Why are Babies Born with Blue Eyes?
by Kelsey (AP Biology)
If you didn’t know, most babies are born with blue eyes, but usually grow out of it by the time they are 6 months old. Why is this??
Melanin is a brown pigment molecule that is deposited in the irises of your eyes; it’s also deposited in your hair and skin. As a baby, the melanin hasn’t been fully deposited or exposed to UV lights, which makes the pigment darker. The amount of melanin that your body has is an inherited trait, because it’s a protein coded for by a gene. If you inherit a small amount of melanin, you eyes will stay light as you get older, and if you inherit a large amount of melanin, your eyes will turn darker.
Though this is true, most African Americans, or dark pigmented people aren’t born with blue eyes, they usually have dark eyes that stay dark. This is because skin tone and eye color are controlled by multiple genes. These groups of genes (eye color and skin tone) are found on the same chromosome. This means that skin tone and eye color are usually inherited together, which is why most dark people have dark eyes, and pale people have light eyes. African Americans and other very dark complexioned people obviously have and are born with much more melanin than light people.
Albino people have no melanin, which is why their skin tone is white. Their eye color usually appears to be pink because the pink pigment of the blood vessels in the back of their eyes are reflecting light.
The source for the information above was the article by Anne Marie Helmenstine entitled, Why are Babies Born With Blues Eyes? on HowThingsWork.com
November 29th, 2007 at 9:29 am
This was very interesting I always wondered why babies always had such pretty blue eyes but almost always lost them by they were half a year old or so. Is it possible for eyes to be two different colors if there is an unequal amount of melanin?
November 29th, 2007 at 9:32 am
i never really knew that we all basically have blue eyes when we were born. i didnt know that as you get older they either get lighter or darker. But if you have a medium pigment then how can people be tan…but have bright blue eyes?
November 29th, 2007 at 10:56 am
Wow, that is really interesting! I never new that babies were generally born with blue eyes. What determines if you are albino or not? Does it have to do with genes or something entirely different?
November 29th, 2007 at 11:56 am
That is really cool! I actually was born with dark dark brown eyes. After six months what color eyes does it usually transfer to. And is this related in any way to when people have blue eyes and their eyes change to green off and on and vice versa?
November 29th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
That is amazing! I never knew what determined eye color. I know it was genetic, but that was all i knew! I found this interesting website for more information on what determines eye color:
http://www.eyecarecontacts.com/eyecolor.html
cool post Kelsey :]
November 29th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
thats really cool. I have heard that most babies were born with blue eyes but lose the blue color. But I did not know that your skin tone would also help out with what the color of your eyes could be and I have never heard of Melanin before. It was interesting learning about that.
November 29th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Wow, I think that’s so interesting. I didn’t even know that most babies were born with light colored eyes, and that they changed. It’s so cool how people’s eyes change colors, and I didnt know why until now.
I also found a website that has some additional information on melanin..
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-melanin.htm
:)
November 29th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
wow this was a really intersting post kelsey, i’ve never actually taken the time to think about eye color. I wonder if my eyes where blue when i was born.. hmmm. i have a question, if your eye melanin isn’t fully used to the uv-light when you are born is there a possible way of changing the color of your eye by changing the amount of melanin? cool post
November 29th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
The cool thing about the change in eye color over time is that studies have shown ( and we even discussed this briefly in class) that hair color and eye color are usually closely tied together through genetics. For example, blonde hair and blue eyes are popular. However, the same isn’t true for red hair and light colored eyes.
On an articled titled “Ask A Geneticist”, he addressed this issue. While eye color, hair color, and skin tone are generally grouped close together on the same gene, eye color and hair color are placed on different genes of those with red hair. He stated that one reason that red hair and light colored eyes end up together was out of random chance. He even mentioned that it could be part of natural selection that ages ago, our ancestors found dark eyes and red hair to be more attractive than red hair and light colored eyes. Through sexual selection, red hair and dark eyes became the predominant combination.
Just thought that was an interesting addition to your post : )
November 29th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Wow kelsey, thats really interesting! We learned about melanin in health class, and how it gives color to your skin, but I had no idea it carried over to your eyes as well. I do have one question though: is it ever possible for people to have dark skin and light eyes, or the other way around?
November 29th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
This was very interesting!!! I never would have thought that skin and eye color would go hand in hand, but it does make a lot of sense. I have had something happen to me that is quite the opposite, I wonder, though, does it still apply in a way? I was born with very dark eyes (almost black) but as the years progressed they have become lighter. Or is it something entirely different???
November 29th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
That’s really cool Kelsey, I’d always wondered why that is. I had been told that ALL babies are born with blue eyes, so I thought I had something wrong with me because I was born with dark brown eyes. The fact that eye color and skin tone are found on the same chromosome are usually inherited together, explains something I had always been curious about. I was born with darker skin and dark eyes like my mom while my sister was born with very pale skin and really blue eyes like my dad. Her hair is a light brown while mine is much darker. Is hair color also on that chromosome?
November 29th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
This is an awsome post. I have blue eyes myself and I love them. I was really shocked to hear though, that most babies have blue eyes when they are born! I always thought your eye color when you are born is the eye color perminantly. I also would never have guessed that eye color could have something to do with race. Interesting!
November 29th, 2007 at 9:20 pm
This is pretty cool. I have heard before that most babies are born with blue eyes, and they change color as you grow older, but I never knew why. It’s so cool how genes determine what you will look like. My parents told me that I was born with red hair! And now my hair is brown. Would this have anything to do with melanin?
November 29th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
When I was a baby, I had blue eyes too. Unfortunately, they changed into a not so brilliant grey/ blue. Why is it that all of my direct family members have blue eyes but I don’t?
November 29th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Woah this is so cool. I was looking at my baby pictures and I was born with hazel/blue eyes that soon turned brown. What about everyone else?
November 29th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Lauren, is that article online? If so, please post it here. There is a well-accepted hypothesis explaining why blond hair and blue eyes are favorable (ask me to explain it in class), but I’m not familiar with the idea that red hair and dark eyes would be favored in mate selection pressure. I’d like to read that article.
November 29th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
This is a really interesting post Lauren. Its cool to know that your eye color is passed down but the funny thing is I am the only person in my whole family that I know of that has hazel/ light brown eyes and everyone has a dark brown eye color. I went to the hospital with my mom to help her make rounds and I got to go where the babies are kept in the hospital. That is my favorite place. I did notice that there eyes were bluish but now I can connect it.
November 29th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
This was a really cool post! I knew that babies had blue eyes when they were born but i never thought about the melanin & different pigments. This website was really informative about different melanin & pigments.
http://www.agape1.com/melanin.htm
November 29th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
Wow thats really cool, i personally was born with blue eyes and still have them. The fact that eye color is related to skin tone is really facinating though. I was curious, is it at all possible for African Americans to be born with blue eyes?
November 30th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
This is pretty neat. I always thought that people had brown eyes because of genes and that born eyes are a more ressesive gene. So this is cool to know why know. I also wondered why babies eyes would change so many colors when they were born. For example I remember that my brother was born with light blue eyes and they turned into a greenish blue color know. So, how do people get green eyes? Is it just because they have a little bit darker pigment.
November 30th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
The article I found was at this site called “Ask a Geneticist”
http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=220
December 1st, 2007 at 3:22 pm
i was wondering why it is that blue is what they start out with. If its about the melinan why do they start out with blue and not something of a lighter color?
December 1st, 2007 at 7:56 pm
I thought that ALL people were born with blue eyes. When my sister was born, i saw that she was born with brown eyes and i thought that there was something wrong with her. i did not know that dark pigmented people usually have dark eyes that stay dark because the skin tone and eye color are controlled by multiple genes. Thanks for the post! it had made things a lot more clear for me.
December 1st, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Wow this was very shocking to me when I found out that I had blue considering how brown my eyes are now. Thanks Kelsey for leaving me that much smarter. Now if one of my friends tries to debate what color their eyes are i can tell them that they were originally blue. Also since i wanted to find out more about this so i went to Brantley’s website she provided and it helped a lot. A question i still have though is why do some people have bigger pupils than others when born and does this relate to the melanin in the baby’s eye.
December 1st, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Thats really interesting. I have always known that babies have blue eyes but i never thought why. Is it possible for babies to have 2 different color eyes?
http://ask.yahoo.com/20060110.html
December 2nd, 2007 at 2:07 pm
I always had know that but i never knew why it happened. through my baby pictures i always had bright bule eyes, but know i have blue/green/gray eyes. my eye color changes with what i am wearing. it is really weired but why do my eyes change color? is is because certain pigments are pulled out with what i wear or what?
December 2nd, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Ali thats a good question and two different eye colors are common in dogs but very rare in humans… but there are some people like David Bowie or Kate Bosworth who both have two different eye colors. (Fun fact)
Having two different eye colors CAN be from uneven amounts of melanin contents. Because they are uneven, there is probably either a lack or an excess of amount of pigment in the iris. This can be inherited or from a disease or even an injury (like David Bowie). It can also be defined as Heterochromia which is where one iris is a different color from the other iris , or where the part of one iris is a different color from the remainder (partial heterochromia).
Thanks for the blog Kelsey! I’m glad that this question wasn’t just left inside the classroom and was actually answered!
December 3rd, 2007 at 4:39 pm
that’s very interesting. i usually see babies but i never recognize babies have light color eyes. peopel can also have the different eye colors, that’s interesting. i thought only animals can have different eyes. and then do people and animal have same melanin process?
December 3rd, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Thankyou Jackie!
http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=29
I found this website to ask some really interesting questions about eye color and also includes the answers. Check it out!
December 3rd, 2007 at 8:33 pm
melanin is also in the skin, when a person sunbathes to get a tan, it is actually the melanin reacting to the UV rays and changing to a darker color.
December 4th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Hey this page is really interesting but what i want to know is how come i was born with blue eyes and still have blue eyes? Why is it that some people have eyes that change colour? I think that this page might be helpful to some and good job!
December 6th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Hey guys, thanks so much for your comments and questions. A lot of yall were asking how it was possible that light people have dark eyes, and dark people have light eyes. Melanin is a protien, the amount you have is coded in your genes. Although the two genes are closly located together on a chromosome, they are completly different genes. The amount of melinan on your gene that codes for eye color is different than the amount on the gene that codes for hair or skin color. So, it’s very possible for dark people to have light eyes, and visa versa.
December 9th, 2007 at 5:27 pm
i found some information about the odd eyes which has both eyes are different. it can ususally happen at the cat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odd-eyed_cat
December 17th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
I was born with very blue eyes, and was just looking at some pictures taken from when I was an infant, and my eyes were just so blue that it seems impossible that they could be hazel now. My eyes were blue for quite some time in my childhood, I’m not sure exactly what age they changed but I do know they were blue when I was 5 or 6. I also find it strange that my parents both have very blue eyes, and so does my younger sibling, but I have hazel eyes. I thought parents with blue eyes would always have blue eyed children. And I guess my eyes must have changed late, because I was reading and it says that eyes usually reach their adult color by age 3. Interesing…
February 12th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Right now i my eyes are closer to green than blue but my eyes chnage with the season. It will more blue during the summer i don’t know why Im the only one in my family that has eeyes like that exept for my mom but her changes depending on her mood Green means Pissed Off. blue means good mood. I don’t know why we are like this is it unique or something
February 12th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Hi Joseph,
Your eyes aren’t actually changing colors. The perception of color is what changes. In other words, the amount of light available will determine how light or dark your eyes appear. Check out this great picture. It shows the same eyes in two different light conditions. The eye color hasn’t changed, the environment has changed.
As far as your mom is concerned, emotions can cause the pupil to constrict/dilate which could cause the changed perception of eye color.
Eye color can change slightly with age or disease, but the change isn’t that rapid.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:18 am
I thought that all babies were born with blue eyes I didn’t know why they were but thats what I heard. I really didn’t know If African Americans were born with blue eyes or not and this page told me what I wonted to know! I think that this stuff is very interesting and from reading this I have learned something new!!
February 26th, 2008 at 9:25 am
I think that the baby at the top of the page is so cute I think that that is half the reason why it made me read it because I am searching for things about how eyes change color for a science project that I am doing! and I thought that it would be a good idea to put some of the info on this page on my board I think that people might think that it is interesting and they might just find out what they have been wondering sense they heard that all babies were born with blue eyes
February 26th, 2008 at 9:38 am
I found a website that says how your eyes change color!
www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2007-03-19-hazel-eye-memory_N.htm
kinda long but it is a really good site go to it and learn something new and I am in 7th grade!
February 28th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
hey whats up im at school right now im working on my project and I am thinking bout this site and what I should write about it!
