to wonder where my redheaded blue-eyed baby came from?

[retrocutie]

So, we have just had a gorgeous little DD. We are very happy, she is lovely. Her brothers love her and everything's great. We were just a bit shocked by what she looks like...

My DH is Mediterranean, so very swarthy and dark. Our DS's look just like him. I am pale with light blonde hair and green eyes. Our DSs have dark hair and eyes like DH.

However, DD has bright ginger hair and blue eyes! How did this happen? I didn't think it was possible, genetically speaking? I feel that people are a bit and wondering if I had an affair (I didn't). Has anybody heard of this before? I just want to have an answer ready for the next time somebody asks me. Thanks.

Hmm genes can appear quite random, but there's always an explanation deep in the family tree. Me and DH have dark hair, always have, and the kids are faintest blonde. Weird.

I've had a few "are you definitely the parents?" wink wink.

I just say "Yes as far as I'm concerned, unless DH shagged a blonde."

That foxes them.

My DS had dark blue eyes that went lightish brown but everyone was commenting on it as all members of my family (except me who has blue eyes) and DHs have had dark brown eyes since birth. I think all these dark brown eyed people were hoping for some sort of exotic ancestry but as they came from the North of Scotland and the West of Ireland somehow I doubt it.

All the brown eyed from birth people in both families also have piss poor eyesight so I'm hoping DS has avoided the speccy gene.

My DD is a redhead (exact same colour as the girl from the film Brave - full on ginge!) and green eyes, both me and DP have dark dark brown hair and brown eyes, but we have a lot of Welsh and Irish in our families.

Genes are weird, but you were both carrying recessive genes somewhere! And if a child picks up redheaded genes that usually means pale skin and eyes too, it's all part of the same gene group.

[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_hair More info on the actual genetic info here]

Grrr, sorry posting the link properly doesn't work from my phone...

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_hair

dd deffo had dark brown chocco button eyes at birth, not a jot of blue to them. Both her parents green eyes.

You do realise eyes don't always become their permanent colour until 6 months of age.
All newborns are born with blue eyes.

The hair can also change, all my dds were born with black hair, 3 of them are now blonde.

Even if your dc keep their blue eyes & ginger hair, it could be from desendants in yours or dhs family.

Read up on the science of genetics you will be amazed at nature

All babies start out with blue eyes, not necessarily born with blue eyes though - according to google.

My DD had dark hair at birth, went blonde, now shes a brunette.

My aunt (mums sis) and uncle are dark (as is all that side of the family) and they have one red haired, green eyed child, then they have twins, one of which has "snow white" colouring, blue eyes, pale skin, black hair. 5he other twin has brown hair and brown eyes. Nobody really knows where the red hair comes from.

My mum had black hair and brown eyes, my dad has red hair and blue eyes, my brother and I were blonde, green eyed children. Brother is very dark now but my hair is fairer. It's very interesting the way different colourings produce somethig totally unexpected.

My dad (red haired) has a red haired brother, a red haired sister and a brother with brown hair. The brother with brown hair is the only sibling with a red haired child! My Nan and her mum had red hair too so its been pretty consistent.

You won't get a dark-haired, dark-eyed babe from two light-eyed, fair parents ...Says who Grimmethegnome?

Yes, you can. My friend and her husband both are 'light-eyed' and 'fair' and one of her children looks meditaranean with dark skin and the other looks very blonde. It was because my friend's great grandmother was Israeli.

If you got that certain gene, any mixture can come into play, even genes can mutate, i knew a girl at school, who had 3 different types of colours in her eyes, teacher said it was down to gene mutation.

greg I had black hair at birth was white blonde until about 12 then gradually went darker and darker and now am brown - my mum was exactly the same.

Fascinating thread. I'm enjoying reading all the different outcomes in people's families.

In a part of the south coast of Jamaica there are lots of red-heads, or red streaks in the hair.

Apparently, a ship load of Scottish sailors were shipwrecked near to the shore

DS who has a black father (I am white) gets blonde streaks in his brown curly hair when he spends a lot of time on the beach in the summer.

Valium I was the same, i have light brown hair now.

All newborns are born with blue eyes.

No they're not! Myself and several other posters have mentioned on the thread about having a baby with brown eyes at birth.

3 of mine had the dark blue which changed a few months later, but dc3's were dark brown and they are still brown.

DH has hazel eyes, I have greeny brown.

My oldest was born with strawberry blond hair, and black eyes (really they were so dark they looked black) his hair got redder each year till about three then lightened to dirty blond and it's still like that as an adult. His eyes turned blue by about a year old, but till then it was very hard to tell what color they would be.
Me-black hair hazel blue eyes, Dh brown hair blue eyes.

My dh is half Spanish and I have dark blond hair and blue eyes, but with some Hungarian genes somewhere in the mix. I was also surprised when dd1 was born strawberry blond and with blue eyes . I assure you I was there at conception (and so was dh ) and I was there at the birth or course so there's been no mix up. She is now 5 and I still sometimes wonder where she comes from, including her quirky character. Must be a particularly well mixed gene pool in her. My dd2 was born looking the spitting image of dh and although her eyes were dark blue to start with they are now brown and she has dark brown hair.

Retrocutie, both Jessica Alba and Natalie Portman have red-haired children, and both they and their husbands have dark brown hair!

head apparently we are all blue eyed in the womb and then we change - some before birth and some after ( I have been googling!)

XDH - Blonde, grey eyed
Me - Dark brown, brown eyes

DS - Olive skin, black eyes, black hair
DD - Red hair, green eyes, pale skin

MY DC didnt look like they were related at all. My sons colouring is down to my mother's Native American father

There is no recollection of any red hair amongst our families but genes are a funny thing

My daughter's hair turned to pure white blonde when she was about 5 or 6 but kept her green eyes. She know dyes it black.

My ex h was italian,Im Scottish,he was dark haired,dark eyed and dark skinned. Im not :o. I have dirty blonde hair,blue eyes and fair skin.

Ds 1 has the redest hair Ive ever seen ( its not orange though) and OMG his eyes are so strikingly blue,bright bright blue.He has that paper white red heads skin too. Ex mil aka satan incarnate :o always looked at him funny

Ds 2 is a clone of his father

Dd1 again has very very red hair but a different shade of red than Ds1 but she has hazel/green eyes and even though she has very fair skin its not that paper white colour,there is an olive undertone if that makes sense

I always said it was the dominant celtic genes :o

There was no history of ginger hair in my family until my brother and I came along. We both have ginger hair, my natural children have ginger hair and one of my two grandchildren has ginger hair.

GrimmaTheNome is absolutely right. Ginger hair comes from recessive genes and so both parents must carry this gene for the children to have it.

They say ginger hair is dying out due to mixed marriages by people of different nations, but there seem to be more and more children being born with it around here (London and the SE).