When is newborn eye color fully developed?
It’s not surprising perhaps that eye color in the new born isn’t fully developed. In most cases baby’s eyes will darken in color as he matures. So, while telling everyone ‘He’s got his Granddad’s eyes’ may please Granddad, it might not be so true in a few weeks’ time. Your baby will usually have half his adult melanin by his first birthday and it may take up to three years before the eyes come to the full and final color… usually somewhat darker than the eyes he was born with. Special cells called melanocytes make more melanin as the baby gets older. It is the amount of melanin present that affects the color we see, just as the amount of brown dye in a fabric affects the color we see it as. The more of this brown pigment in the top layers of the iris, the more the eye will reflect brown light. Occasionally the color at the back of the iris rolls round to the front producing a darker brown ring around a pale iris. The less melanin the bluer the eye will seem. A total absence of color
