have not yet accumulated in their irises; this requires at least six months.

Color transformations in newborns

Parents are eagerly waiting for their baby to open his eyes for the first time. But expectations may not be met, and moms and dads are at a loss: from whom did the child inherit the uncharacteristic color scheme? Everything is simple here.

How does eye color change in newborns?

There is a pattern: if the eyes are light blue and the parents are also light-eyed, there will be no radical transformations.

But the gray eyes are waiting to be transformed. In six months, a child may look at you with amber, brown or black eyes. Genetics is an unpredictable science.

How long to wait to see true eye color

Despite the fact that starting from the 77th day of intrauterine development, the iris is formed in the fetus, it is too early to talk about the constant color of the child’s eyes in the first months of life. During birth, all systems of the body are restarted, learning to work in new modes: beneficial bacteria populate the stomach, melatonin is intensively produced in the cells, a pigment that is also responsible for eye color.

When a child is born, his eyes are most often clear, and for many parents it comes as a surprise that the color of the eyes of their little miracle is different from the color of the eyes of mom and dad. There is no need to worry about this, since there is a certain period when the eye color of a newborn baby changes.

By six months, you will see dramatic changes in eye color, if there are hereditary factors. But you can say that a child has daddy’s gray or mommy’s green eyes only after a couple of years. It is then that melanin finally forms the iris and maintains color throughout life.

What eye color will the child have: table

Using the table, let's assume what kind of eyes the baby will have, not forgetting that each color has several nuances. Brown - not only brown, also honey, amber, onyx; blue ones are indigo or brilliant blue, and among the gray ones there are silver or pewter.

Despite scientific knowledge and genetics, it is worth remembering: to all the rules and laws, life always presents surprising exceptions.

And some additional interesting information can be found in the following video.

There is an opinion that a newborn's eyes are necessarily blue, but this is not entirely true - he can be absolutely anything. But the content of the pigments that determine the color of the iris changes with age, so the appearance of a newborn will say very little about what he will look like when he grows up a little. We will talk further about when the eye color of a newborn baby changes and how this happens.

The color of a person's eyes is determined by the coloring pigment melanin. It is located in the iris, a small area of the choroid that is adjacent to the anterior surface.

It is round in shape and surrounds the pupil. The main function of the pigment is to protect the retina from excess solar radiation. Eye color depends on the location and amount of melanin.

	Lots of melanin	Little melanin
Anterior layers of the iris	Brown - the color is due to the color of the pigment	Green - melanin reflects rays from the blue part of the spectrum, which are additionally refracted in the fibers of the iris. Color saturation depends on lighting
Posterior layers of the iris	Gray - due to the color of melanin, but due to its deep location, a lighter tone is obtained	Blue and cyan - a small amount of melanin reflects the rays of the blue part of the spectrum. Depending on the density of the fibers of the surface layers of the iris, the color will be more or less saturated
Other distribution	Black - even distribution throughout the iris	Gold, amber, marsh - uneven distribution. Eye color changes depending on lighting

In addition to melanin, lipofuscin may be present in the eyes - it gives a yellowish tint. A complete absence of melanin occurs in albinos, with the eyes having a red or pink tint.

The distribution of melanin is a hereditary trait, but the amount of melanin can change with age.

Changes with age in a child

During intrauterine development, melanin is produced in small quantities - this is due to the fact that the need for it will appear only after birth. Therefore, at birth they often have light hair, eyes and skin tone.

Depending on the distribution of melanin, the eyes of newborns may be pale blue, light gray, or have a greenish or amber tint. Some babies are born with distinct gray or brown irises.

The distribution of melanin remains unchanged, but its production increases as we grow older. Because of this, there is a gradual darkening of the eyes to their final color. How much it will change depends on the individual characteristics of the child; the color may remain almost the same (most often this happens with gray eyes) or sharply darken from light gray to brown.

When should I change

The most significant changes in appearance occur before age 3. At this time, the color of the eyes and hair may change radically, and the skin tone may become darker or lighter than before. During the process, the shade of the iris may change several times, so it is still too early to talk about the exact color of the child’s eyes.

Until what age does this happen?

Most often, the final eye color is formed by the age of 3. During this time, several color changes may occur, sometimes quite strong. If the color continues to change after three years, then the baby is the happy owner of chameleon eyes, and this feature of appearance will decorate him.

But if this worries parents, or the baby shows any symptoms of impaired vision, then he should be shown to an ophthalmologist. If the eye color was determined earlier, there is nothing wrong with that either.

Will it necessarily change or may it remain the same?

Most often, the eyes become darker as the child gets older. But this may not happen, and then the color of the iris will remain the same or almost the same as at birth.

This happens quite often. As a rule, in cases where the baby was already born with dark eyes - brown or black, which simply cannot darken even more. The opposite situation is that the child has inherited a small amount of melanin from his parents, and his eyes will only darken slightly, remaining gray or blue.

How to determine the final eye color

Eye color is an inherited trait, so it must be determined not only by the shade of the baby’s iris, but also by the eye color of parents and more distant relatives. Based on statistics, the following patterns have been derived:

If a baby is born with brown eyes, their color does not change;
A child of brown-eyed parents will in most cases have brown eyes; green or blue eyes are much less common;
The parents have gray eyes - the child may have gray, brown or blue;
Parents have blue eyes - their children will have the same ones;
Parents have green eyes - the child will have green eyes, less often - brown or blue eyes;
The parents have a combination of brown/gray – any option for the child;
Parents have brown/green - brown or green, less often blue;
The combination of brown/blue is brown, blue or gray, but never green;
The combination of gray/green – any eye color of the child;
Gray/blue – gray or blue for the baby;
Green/blue - any of these two options, but not brown or gray.

In fact, inheritance of eye color is somewhat more complicated. If parents have doubts about where a similar color came from, you can consult a medical geneticist. This is an expensive, but very accurate procedure.

In what cases does heterochromia occur?

Heterochromia

Heterochromia is different eye colors in one person. In this case, both eyes may have a different color (one is brown, the other is blue - the most common option, complete heterochromia), or one sector of the iris is painted in a color different from the rest of the circle (sectoral heterochromia), or the inner and outer edges of the iris differ in color ( central heterochromia).

The central or sectoral manifestation of the condition may or may not be symmetrical, occurring in one or both eyes. Heterochromia is not considered a pathology.

The reason is a hereditary disorder of melanin distribution. It may not be visible in a newborn, but becomes noticeable after the final determination of eye color. It does not pose any danger to the baby.

In some cases, a change in the color of the iris may be a symptom of inflammatory processes (iritis, iridocyclitis, vascular lesions), but then other signs of pathology appear along with it.

What affects eye color

First of all, heredity influences eye color. Because brown eyes are the most resistant to sunlight, they have become the most common eye color on Earth. The green and gray irises perform their function a little worse (the green iris has little melanin, and the gray one is located too deep); these eye colors are approximately equally distributed.

Blue eyes do not protect well from the sun, so they are often found among representatives of the peoples of Northern Europe. The rarest color is blue, it is associated with a small amount of melanin, located deep, and at the same time with a low density of iris fibers. Owners of such eyes are advised to wear sunglasses.

Diseases affecting eye color

In addition to normal factors, pathological factors can also affect the color of the iris. The most famous among them is albinism. This is a hereditary disease in which the production of melanin is disrupted - it stops partially or completely. With partial albinism, the eyes may have a blue or green color, but usually a rather subtle color. With complete albinism, the eye color becomes red - this is due to the blood vessels being visible.

With glaucoma, the color of the eyes becomes lighter due to increased intraocular pressure, and some drugs for it, on the contrary, cause darkening of the eyes. Bright blue eye color in a newly born baby may be a sign of congenital glaucoma.

Inflammatory processes in the iris can lead to a decrease in the amount of pigment or its complete disappearance in the affected sector.

How does eye color affect vision?

Eye color does not affect vision at all - the iris is not involved in the optical system of the eye. But the amount of melanin affects the patient's ability to tolerate exposure to bright sunlight without harming the retina. Blue-eyed people are more likely to experience eye irritation, photophobia, and fatigue after intense visual stress.