Many parents-to-be spend hours wondering who their baby will take after. Will they have blue eyes like theirs? Or will they have striking green eyes like Great Aunt Jane?
Caucasian babies are born with blue eyes, regardless of the eye colours of their parents. African, Asian and Hispanic babies are generally born with brown eyes because of having more of the pigment Melanin, in their eyes and skin. A child’s true eye colour cannot be determined until around their second birthday. But for many babies, their eyes have become their permanent colour before then.
To find out what colour eyes your little bub will most likely have try the Huggies Baby Eye Colour Predictor.
Note: This calculation is an estimate only, and is based on the eye colours in your family. For a more accurate prediction, more complex genetic data is required.
Eye colour is a physical trait determined by the pairing of genes from both parents, however, it appears that certain drugs may modify eye colour so perhaps environmental factors also contribute.
There are three eye colour genes which are known to scientists but only two of these are well understood. They explain the inheritance of brown, green and blue-eye colours. However they don’t explain why some children have grey, hazel or varying shades of colour.
Genes are the basic unit of heredity; which determine many individual baby characteristics. Genes also come in pairs. ‘Alleles’ are found in genes and determine the appearance of any characteristic. There are two alleles for each trait inherited.
One allele is expressed more strongly over the other allele. This is called the dominant allele, the unexpressed allele is called recessive. With eye colour, the brown allele is always dominant over the green and blue alleles, the green allele is always dominant over the blue allele, and the blue allele is always recessive.
Brown eyes are dominant in humans and in many parts of the world. Over half of the world’s population have them.
