BR newborn skin

I didn't find the ear thing to be accurate at all. My daughter was born last July, with very pale skin. It wasn't until this summer when she started playing outside a lot that her skin darkened a lot (and yes she wears sunscreen every time she goes out). The skin on her torso is still pretty light, but her arms and legs are much darker than the 'ear'. She is BR, but I think most people would assume she was AA, except that she has straight silky hair...so a lot of people think she is Indian or Hispanic. Honestly...I don't care what they think, if they ask I may tell them...if I know them and they aren't being rude. Of course she will always know!

My son is full AA. When he was born he was barely any darker than me. The tip of his ears, the cuticles of his nails and his scrotum were very dark though. He developed his color by the time he was 6 months old. He is a deep brown color that pretty well matches what his ears indicated he would be. I have a friend who's son and girlfriend just had a baby a few weeks ago. The mother is biracial the father is white. The baby is white with blue eyes and reddish/blond hair. There is no tell tell signs anywhere that she will ever be anything but fair skined with blond hair/blue eyes yet she is biracial. Your baby may get dark but he may not. It just depends on how his genes express themselves. You'll just have to wait and be suprised.

I think telling your child about his biracial identity is as important as talking about the adoption. As a person who is biracial (very light skin-tone), I think it is important that you talk to your child about their race even if it is not readily apparent to you. You would be surprised by the number of people who think that you can "pass" as one race or another only to be confronted by people who are CC and AA about their racial identity identity (kids at school are probably the worst offenders trust me :) I'm a teacher). If he doesn't know about it, he will not be prepared and it would be really tough for him to find out that you didn't share this information with him (didn't care about it)(not that I'm suggesting you don't care by any means). If you would like to hear some more about my experiences, feel free to PM me.

LOL. You sound like me when my son was a baby. I wanted him to be proud of and be aware of his race and I was worried that he was so white looking. I can't tell you how many people I said "he was born in the US and he's black." He is actually BR but I have always called him black even though he doesn't look particularly black unless he is standing with a group of light skinned black folks. I will PM you some links to photos of him so you can see the progression. ETA: And I don't think the ear color was a good indicator. I would say the nail beds are a good indicator. Also, I would guess at closer to 6 months of age you will be able to tell if babe is going to look stereotypically BR, AA or CC.

Cam was MUCH lighter as an infant, and I had never heard of any of the "tells". She couldn't actually "pass" even as a newborn, but when I look at pictures of her from back when we brought her home, she is much lighter. Now, even with 50 SPF, the kid is much darker. Gorgeous skin! We were uncertain of her genetic makeup at first, and are pretty sure we have it nailed down now...lol. The agency first told us that first mom was Hispanic/CC and that first dad was CC. Then it was Hispanic. THEN AA. Turns out, first dad is Moroccan (which is some African/European/Middle Eastern...gorgeous people!)...so they were all wrong! The kid is fantastically colored, and I have been studying up on culture and racial makeup. It's been fascinating, to say the least. We plan on it being just a part of everyday talk...just like adoption. I hope we will be able to instill in her pride in ALL of her genetic makeup. :love: I also have a friend who just gave birth to a BR baby boy. J is CC, her hubby is AA. Baby boy is light, not so light that he looks CC (but maybe my trained eye isn't the best judge...). I did notice his nail beds and scrotum to be much darker. His mom is funny, she almost expects him to change shades over night...lol. Whatever skin tone he ends up with will be beautiful...I keep telling her to relax. New moms indeed! :love:

I found the nail beds and scrotum to be pretty accurate predictors for D.

Thank you all for the input!! DS is 7 weeks old today, and DH and I have been noticing that his knuckles are starting to look darker than the rest of him. Especially his fingers from his cuticle to first knuckle. So I guess he's not going to follow any of the "rules" when it comes to this, lol! For the record, his nail beds are still as pink as mine and ears are the same as before. Also, he has the most beautiful blue eyes and silky brown hair. We are just very excited to see who he will be in every regard, and anxious to know all we can about him! Thank you for understanding and sharing your experiences with me. I want to reiterate that we will always teach DS that his racial identity is CC/AA and to be proud of his heritage. This will be a lifelong journey and I know we'll learn more each day. HopingGA, thank you for your insights on this subject. Jen- thank you so much for the for the goregous pics of your little man! Today, DS is about the shade of your 3 day picture, but it is so helpful to have a reference. :flowergift:

When my son was born, (biracial AA/CC) we were stunned when we first saw him because his skin was so light. We were told the scrotum was the "tell". His scrotum was quite dark. I would say that he is halfway between his skin color and his scrotum color at birth, and he's now 21 months old and absolutely positively the most handsome little guy ever. ;)

I have two biracial kids and two biracial grandchildren. I get a kick out of watching biracial kids' features develop. When we got our first biracial child, 22 years ago, I didn't know much about it. The first time I saw him, he was 8 days old. His body was white and his face was starting to darken a little bit. He also had Mongolian spots. However, he never looked like a white baby at all, because his facial features are very black. 2 years ago, when we found his birth mom and saw pictures of his birth father, we learned that he is almost the spitting image of him. My other biracial child is black and Filipino. She looked like a Hispanic baby for a long time. It took until the end of her first year before she got much color or much curl in her hair. Now, I have two biracial grandchildren. My grandson was very light when he was born. Unfortunately, some ignorant teenagers at the high school apparently thought that biracial babies were supposed to come out as black as their black parent and started rumors that my black son wasn't really the father, but his white best friend was. At five months old, he still isn't very dark, but he doesn't look like a white baby either. Does your baby have Mongolian spots? Neither of my grandkids had Mongolian spots, although both of my biracial kids did. My daughter's didn't go away until she was about five. We did lots of boating and I would see people looking at her back, when she was in a bathing suit, with a concerned look. I would just explain to them what they were.

Noelani2 - thanks for your reply! Lil man had more black facial features at birth, too. He had a large lower lip, but it seems to be smaller now. Maybe it's just that his face has filled out more, so the lip doesn't seem to protrude as much. He also has a wide nose. So cute!! He is still rather pale, but he is developing more color. My mom told me this wkd that a girlfriend who has only seen him in pics since he was a week old said to her, "you know, sometimes he looks like he could be black!" lol! She didn't know he's biracial, so mom explained it. :) Lil man does not have Mongolian spots. I was prepared for him to have them and for the reactions my white family and friends might have based on things I've read on a.com, but it wasn't an issue for us. I'm sorry your family has encountered such ignorance, and that it manifested in such an awful way with your son. Btw, in case I haven't said it before, lil man is absolute perfection and the light of my life!! It just doesn't get any better! :happydance:

Honestly, that might be over-reacting, my son who is hispanic has mongolian spots and they look exactly like bruises, very light and are blue/purple/greenish even in tint, at the base of his spine and the small of his back. What would anyone think if they saw it? I explain it to each new sitter/daycare/friends, etc.I had never heard of mongolian spots, his pediatrician was the first to notice them when he was released from NICU, so glad she did, or I would have freaked out later, they were much darker when he was newborn, but still looked exactly like bruises, now they just look like bruises in the last stages of healing.

Libby - I didn't explain myself well. :arrow: I meant exactly what you said, that his possible Mongolian spots would look like bruising, and I was pretty confident that many of my family and friends would think it was actual bruises because they would have never heard of Mongolian spots. I'm sure they would have worried (as I would have) if they thought my newborn had bruises! Because I had learned about them here, I would have been able to explain it to anyone who noticed and worried. My comment about the ignorance that Noelani's son faced was a different issue altogether. I didn't mean to come off paranoid or overreacting, just stating that I was grateful for what I have learned from the a.com community!

Oh! Totally get that! My apologies for misunderstanding.

Time will tell is the best advice.I keep reading about biracial physical features vs Black physical features, it's not only the comments on this thread.Now as to the "Black features".. large lip etc; here is a link, I advise a read of the link below. Look at pictures on Google of AAs and Africans. I do think we all tend to think Blacks in the States, have similar features but "we" (I am Black) do not: Also the same for Africans. In addition, other ethnic groups can have large facial features as well. We have to get this misnomer corrected, to raise children of color. I think to insinuate that a biracial child's smaller, thinner features came from their European parent's side can be erroneous. A lot of racist based scientists, also pushed these same thoughts as well, and later on it became ingrained in the general populations. Not a great title as discussed..but to the point. [URL="http://www.linkpendium.com/genealogy/USA/sur/surc-H/surc-Hum/sur-Humphrey/"]http://www.biology-online.org/biology-forum/about16091.html[/URL]

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