When do you see the color of a newborn's eye?
Let's face it, when we are faced with a newborn, one of the first things we ask ourselves about is the color of his eyes. We will thus be surprised to look carefully into his iris, to understand if it is blue, green or brown and if he has taken more from mom or dad.
The truth is that this curiosity - which no one can give up when visiting a newborn baby - has to wait a long time to be completely satisfied.
This is because it takes time for a child's eye to stabilize and show its true color.
In addition to this curiosity, there are others that assail us as soon as we know of a new birth, for example, knowing the name that the parents have chosen. Here are some with a particularly beautiful meaning to choose from for your children or suggest to your loved ones.
Blue, green, blue or brown: how is eye color determined?
In the first few months of life, babies will typically have blue, cerulean, or grayish eyes. This cerulean, more or less clear, in most cases is not the final color but a rather standard shade determined by the small amount of melanin present in the stroma of the iris in the period immediately following birth.
The specialized cells of which it is composed, called melanocytes, are activated only in the presence of light and it is therefore starting from birth that they will thus begin to "work", gradually determining the color of the eyes. In the nine months of pregnancy, the fetus was in the dark, therefore the color of the iris was not able to determine itself, precisely because of the absence of light, and is revealed with a generic cerulean, which one tries to interpret from the very beginning days, mistakenly mistaking it for a gray-blue future.
At this point it all depends on how the melanocytes work and how much melanin they secrete: if they produce little, the little one will have blue eyes, if they produce a little more, the color will almost certainly be green or hazelnut, if instead they work a lot, they will eyes will be brown - the most common case - or black.
There are also children who immediately show off dark or brown eyes, in these cases they will hardly change into lighter colors such as blue, gray or green, because the amount of melanin is already present in the genetic code and can therefore only stabilize, stay on. those tones or darken.
When does a newborn's eye color become permanent?
But then, how long do you have to wait before understanding what our child's eye color will be?
Generally it is only after the first birthday that it will be possible to state with certainty whether we are dealing with light or dark eyes and to identify the precise and definitive color; until then, it is better not to sing victory. Often, starting from the seventh month, very truthful hypotheses can be made about the eyes of newborns, but to be sure it is good to wait a real year from the birth of the baby.
The role of genetics (and grandparents) in determining color
But can we somehow guess it? Many women already pregnant - and with their partners and various relatives - begin to hypothesize and make bets on the colors of the eyes of the future child, studying all the possible combinations.
The color of the eyes, like all physical characteristics, is determined by genetics, so you can more or less come to understand it, without expecting shocking surprises. With a good chance, for example, from two people with blue eyes, or on the contrary brown, a child will be born with eyes of that same color. But be careful, this is not always the case, because grandparents and the DNA of the ancestors also come into play.
A child with green or blue eyes born of dark-eyed parents is not to be considered a bizarre thing: by going to find the family tree of both families, you will undoubtedly find one of the grandparents (paternal or maternal) with that same color. After all, how many siblings have different eyes even though they come from the same genetic combination?
However, it must be said that in general the dark color is dominant over the light one and is therefore more likely to be transmitted.
It must also be said that towards the first year of age, the color of the iris is more and less stabilized, it is therefore difficult to think that a light eye becomes brown-black, or in any case of a much darker color, and that of the eyes darks lighten too much becoming green-blue tones.
It is also always to be excluded that over the years there will be chromatic distortions, but it may happen that with the passing of age the shades become richer and the eyes undergo small changes, turning towards colors close to those of origin. such a rare example that brown-green eyes over time become completely or almost completely green.
Finally, it is necessary to make a consideration that can happen above all over the years: the sun in general tends to change the color of the eyes a little, bringing out small shades and slightly lightening the color of the iris; often it also highlights specks of a different color or tone on tone than the base one.
Squinting eyes: a normal occurrence in the first 6 months of a newborn's life
There is often alarmism about this, but new parents should know that a slight squint can be normal in the first six months of their babies' lives. The development of vision takes place in the brain and does not start directly from the eyes, it is therefore essential that the nerve signals and brain messages are complete and effective.
It is precisely at six months of age that the two sides of the brain begin to be well coordinated with each other and communicate correctly, also allowing the sight to stabilize and the eyes themselves to coordinate better.
In general, to understand this, there is a little test that every mother can do for herself: she covers one eye of the baby, makes both eyes move in one direction, perhaps making him follow the movement of a toy or any object that can attract his attention, and soon after he removes his hand from his covered eye to see if he was following the other.
In any case, it will be your own pediatrician to reassure you in the first months of your child's life, but if you have any doubts, do not hesitate to consult him spontaneously to get all the useful information.
