Experts Break Down How a Baby’s Features Are Formed

Dr. Barry Starr, a geneticist at The Tech Museum in San Jose, California, told Parents that most couples find it difficult to guess their future baby's appearance. They ask questions like: what will their hair look like, or what will be the color of their eyes. While parents assume what their baby can look like, they can never be hundred percent sure until after the baby arrives.

Even if health care providers examined all of a fetus' DNA, they would still not know what to anticipate, as so much is unknown about genes. However, scientists have shared their understanding of why babies develop the features they do and are sharing what parents need to know about what their baby might look like.

Children sometimes look the same as one parent or don't resemble anyone in the family. These outcomes are all entirely possible. Children share 50 percent of their DNA with their parents and siblings (if there is any). If both siblings look the same, this only means that the combination of genes they inherited was similar. If it's a firstborn child, they may have inherited one parent's lips, while the youngest child may inherit the lips of the other parent.

Truthfully, a child's structure will not be set until age 20 as many genes are involved, including growth, bone development, and fat deposits. Only when the child turns 20 could the parents see where the baby's looks come from.

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A newborn's hair color

Michael Begleiter, a genetic counselor at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Missouri, said that individuals usually inherit numerous pairs of genes that play a vital role in determining hair color. Each pair entails one gene from each parent. If a baby, for example, inherits ten pairs of genes, it means 20 different genes could affect their tresses.

Unfortunately, scientists haven't determined yet how many genes decide a hair color. For example, Dr. Starr said that if two brunette parents produce a baby with blonde hair, both parents carry recessive blonde genes among the dominant brown ones; hence, their light-colored genes are passed on to their offspring.

The geneticist clarifies that the genes that usually set hair color regulate an individual's melanocytes or the color-producing cells. A baby's hair color will only fall on the spectrum from black to brown or red to blonde. Hair color only signifies how many melanocytes they have and what kind of pigment those cells make. Eumelanin is the one that produces black to brown while the other is called Pheomelanin or the ones that make yellow to red, per Very Well Family.

A baby's eye color

Some babies are born with bluish-gray eyes, which can eventually change as they grow. If the baby is born with dark eyes, they will change, as it usually takes approximately six months before an infant's eye color stabilizes. Dr. Starr said the color-producing cells found in the eyes, an iris, need exposure to light for them to activate.

Two different genes influence the eye color that develops. The baby's eye color will only depend on the combination of alleles they inherit from each parent. According to Better Health, both eye color and blood groups are examples of dominant or recessive gene relationships.

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