Who will your baby look like? Mommy or daddy?

Since you know that a little one is coming, you are fantasizing and daydreaming all day long. Will the little one get the looks of you or your partner? You’re hoping for the blond curls of daddy and your big brown Bambi eyes. You’re so curious!

Babies look like their dad

A newborn usually looks like the father, they say. Although it is certainly not an established fact that your little one soon will look more like daddy, there are several studies known that have shown this to be true. In 1995 for example, this was already concluded after a study by psychologists from the University of California. Until the age of 1, the babies would mainly resemble the fathers. The older the child, the less this became. The reason? A clever evolutionary trick, the psychologists think. If the baby looks more like the father, the father will feel more connection with his baby and he knows for sure the child is his. To resemble the mother is less necessary, cause she already gave birth to the child. She will be overwhelmed by warm motherly feelings anyway. Good news that babies look more like dads! According to scientists at Binghamton University (2018), daddy look-a-likes are a lot healthier. Why? Because of the extra love and attention daddy gives the baby because of this.

The eye colour of your baby

So important, the eyes. Do you and your partner both have brown eyes and do you assume that your child will have brown eyes as well? You might be wrong! It remains a big surprise which colour eyes your little one will get. Your genes, and therefore also the eyes of your parents and grandmother an grandfather, play a part. Did your grandmother have bright blue eyes? Then this could mean your little one will get this too. During your biology lessons you have already learned: brown eyes are dominant. And green eyes are dominant over blue. But this doesn’t mean that a couple with blue and brown eyes will have a baby with brown eyes. One gene is passed on from both parents. A parent with brown eyes can have a gene for brown and blue eyes. The blue gene can be passed on to the baby. Do you and your partner both have blue eyes? Then there is a very good chance that the child will also be blue-eyed. For the rest you will have to wait and see. And quite a long time too, because only after about a year the baby’s final eye colour will appear. They are born with grey or blue eyes, because their melanocytes need daylight to develop an eye colour. So, have a little patience, my dear. Daddy look-a-likes are a lot healthier. Why? Because of the extra love and attention daddy gives the baby because of this.

The hair colour of your baby

Did you have steep light blonde hair in the past, but after a few years it turned into dark brown curls? A baby’s hair after birth says little about what it will look like a few years later. Hair is very unpredictable and genetics play a big role. A bald baby of baby with full hair? You are more likely to have a baby with a lot of hair if you were that kind of baby too. A sweet blonde head? This chance of course is also greater if both parents are blonde. However, the genes that the baby inherits from the parents are decisive. A kind of pigment, the melanin, is responsible for the final hair colour. There are two types of melanin:
  1. Eumelanin: this gene runs from blonde to dark blonde and brown to black. The more eumelanin, the darker your baby’s hair. A parent with black haired genes usually passes on these black genes. However, it is also possible that the invisible blonde genes will be passed. So it can happen that parents with dark hair will give birth to a blonde child.
  2. Phomelanin: the gene for red hair, is subordinate to eumelanin. This means that if eumelanin and phomelanin are both present, the hair colour will not turn ginger. Two red genes are needed for this. It is therefore not surprising that there are less gingers in the world than other hair colours (less than 2 percent of the population). If both parents have red hair, the baby will always be a ginger!

The other looks of your baby

As for the nose, the body, the ears and the rest of your little person, every person, including you and your partner, has about 30,000 genes. So think about how many combinations are possible for the child. That pretty much makes predicting the character or looks of your baby impossible. It can be a mix, it can be a little daddy look-a-like or even a grandmother look-a-like. But no worries, you will see similarities back in your child anyway!

Create your own unforgettable moments. Share your happiness or make it intimate but whatever you do, indulge because sometimes pregnancy is all about you


Babywatcher

Your ultrasound at home

The Babywatcher contains everything you need to make your own pregnancy scans at home.

This Black Friday weekend 10% off!

Babywatcher Rental