Expert: John Locke - 6/9/2008

Question
hi, you r doing great job, Just wanted to know how will my baby look like i m three months pregnant,this is our first baby, i have brown hair&eyes and my partner has got blue eyes and brown hair.

Answer
Thanks for using AllExperts, Lubna.

We understand the genetics of eye color fairly well, to the point where websites have been developed that will determine the probability of your baby's eye color. You can find one of those at the address below; you'll need the eye colors of your parents and in-laws. The website gives the probability of what color your baby's eyes will be, rather than a single answer, because there are many possible combinations that lead to different eye colors.

http://museum.thetech.org/ugenetics/eyeCalc/eyecalculator.html

Hair color, however, is another matter. We know that hair color is controlled by multiple genes, but we're not exactly sure how they work individually. According to one theory, one gene controls brown/blond hair color (brown hair color is the dominant form of the gene, meaning that only one copy out of two is needed for hair to be brown; two blond copies are needed for a person to have blond hair). Another gene probably controls red hair; two copies of that gene are needed for a person to have red hair. Other genes control the shade of a particular hair color, and it's the cumulative effect of all these genes that produce a person's hair color. As you can see, it's complicated; brown-haired parents can have a blond-haired child. Perhaps the most certain prediction I can give you is that you are more likely to have a brown-haired child than a blond-haired child; beyond that, science simply has not advanced that far.

For a more general description of this question, you may wish to read the answer to this question:

http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=63

Good luck!