My baby's skin color....?

Question

Well im a mut...swedish and irish mostly but a whole bunch of those other white cultures are mixed into my blood as well. My boyfriend is a full-blooded mexican. We had a son 8 months ago and he got every physical characteristic from his daddy...but he got my white skin. It doesn't bother me and it doesn't bother my boyfriend. But a few days ago his mother was trying to explain to my boyfriends brothers girlfriend WHY our baby was white........................HELLO!! As if he DIDN'T have a 50/50 chance of being white!! But anyways...so I figured our son is white because i have the stronger caucasion genes than my boyfriend has of mexican.......but my question is will all our babies have white skin?? I can't imagine having one white son and one mexican son.......but I was wondering if it was possible??

Just out of curiosity.... Thanks for the answers. =]

Answer 1

It's not a question of are your caucasion genes being stronger than his mexican genes. It's a lot more complicate that the classic blue eyed vs brown eye baby examples they give in highschool biology.



I'll TRY to explain it with this over simplification (which wil get the point across, but may not be scientifically accurate).



The DNA in every cell of our body consists an alphabet of 4 letters: A,C,D, and G. These letters are stacked up in pairs, with A always paired with D and C always paired with G. So a stran of DNA might look like this:



AD

CG

GC

DA



Reading down the sequence of pairs is what provides the instructions for what we look like. For example, someone with the above DNA sequence "AD,CG,GC,DA" might have blue eyes, while someone with the DNA sequence "GC,GC,AD,CG" might have green eyes.



We grow new cells by existing cells dividing in half. Each half gets either the string of letters on the left of the string of letters on the right, so for the DNA of "AD,CG,GC,DA", one side woudl get the sequence ACGD while the other half would get DGCA. The two new halfs would grow, and as they did so, they would add the missing pair to it's DNA sequence. So each A woud grow a D beside it, each C a G, each D an A, and each G a C. Because of this mirror effect, when the two cells have finished growing, they will have identical copies of the original DNA.



Now to make the next part easier to understand, lets give each pair a new name. Lets call AD=1, CG=2, GC=3, and DA=4. So another way we could represent the sample DNA would be "1234". That means our green eyed sample would have the DNA "3312"



Sex cells are special. When they are created, the DNA doesn't split down the middle, it splits across the middle and never grows back. So a woman with DNA of "1234" will produce two types of eggs: "12" and "34". If her husband is the green eyed sample, he will have two types of sperm: "33" and "12". This means that they can have four differnet types of babies: "1233", "1212", "3433", and "3412". What can happen is that "1233" will be blue eyed, "1212" will be brown eyed, "3433" will be green eyed, and "3412" will be green eyes.



So did you catch that? A blue eyed wife wit a green eyed husband can produce green, blue, or brown eyed babies.



So it is with you. This baby might be white skinned, but the next one might be brown skinned.



Now while I'm correct is saying that our DNA alphabet has only 4 letters, I've simplified the lenght. I've given examples where the DNA consist of only 4 pairs of letters strung together. Our actually DNA consists of billions of pairs strung together.



And as complicated as I know I've already made this, it gets even more complicated from there. Scientist have started to discover how the same DNA can make both a brain cell, a skin cell, and a muscle cell. It has something to do with chemicals that wrap around the DNA. And because these wrapping chemicals can be influenced by our environment, even identical twins won't be perfectly identical. They will both have the same DNA, but because even conditions on one side of the womb will not be exactly like conditions on the other side, there will be differences. This is why it's possible for two people to be identical twins, yet one be diagnosed with sever autisum, while the other is perfectly normal.

Answer 2

I have family that lives in Texas so we have a lot of half Mexican half something very pale babies in our family. It seems they are very light until about 4 or 5 years old and then they get a little darker. None of your children will be all caucasian or all Mexican looking. They will always be a mix. In the beginning they tend to look lighter. Most of the half Mexican babies in our family looked straight-up caucasian for the first few years. Genetically speaking none of your children have a 50/50 chance of being white. The genes for pigment don't work that way. They always blend. Some of your kids may be lighter than others but they will all be a blend of your color and their father's color.

Answer 3

Believe it or not years ago i knew a lady who had twins...a boy and a girl. The mom was white, the dad was black.

The baby boy was black, the baby girl was white.

I knew another lady who had 3 little girls, two of them looked like little mixed breed girls, the third looked white as her mom.

Thus really-its a toss up. Nobody knows for certain. Your son could very well grow up and have a child with a white girl, and the child could come out with the skin color of your boyfriend. Its so hard to say and very random.

Answer 4

I don't think you're white genes are stronger. It's just a dip in the gene pool. He gets some of yours, some of his dad.

The next one could easily be a lot darker. It's very possible indeed.

I saw fraternal twins on tv a few weeks ago, one was white like his mum, the other black like his dad. It was so cute, but apparently people react really strange to this (like it's any of their business anyway) and the mum was worried it would cause problems later on in life. I still don't understand why it would.

Answer 5

Yes, future children could definitely have a different skin tone than your first.



Being "white" is essentially having an absence of color, or melanin. This is determined by genes. In order to be white, one parent needs to be at least partially white. The same is true if one parent has darker skin. In order for a child to have darker skin, one parent needs to be at least partially dark. No one skin color is "stronger." So, each time you have a baby, you roll the dice.



This is why you can have entire families of children who have the same parents and, at first glance, look nothing alike. (My kids facial features are very similar, but their eye and skin color are very different... and they are both very beautiful!)

Answer 6

The color of their skin can vary. My husband's father was full blooded Mexican. His mother is of white European decent. My husband is dark complected, but not real dark. He does tan easily. Some people who are examples of Latino American descent and what your children's skin color could be are ;Eva Longoria, Gloria Estefan,Jennifer Lopez,Christina Aguilera,Antonio Banderas,and Salma Hayek.



It is common for any siblings to have different skin shades. If their are Italian, Latino, Spanish, Greek, etc genes.



Not a big deal, so you shouldn't make a big deal out of it w/ your kids.

Answer 7

They might be different tones but most will have a little of both mixed in, one of my HS friends was half hispanic and half white and she looked kinda russian dark hair and kinda ivory skin yet all her brothers all looked like they were pure hispanic but its guaranteed that they were related because their mom was the white one lol.

Answer 8

My daughter's father is black and Native American and she was so white (she took my features too) at birth her hospital records say white. The only way you could tell she was mixed was her curly hair. Even now she is olive skinnes and brown hair. My nephew is half mexican and looks just like his mexican daddy. We make jokes that it looks like my sister adopted him.

Answer 9

baby skin color fair whitish skin

Answer 10

It is possible to have one child darker than the other no doubt! Its all about Genetics and where they line up. Don't worry I bet your baby looks better with light skin. I love hispanic mixes with light skin it will turn olive.. sooo nice!!!

Answer 11

hhahaah yesss!!! my babys dad is white too but hes mexican! im full a blooded mexican too but im brown & my son came out white looking just like me!! oh yea my boyfriends brother is brown, both his parents are white but he looks exactly like his dad. then his dad [my boyfriends] is white but his brother is brown. then a guy i dated is brown & his brother lil brother is white. then i have my brothers kids all fair skinned & only one came out brown. my mother has 7 sisters all fair skinned & my mother wasnt. so yeaaa theres a chance dont worryyy =]

Answer 12

It all depends on how God creates them. I am white completely. But my fiancee however is african american, italian, and indian. My baby looks white but has a very small tan on his legs and the rest of his body but mostly his legs.

Answer 13

Honey. Your baby isn't white. Your baby is bi-racial. Even if your baby looks white, he isn't. And yes, skin color can easily change from one baby to another.

Answer 14

yeah its definatly possible my dad was white but very dark had black hair and dark brown eyes my mom was very white with blonde hair and blue eyes my brother has dark hair and eyes and hes dark and im just like my mom

Answer 15

i saw a news report about a couple, one was white and one was black, and they had twins and one was born white and the other black... So it can happen

Answer 16

it's 50/50.

Answer 17

ahah