WebMD 1:01: Why Do Most Babies Start Out with Blue Eyes?

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Leah
Ever wonder why so many newborns have blue eyes?

Noah
It seems a little unfair. The ladies love blue eyes, and babies already have a cuteness advantage.

Leah
You're jealous of babies?

Noah
What? Am not. Waah. OK, fine. All right, let's just find out why little babies have blue eyes.

Leah
The iris is the muscular ring around the pupil. And its color depends on a protein called melanin and special cells called melanocytes that secrete melanin. When the iris doesn't have a lot of melanin in it, the eye will be blue.

Noah
But if melanocytes secrete more melanin, then the iris get darker, making be eyes hazel, green, or brown.

Leah
Now let's go back to babies.

Noah
Of course. It's always about the babies.

Leah
Since melanocytes respond to light and babies are in the comfort and darkness of the womb, they have little melanin, and therefore mostly blue eyes when they're born.

[BABY COOING]

But after the first year, eye color is mostly set. And only one in six Caucasians will keep their cute baby blues, which I guess is good news for you.

Noah
But then they'll just do something else cute. I just can't compete with a baby.

Leah
Well, but you act like one. That's good.

Noah
Yeah, right. You act like a baby.