The truth about green eyes

You may not know if your child has green eyes until quite a while after giving birth. When first born, a baby has one of two eye colors: gray or blue. That said, immediately after birth, cells called melanocytes begin to secrete melanin, the brown pigment, in the baby’s irises, explains Healthychild.org. This starts happening because melanocytes react to light and, um, you know, there aren’t exactly any sunny days in the womb. However, this process isn’t like glow-in-the-dark technology. You can’t just take your baby into the sunshine and expect to see their true eye color after stepping back inside. Melanocytes can take up to a year to finish producing pigment.

That said, you should begin to have an idea of your child’s eye color at around the six-month mark because the process starts wrapping up at around this time. If, after a year, your child has green peepers, you can be confident that they’re there to stay.