Observations: Who Babies Look Like When They're Born

Bebe and I have some friends who just had their first child. It happens to look just like the father at the moment (crisis avoided).

Another pair of friends of ours had their first child around a year ago. It too looked significantly like the father at birth. However, shortly thereafter it "changed" and started to look more like the mother.

During the course of a conversation on the newborn baby of our friends, Bebe mentioned that all babies look like their fathers when they are born. I thought this was a bit of a generalization, so I called her on it.

"I've never heard that before," I said.

"It's scentific fact," she said. "They say that they look like the fathers because it reinforces to the dad that it's their child and makes them bond with it. The mother has carried the child, so there is no need to reinforce the bonding there. If the baby looks like the dad, the father is more likely to want to help take care of it."

"That's a theory, you can't prove something like that," I said.

"It's fact, I read it somewhere."

"Where?"

"I don't know, somewhere."

"I don't remember ever reading that during sex ed in school, or learning about it on any of the nature shows I've seen about child birth and whatnot. I've seen kids that look like their moms when their born."

"It's a fact."

"Okay, if it's a fact, how do you prove it?"

"They did."

"How?"

"I don't know, studies and stuff."

"Babe, there is no way to prove something like that unless they were to interview God Himself and ask, 'so, child birth...are you trying to make the baby look like any particular parent when the baby is born?' I mean, seriosuly, in common society today there is no way to study something like that effectivley because of social norms that require fathers to take care of their kids now."

"It's fact."

"Fine, whatever. I've just never heard that before."

"Well, that's your problem."

The conversation was effectively ended on that note. There was no further discussion. She was right, and I was ignorant. That's why way things are in our house.

For the record, I've looked on Google today and haven't found anything about babies looking like fathers when they're born. If you find something please let me know. While I'm not saying that Bebe is wrong, I certainly want to see some evidence of this theory.

-Steve