According to Russian media reports, a court ordered the two heartbroken women - a Chechen and a Russian - to exchange the boys they had raised as their own.The error was uncovered when one of the mothers, Anna Androsova, discovered her son's maternity ward ID tag actually had the mother's name Zarema Taisumova on it.
Ms Androsova tracked down the Chechen woman, saw the blue-eyed boy and declared: "This is my son."
But Ms Taisumova refused to swap the children, dismissing the claims of physical resemblance.
The hospital in the city of Mtsensk in central Russia ordered DNA tests which came back with definitive results - the boys had been mixed up.
Ms Androsova initially pleaded with her family to keep Nikita, the boy she had raised for two years as her own.
But she later decided to pursue the exchange through the court.
Weeks after the switch, Ms Taisumova was still deep in shock, interviewed on Russian television with her biological son playing on her lap.
She has changed her dark-haired and brown-eyed biological son's name from Nikita to Ali, but said she would continue to love the other little boy whom she had named Adlan.
Both children are reportedly struggling to adapt to their new families.
Adlan, now called Nikita by his biological mother, misses his Chechen mum and his older brother says he loved the old Nikita more.
The maternity ward has blamed the error on a lack of staff, explaining only two nurses were caring for 20 newborns.
The nurse responsible for the mistake has been sacked and the hospital's head doctor Yelena Prostsevich said there is little else it can do.
