The baby has gray eyes. What color are the eyes of newborn babies and why do they change? Gray and dark gray

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 choroid brain, which is adjacent to the anterior surface.

It has round 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. Complete absence melanin occurs in albinos, causing the eyes to have 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 individual characteristics 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 - the child inherited from his parents a small amount of melanin, and his eyes will darken only 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 medical genetics. 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 can have different colour(one brown, the other 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 iris color may be a symptom 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 the Brown eyes The most resistant to solar radiation, they have become the most common eye color on Earth. The green and gray irises perform their function a little worse (the green one has little melanin, and the gray one has it 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. Most rare color– 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 hereditary disease, in which the production of melanin is disrupted - it stops partially or completely. In partial albinism, the eyes may appear blue or green color, but usually quite weakly expressed. With complete albinism, the eye color becomes red - this is due to the blood vessels being visible.

With glaucoma, eye color 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 optical system eyes. 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.

A few months after birth, you can already begin to count on changes in eye color - they become “cleaner” and begin to take on a shade. On average, eyes acquire their color at six months of age, but changes can occur significantly later.

The baby has just been born, and everyone is already hovering around him, looking at him - who does he look like? Mom's cheeks, dad's hair. What about the eyes? All babies are born with an indeterminate gray-blue eye color with a certain haze. Dark-skinned babies may be born with dark eyes, but often all eyes are almost the same. A few months after birth, you can already begin to count on changes in eye color - they become “cleaner” and begin to take on a shade. On average, eyes acquire their color at six months of age, but changes can occur much later - up to 3-4 years. All this is within normal limits, since the pigmentation of the iris directly depends on the production of melanin in the baby’s body, which is responsible for protection from exposure to the sun (ultraviolet). The speed of this process is individual, so it is impossible to say exactly when exactly your child will decide what color eyes to look at this world with.

If you’re really impatient, you can keep yourself busy guessing. Not completely blindly, of course, but even with some degree of probability. The fact is that the amount of melanin pigment that the body considers optimal is a genetically determined indicator. Usually children inherit this trait directly from their parents, but occasionally it happens that the eyes are inherited from their grandparents. However, this most often refers to shades rather than the main color difference. The child takes the main color from one of the parents according to the principle of dominance. That is, if both dad and mom have blue eyes, then most likely their child will have the same light eyes. If one of the parents has brown eyes, then there is a high probability that the child will also have dark eyes, because this gene is the strongest. But it is extremely difficult to acquire green eyes - the green-eyed gene is very weak and appears only in combination with the same “green” gene. The main colors are blue, green and brown, and gray, honey, blue, greenish-brown, etc. are already shades.

In principle, even in adulthood and even maturity, eye color may change, but this will be the result of a very powerful malfunction in the body. You can also meet people who have eyes of two colors, i.e., for example, the left eye is blue and the right eye is brown. This may be caused by a gene conflict or a failure in melanin production, but in general is not a sign of any serious problems in the human body.

Each person's eyes are unique - they are as unique as fingerprints. So, no matter what the eyes of your newborn miracle become, you already know: these eyes are the best! You will distinguish them from a million others because they are special...

All changes in your baby’s body occur according to their own internal routine. Therefore, it is only possible to say when the eyes will change their color.

Is it true that all children are born with eyes? blue color? 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. And in fact? Unless you are a medical professional in maternity ward, in front of which hundreds of kids pass every day, it is quite difficult to find out 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, which remain so throughout life. This happens 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.

The eyes of every adult and even a tiny child have an individual shade. Based on this, disputes arise among future parents when the eye color of a newborn is determined. WITH scientific point In terms of vision, this feature of the eye organ of infants does not know the exact reasons. There are many factors that influence the change in the shade of babies' eyes.

Each baby after birth has its own eye color. This physiological factor, which does not indicate a violation. All babies are born with gray or dull blue eyes; over time, the organ of vision is formed in a new way. Here are four factors that cause a change in the shade of the visual organ in infants:

Thus, it is easy to determine the mood of a baby by the shade of his eyes. With normal vision functioning in a newborn, the pupils react to light. In a dark room, the baby's pupil dilates, and in bright light it contracts.

Attention! Doctors observe babies in the first two weeks of lifeinverted vision, so you need to approach the baby carefully and slowly so as not to scare him.

A change in eye color occurs in a child by the age of two to three years; the influencing factor is considered genetic predisposition or features of intrauterine development.

Does the color of a newborn's eye affect visual acuity?

The baby's visual organ is identical to the eye of an adult, however, the vision of newborns is still too weak. At first, the baby sees only light and this can be seen by the way the baby closes his eyes.

After a few months, the baby is able to focus his vision for a few seconds on a specific object. By 6 months, a baby is able to distinguish shapes and objects, and by one year, he sees all objects in bright pictures. We invite you to explore several interesting facts about baby's vision:

during the newborn period, the baby’s vision reaches only 50% of the generally accepted norm;
eye color from birth and its change depending on situations does not affect visual acuity;
if a newborn has different eye colors, this does not always indicate a developmental pathology;
Brown eye color is the most common, while green is rare.

For parents! There is a disease that negatively affects visual acuity with infancy child. This ailment is considered. It can be noticed when the sclera of an infant's eye turns yellow.

How does a child’s visual organ work?

Baby's eyes have optic nerves, which perceive external information and transmit it to the brain, where the received information is processed, and all this happens at high speed. The eye of a newborn is compared to a camera.

Over time, pigment is released in the child’s body, which is a direct prerequisite for changing the color of eyes, hair and skin. This pigment is called melanin, it protects the body from ultraviolet radiation. Great influence on color scheme The child's eyes are influenced by the genes of the father and mother. The combined amount of melanin of both parents determines what shade the baby’s visual organ will acquire when it grows up.

Children's humor!
Vlad (7 years old):

Mom, I know why shrimp are called shrimp!

Why?

Because they are crooked!

Watch the video to see how the baby's visual organ works.

Is it possible to guess what the baby's eye color will be after birth?

Today, it is only possible to calculate what the eye tone of a newborn will be like. Pay attention to the statistics: most children are born dark-eyed, this is a consequence of the fact that one of the parents has dark eyes. In the case where the parents have light eyes, most likely the baby will have light gray or light blue eyes.

Both parents who have rich brown eyes can be sure that their baby will be born with brown eyes, however, as they grow older, their shade may change. For detailed information, we suggest studying the table of dependence of eye color according to genetic data.

Attention! If your baby was born with red eyes, which is extremely rare, it means there is not enough melanin in his body.

The connection between eye color and baby's character

It is popularly believed that by the color of the baby's iris you can determine future character child. According to ancient beliefs it was believed:

a child with blue or heavenly eyes will grow up to be romantic, kind and sincere in nature;
children with gray eyes will be honest and decisive;
a newborn with green eyes will inherit hardworking, demanding, decisive and pragmatic traits;
a baby with brown eyes will show feelings of love and shyness;
black eyes indicate temperament and excitement.

Rumyantseva Anna Grigorievna

Reading time: 4 minutes

A A

Children usually have light, bluish eyes at birth., which give the baby an “angelic look” that touches everyone around.

Parents and relatives of the baby often wonder whether their shade will change: will he look like his mother's or his father's?

There are even couples who are eager to determine the eye color of their unborn child using special tables and programs.

We will look at how effective this method is and what affects the color of the iris in the article.

Know! Heredity determines the child’s appearance, including the shade of the eyes. In this case, a child can inherit not only the traits of his parents, but also his closest relatives.

Recent research by scientists suggests the existence of at least six genes that influence iris color. They can be divided into two types:

Dominant genes predominate over recessive ones.

Thus, if one parent is brown and the other is green, then, most likely, the child will inherit more dark color- brown.

But in reality, the genetics of the color of the visual organs is much more complex, so their combinations depend on many factors.

It is worth noting! The probable shade of a child’s eyes can be determined based on the following data:

if both parents have blue eyes, in 99% of cases the child will inherit the same iris color;
a combination of green and brown shades guarantees a child’s brown color by 50%, green by 37%, and blue by only 13%;
parents with brown and blue eyes have the same chance of passing on their trait to their child;
parents with green irises will give their child their shade with a 75% probability, 25% remains for the appearance of a blue tint and 1% for a brown color;
green and blue can give both the first and second options and exclude the appearance of brown eyes in the baby;
Brown eyes of both parents account for 75% of the appearance of brown shades in the baby, 18% of cases account for the appearance of green and 7% - blue.

Physiological features of color formation

If you look at the formation of eye color in a newborn from the outside physiological processes, That melanin is responsible for the result.

The amount of it contained in the iris determines whether the eyes will be dark or light.

Besides melanin color is influenced by vessels and fibers outer shell organs of vision. The back shell, regardless of the tone of the eyes, is black.

Light eyes tend to fade when exposed to ultraviolet rays and become lighter with age.

Why do babies' eyes change color?

Attentive Parents often notice that their newborn's eye color is constantly changing.. This process is due to the specific action of melanin.

Need to know! Melanin is stimulated by exposure to sunlight. Its active activity begins some time after birth.

The pigment in the iris accumulates gradually and changes the color of the organs of vision over time.

In a newborn, pigmentation of the posterior layer of the iris is formed during gestation. and, as a rule, it has a dark color.

The anterior layer acquires color in the first days after birth.

Since melanin has not yet had time to be produced in the right amount, the iris of babies is painted in light shades.

Newborn eye shade children may change depending on mood.

For example, when a baby is hungry, the color of the irises will be gray, and in a sleepy baby, the eyes will become cloudy. The cheerful little one's eyes become brighter, as if they were glowing.

When does it begin to change and finally form?

Obvious color changes eyes in newborns appear at approximately three months of age. The reaction will be observed continuously for up to six months.

Note! Some children get the final result by six months. For others, this happens only after a year.

Green and honey tones can develop before the age of five.

In what cases does the color not change?

In some nationalities, children have brown or black irises at birth.

Such eyes will not become lighter with age, since the iris tends to change only to a darker shade.

There are the most brown-eyed people on the planet.

Black eyes in babies are extremely rare.

This phenomenon observed in dark-skinned children of the peoples of Asia, the Caucasus and Latin America.

Unusual color of the iris

In nature there are eyes of unusual shades.

For example, an actress Elizabeth Taylor had a purple iris. Such people are very rare.

Important! Scientists cannot name the exact reason for this phenomenon. Some argue that the cause is albinism.

Others are inclined to believe that a mutation is to blame for the unusual eye color.

As a rule, such children are born with a gray or blue tint to the iris, and by the age of six months a violet tint appears, which darkens and becomes saturated over time.

About people with unusual eyes there is a legend.

According to belief in Ancient Egypt Children with purple eyes began to be born after a mysterious flash in the sky above a small village.

It is believed that people with such a mutation have longevity and pass on their feature by inheritance.

There is an opinion that the owners emerald eyes have perfect vision, but this fact has not been confirmed by scientists.

Diseases that affect the formation of eye color in a child

You should know! There are a number of hereditary pathologies that affect the color of the iris from the very birth of the child, these include:

Remember! The iris has a unique pattern. Finding two people with exactly the same eyes is almost impossible.

Useful video

From this video you will learn when children's eye color changes:

It is not for nothing that there is a statement that the eyes are the mirror of the soul. By their appearance, you can say a lot about a person’s well-being, his health and mood.

Every child is unique from birth and it doesn’t matter what eye color he or she has.. The most important thing is that the baby is healthy and his eyes glow with happiness.

In contact with