Expert: Dana Krempels, Ph.D. - 9/20/2010

Question
Is it possible that a child does not look like either parents?If yes,how frequntly does it happen.Thank you.

Answer
Dear Kate,

Inheritance is a strange and unpredictable thing.  Most of our characteristics are governed not by only one gene per character, but by several acting together to influence the final "product" (skin color, eye color, hair color, shape of nose, ears, face, body parts, etc.).

When a child inherits genes from parents, s/he inherits one complete set from each parent.  Each set contains one gene for any particular product (it's actually proteins that set in motion the formation of our physical characteristics, and one gene codes for one protein), so everyone has two copies of every gene:  one from mom and one from dad.

In many cases, the gene from one parent will overshadow the expression of genes from the other.  But sometimes there is no clear dominance, and the traits become a blend of both parents' traits.  This can mean that the child is intermediate between them, and might not bear a very strong resemblance to either parent, except in very subtle ways.

So yes, it is possible that you might have to be more attuned to similarities between you and your child.  How frequently his happens is anyone's guess, and it would be hard to measure because this is such a subjective measure.

But I hope this helps.

Dana