• Question: Is it true that everyone is born with blue eyes??

    Asked by hannahandkatiexxx to Gioia, Iain, Jo, Leo, Mariam on 24 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by alicejoanna97.
    • Photo: Joanna Watson

      Joanna Watson answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      I’ve never heard that before – I just checked with one of my colleagues who is a paediatrician and he said that some babies, especially darker skinned babies are born with dark eyes.

    • Photo: Mariam Orme

      Mariam Orme answered on 21 Jun 2010:

      Yes, I think it’s true that all babies have blue eyes, and they get more pigmented as the baby gets older. Though I’m not sure about dark skinned babies, maybe they are born with dark eyes. Sorry, that’s not a very definitive answer!

    • Photo: Leo Garcia

      Leo Garcia answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      Yes – and I had no idea about this until just now!

      http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howthingswork/f/eyecolor.htm

      Melanin, the pigment which gives eyes their colour, hasn’t been fully deposited in the iris (the coloured part of the eye) straight after birth. As time goes on, people who will eventually have dark irises will have more melanin deposited in the iris – whereas people who will have lighter eyes, will have less. Albino people will have no melanin in their irises, and their eyes will look red because of light reflecting off the blood vessels within the eye.

      There is a video describing the phenomenon here:

      http://thefutureofthings.com/video/6119/why-do-babies-have-blue-eyes.html

    • Photo: Iain Moal

      Iain Moal answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      No, it isn’t true that they are all born with blue eyes. It is true that all babies start out with blue eyes though, and the pigement that makes their eye colour comes in later, but that could be before they are born.

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