Expert: Dana Krempels, Ph.D. - 6/23/2007

Question
My husband is white with green eyes, sandy blonde hair. His mom has green eyes, sandy blonde hair; his dad has brown eyes, brown hair; sister has brown eyes, blonde hair. I am black, with of course dark brown eyes; same for my parents and my two siblings. We just found out we were pregnant and are very excited about the whole situation. Can you predict if our baby will have green eyes or brown or even hazel??

Answer
Dear Angela,

If you are of African heritage for as long back as your family is aware, then it is very likely that your baby will have brown eyes and dark brown hair, as these forms of the hair and eye color genes are dominant to the lighter colored ones.  If you have any European heritage, then there could be some recessive lighter-color alleles (alleles are alternative versions of genes) hiding in you.  But if all your family members as far back as you know have dark hair and eyes, then your baby also probably will.

Your grandchildren, however, might have lighter colored eyes and hair if your grandchild marries someone with light-colored eyes and hair.

Skin tone is another matter.  Because it's controlled by at least ten different genes, your baby will likely have a pretty brown to gold-toned hue.  :)

Hope that helps, and that the baby is healthy and lovely!

Dana