Eye § Skin color

[heather2003]

Hi again all...

Here's me.. daydreaming at work..

I was just wondering... They say most babies are born w/ blue eyes and pink skin, and that you can't really tell what their color will be (eye and skin) until later....

Do you know how long it takes for them to change?  (My and my husband's families have quite a genetic range.)

Thank you.
-Heather

[Still_AndiJ]

Most babies will show their true eye color by 1 year, but mine had blue eyes until about 3 months ago, then they turned green!! He is now almost 21 months : )

It varies, I have seen bi-racial babies look mostly white and then boom, they show more of the black side (my firends daughter showed a darker skin tone, but still was very light, now she is three and is quite a bit darker.

Andrea

[nickncats]

This doesn't really answer your question, but a funny thing happened with my friend on her first baby.  She had an emergency c-section and was so drugged that when they put the baby on her after they took it out, she said, "this isn't my baby, my baby is white" cause she thought the baby was so dark that it was black.

[JustME9]

That's true about biracial.  My baby looked SO different when he was born than now (at 2).  His hair was totally strait and he was pink.  Now he's almost as dark as my hubby and his hair is CUUURly curly! His eyes have always been jet black though.

[Still_AndiJ]

Now that i think of it, my friends daughter had dark eyes from birth too, it almost look liked she had cataracts though (cloudy blue over the brown) Her hair has always been curly, but for the longest time that was her only "biracial" feature. Bree is part native american so everyone figured Charlie would be darker. Boy wasn't everyone surprised when she and her husband had their boy, he came out looking like Larry. Flaming red hair, blue eyes and paler than me!!

My nephew for the longest time had blue eyes, but when he hit about 9-10 months, they turned dark like his mom's. Yet his brothers stayed blue like my brothers. You never know I guess. The only certainty is when you have two lighted eyed parents, it is impossible to have a dark eyed baby, other than that it is anyones guess!!


Andrea

[Casey1]

It's fun to speculate.  Both my husband and I are light eyed with curly dark blond hair.  Gee, I wonder what the baby will have??  LOL

[ashty]

Well, my eyes were blue until I hit puberty at 11 years old.  They turned green.  I have met other women that had the same thing happen.  The color changes for anyone I heard about was blue to green or blue to hazel.

[Still_AndiJ]

They can change from varying degrees of lighter shades (mine turn aqua/teal when I am angry or upset) but are blue. I have also been told my eyes turn greenish when I am tired. My hubbies go from grey to blue to green at any given point. But your eyes cannot go from brown(brown, not hazel) to green or blue : )

Andrea

[ildike]

Is it not true then that the parent that carries genes with darker color is always dominant?  My husband is hispanic-american (beautiful skin and hair) I am the exact opposite, Irish-type (white skin and blue eyes)and I always believed that there would be a very good chance for our baby to inherit his genes. I guess I would love baby to have blue eyes and black hair:)))...By the way, we had an ultrasound today, measured 17 weeks, baby was beeing streched out with his legs sticking up, I wish I could attach the pictures.  I also took the AFP test, hope everything is fine.  Anyway, the technician made my day...Have a good day everyone!!

[Still_AndiJ]

Dark eyes and hair are dominant, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. Like I said with not only my friend, but my brother and his wife. Bree has darker features, brown eyes and hair, her hubby is a red head with light skin and blue eyes and their son came out looking just like his daddy. And my SIL has dark hair and almost black eyes, whereas my brother has dark hair and blue eyes. My first nephew has dark hair and eyes, yet my other nephew has light eyes and dark hair :)

Let me see if this will help:
(D- dark eyes, shown capitalized to signify dominance)
(l- light eyes {blue, green, hazel, grey} shown lower case for recessive)

Parents

father  mother     father   mother    father   mother
DD       DD         Dl        Dl        ll       ll
\       /           \        /          \        /
   child              child                child
     DD              DD-Dl-ll                ll

father  mother
  ll      DD
  \      /
   child
    lD

Of these combinations, only the "ll" will have light eyes as it takes both recessive genes. But for any with "D" gene in the combination they will have dark eyes. A person can have dark eyes and carry the light eyed gene, but not the other way around. So for the second one, the child can have either light or dark eyes. This basically works the same for straight-curly hair and light-dark hair as well.

Something to think about. As far as whether they will be green or blue is unknown. My real mom had green, my dad has blue/grey and mine are mostly blue.

Andrea

[heather2003]

Thank you all...

This is fun :)

Come to think of it.. My eyes are green, blue, or grey depending on the day.. but the only light eyes in my family are my dad's ice-blue eyes. hmmmm....

:)

-Heather

[ildike]

THank you Andi, it makes sense.  How do you know all these things??? It's amazing!

[Still_AndiJ]

I am a big nerd : ) I read everything and manage to absorb it all. I was one of those "prodigy" children, you know the ones doing college level work at 10. The love of learning has stuck so I take advantage of it every chance I get!

Andrea

[krista2]

Hi, I just had my bi-racial baby 1 month ago. I am now having a problem with her father, because she does not look like him.And is now requesting a paternity test.  I am white and he is black. Well my daughter looks white and has blue eyes, and has brown hair. I am glad to know that this happens to other people!

[kmille0706]

I just had my daughter last wednesday. I have a really fair colored skin color and am mixed with all kinds of ethnicities such as irish, french, german, lenope indian and so on...lol. My daughters father is black but the baby is still really white but has his nose and lips. As for my eyes, they are hazel and his are brown but his grandfather had hazel eyes and my whole family has colored eyes. Right now my daughters eyes are grey with a light blue iris. Wonder what the chances are of her having hazel eyes. I understand all of that dominant gene stuff but I think in my case it's a 50/50.