3 week old's skin darker than both mother and father's skin.

[honeytea]

My baby is 3 weeks old and he has (lovely) olive skin. Both me and my DP and very very pale. Our baby is darker than both of us.

DS was a little jaundinced just after birth but his skin now looks more brown/red than yellow.

There is no paternal questions, my DP is DS's dad, he also was conceived the month before we were due to start IVF, if he had been conceived through IVF I would be thinking they mixed up the embryos with a tall dark handsome couple.

Is it normal for a small baby to have flushed/dark skin? Could it be an indication of a problem?

We are seeing the HV tomorrow she is pretty useless though.

Hello, my DS sounds exactly same as yours. Both me and my partner are really pale as is my DD (red hair and very pale) and my DS has really olive skin and even tans really easily (even with factor 50) he was born with really dark hair and he was a little jaundiced when he was born but even after it passed he has just always had totally different colouring to us. It doesn't sound like it is anything to worry about but I would ask your Dr if you are still worried and concerned that your HV might not be up to much.

It quite normal and more common than thought, likely just a bit heritage from farther back coming shining through. It happened in my family - very white Grandparents, my father ended up showing our Metis heritage very visibly which passed on me and even more my sister though not to our brother. Skin colour can also lighten or darken with age in some people naturally without other conditions.

Me and my brother are red haired and pale, my ds is all thin boned olive skinned and has a shock of black hair when she was a baby that turned to blonde.

My parents are both fairly pale, and I have slightly sallow skin and tan very easily. My great aunt has similar colouring to mine, although her sisters were all fairly pale.

Thanks for the replies :) We both have grandparents that we don't know the backgrounds of so possibly that is where the darker skin comes from. I hope it stays nice and dark so DS won't have to worry so much about the sun in the future, my skin is either wee through or red :/

His was dark when he was born but it seems to be growing through blonde now, I was the same jet black hair at birth, then very blonde hair as a child and now it is a sort of dirty blonde.

Until my.baby was 3 months old he had jet black hair and olive skin. He's 7 months now and almost blonde and is pale pink rather than olive skinned I was hoping I had some nice dark skin somewhere in his genes but oh no the Celtic stuff has come through after all

My DS and my brother's DD are far darker than my brother and I, they have picked up my Mum's colour more than we did.

I was born with dark eyes, olive skin and black hair. My eyes turned green and my skin is more sallow and my hair was blonde as a child but mid brown now. Both my parents are pale but I definitely get my coloring from my mums side, though I think they were both surprised by my newborn appearance.