MAJOR BODY SYSTEMS

Final maturing and completion of the major body systems are taking place now. Your baby no longer looks like a wrinkled old lady but takes on a more pinkish and smooth appearance as more fat is laid under the skin. Your baby won’t grow much more in length at this point, but will continue to gain weight – this is important to help him regulate his body temperature outside of the womb. Your baby’s central nervous system has reached a stage of development where it can direct breathing motions (baby is spending 80 percent of his time ‘breathing’ amniotic fluid).

TINA OTTE EYE COLOUR?

Eye colour is not something you can choose. The parents’ genes determine a baby’s eye colour. But it isn’t as simple as a blue eyed parent always making a blue eyed baby. Since each person receives genetic information from both parents, a child can have a completely different eye colour than both of their parents. There is more than one gene controlling eye colour. The old story of dark eyes being dominant over blue eyes has been disputed, and eye colour depends on how much melanin there is in the iris, as well as how much light filters through the stroma, which is a delicate interlacement of fibres. Melanin is a pigment that is found in the skin and also the eyes. More melanin means darker eyes and less melanin means lighter eyes.

It is pretty feasible to say that brown eyed parents are likely to have brown eyed children, unless they have parents/grandparents with light coloured eyes, and these genes are “hidden” or recessive. So if they carry “light” genes, there is a chance that they will have babies with light eyes. Blue eyed parents will most likely have blue eyed children. If you look at children of blue eyed parents, they probably all have blue eyes, but of different hues (melanin distribution, light refraction, as well as a number of colour genes).

A baby may change their eye colour up to 18 months of age. Usually however, whatever they are at six months is what they will stay.