I’ve always been fascinated by eye color, especially as it changes after a baby is born.
As happens with most caucasian babies, both my sons were born with blue eyes, but I haven’t expected it to last — my eyes are blue, but my husband’s are brown. My 5-month-old’s eyes are still quite blue, albeit with a few streaks around the middle of the iris. I was trying to remember when his big brother’s eyes changed, so I went through some old pictures the other night, and at 5 months, his eyes were already very greenish-brown. (In the photo above, that’s him on the left age 5 months old and nearly 4 years old; baby brother is on the right at 5 months.)
I was thinking maybe my blue-eyed genes might survive in my younger son, then, but the more I looked into it, the more it looks like it’s too soon to tell. Most resources suggest that babies’ eyes continue to change up to about 1 year old.
So I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
In case you’re wondering why the eyes change, eye color depends on genes and melanin — melanin responds to light, and since at birth, a baby’s eyes haven’t been exposed to light, it takes times for the cells to react to light and have their color be fully expressed.
When did your kids’ eyes change color, if they did?
