In newborn babies, eye color is mostly milky blue. After a while, the eyes begin to change, and the blue-eyed child turns into brown-eyed, blue-eyed, and so on.
Just because a newborn has blue eye color does not mean it will stay that way. In about three months, the baby's eyes will change color, so parents should not be upset if the child does not resemble any of the close relatives in this regard. As it grows, the structure of the eyes, and the color, and the ability to see will change.
In a newborn baby, the structure of the eye is similar to that of an adult. But the eyes cannot yet function fully. A child's visual acuity is reduced - immediately after birth and a little later, he is only able to see light and no more. But gradually, as the development progresses, visual acuity will improve. At one year old, a child sees about half as well as an adult.
Why are newborns' eyes light blue
In the first months of life, the baby's iris is light blue or light gray. This is due to the fact that after birth, the pigment melanin is almost absent in it. Changes in the color of the iris depend on the presence of melanin in it, as well as on the density of the fibers.
Gradually, the color of the eyes begins to change - as the baby develops, the body begins to produce and accumulate melanin. With a large amount of it, the eyes become brown or black, with a small amount - blue, green or gray.
Children's eye color can change several times. This is because melanin production changes as the child grows and develops. The final color of the iris acquires when the child is three to four years old.
What determines the color of a child's eyes
First of all, the amount of melanin contained in the iris of the eye is due to heredity. The reason is the dominance of traits at the genetic level. A child receives a complex of genes from both his parents and more distant ancestors.
It is difficult to predict exactly what color a child's eyes will be. If one of the parents has dark, brown eyes, the other has light eyes, the baby is likely to have brown eyes. In albinos, the color of the eyes can be reddish - this is a very rare pathology in which there is no melanin in the iris, and the color of the eyes is determined by the blood filling the vessels of the membrane.
Some babies are born with a phenomenon called heterochromia - one eye may be brown and the other green.
