If I mention words such as “Happy, Energetic, Optimistic, Sunshine, Creativity, be Alert, Sponge Bob, Smiley Face, what Color comes to mind first? Yellow of course! No doubt about it! So would yellow really make your baby cry??

Yellow is often considered a happy, vibrant color. And for the most part, it is! But there’s a very fine line between a good yellow and a bad yellow. There is a dark side to yellow that we need to be aware of. According to a study, suicidal patients used more yellow in their paintings, as did Van Gogh. It was said that Wheatfield of Crows” was his last painting just before he committed suicide.

And because Yellow is the most visible color to the eye, most caution signs, emergency vehicles, some firetrucks, yellow taxi, yellow school busses, traffic light poles and so forth, are painted in a heavily saturated yellow. And that is the point I would like to make.

Yellow, per se, is NOT what will make babies cry.

Do a search on Yellow Nurseries and you will find that the internet is flooded with yellow baby rooms. Yes, the color yellow can be anxiety-producing and can cause one to feel agitated, but it all depends on the saturation of the color.

Excessive use of bright yellow will irritate the eyes and therefore, cause a stressful emotion, which will even make adults cry.

As one mother said when I showed her a room, painted in bright, deeply saturated McDonald’s type of yellow, her answer, very accurately, was: “This is like a Disney yellow” – meant to make kids bounce off of the walls! Imagine painting a bright yellow, like this one below, on all four walls!

Luckily the designer of this room probably knew it would be a dangerous move and just used it as an accent wall.

Photo by Lisa Petrole Photography – More contemporary nursery photos

Yellow nursery wall.jpg

It is quite evident that the difference between these two rooms has everything to do with what type of yellow is used and how saturated the color is.

The one below is much more soothing and softer on the eyes

Bottom line is, yellow will NOT make your baby burst into tears and cry hysterically. Like with any other color, it really just depends on how vivid and intense the color is.

How many times have you heard that Yellow makes babies cry? Still think it’s true? I would love to hear from all the Mom’s out there!

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