When your mother is not looking, hold a magnifying glass up to a TV screen. The colors you see on the screen depend on how bright each of these dots shine. We cannot see infrared and ultraviolet light. The color that something appears is the result of the color of light shown on the object and the color of light not absorbed by an object. If you shine only red light onto a green leaf, the leaf absorbs the red light, and since there is no green light to reflect, the leaf looks gray.
Color is big business, and much research goes into the chemistry of color.
Poisonous inorganic pigments were outlawed in 1978 and can no longer be used for projects around the home. The organic pigments that took their place have less strength, are less stable and are more expensive, but they are safe for your baby to chew. If it absorbs blue light, we see red. Since none of the visible spectrum is absorbed by the altered pigment, all of the visible light is reflected, and we see no color. Seldom is this process complete, and red usually becomes pink.