What will my baby look like?

This is a common quetion asked by pregnant women and their partners. Will the baby have my eyes, my partners build, my mothers nose. The speculation is endless, but there is a semi scientific answer to the question – “What will my baby look like”

Eye color is one part of the equation that can sometimes be predicted. Eye colors in order or dominant first is Brown, Hazel, Amber, Green, Blue, Gray, Violet .

A dominant color means that it will take priority over the other. It’s all down to genetics. Every person has two copies of every gene, one from their mother andone from their father.  If the two genes are the same, such as browneyes and brown eyes, then the person is homozygous for that trait; ifthe two genes are different, such as one brown and one blue eye gene,then the person is heterozygous for that trait, but the dominant traitwill always be expressed. If the person has two genes for blue eyes, then the person ishomozygous for the recessive trait and thus will have blue eyes– theonly way a recessive trait can be expressed is if the person has twocopies, or is homozygous, at that gene.  In our example, brown hair oreyes is always dominant to blue or green.  The trait green is dominantto blue, but is not within the same  gene, but only modifies the bluetrait.  This is why some people have hazel, or brown-green eyes.  Theeyes appear green only if they are on a background of homozygous blue.

If you are homozygous recessive, then you can only give a recessivegene to your offspring; likewise, if you are homozygous dominant, thenyou can only give a dominant gene to your offspring.  If you areheterozygous, however, there is an equal chance of giving either thedominant or the recessive gene to your offspring.

In your specific case, you are recessive and the father is recessive,so the baby will also be recessive; that is, green or blue eyes withblond or red hair, and probably fair skin.  It does not matter whatyour or his parents look like if you are both recessive– you bothreceived only recessive genes from your parents and thus can onlytransmit recessive genes to your child.  It is false to say that the”paternal grandfather holds the most powerful traits”: only you and thefather of the child hold the traits that the child can receive becauseyou make the sperm and egg that create the child.

I hope this gives you an idea of what your baby will look like.

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