when can babies see colour

Babies start seeing color shortly after birth, but their color vision is limited at first. At birth, babies primarily see in black, white, and shades of gray because their eyes collect much less light than adults, and their color-sensing cells (cones) are immature. By around 2 months, the cone cells become more developed, allowing babies to see colors and shapes about ten times better than at birth. At this stage, babies are most receptive to bright, highly saturated colors like reds and yellows. Around 3 months, babies become trichromatic, meaning they can see red, green, and blue hues, though their ability to detect less intense colors still lags behind adults. By 4 to 6 months, babies can see a full spectrum of colors with improved clarity and begin to recognize the typical colors of objects, such as a strawberry being red. Color vision continues to improve up through infancy and childhood, reaching full adult levels much later in adolescence. Overall, babies begin to see and distinguish color between 1 to 3 months of age and have substantially developed color vision by 5 to 6 months.