A child who bears little or no resemblance to his or her biological parents should not be a cause for worry or suspicion, as child health and prenatal genetics experts say children can inherit physical traits from grandparents, great-grandparents, and other ancestors, making it normal for some to look strikingly different from their parents.
The leading experts explained physical traits such as height, complexion, facial features, body form, and even behaviour and intellect are determined by a complex combination of genes passed down through multiple generations, meaning a child could legitimately resemble a great-grandparent more than either of their own parents without this indicating any irregularity in their parentage.
In exclusive interviews with PUNCH Healthwise, they noted that while genetics largely determines physical appearance, environmental factors can also influence how certain traits are expressed, further stressing that genes can skip generations and manifest in unexpected ways.
They also asserted that facial resemblance, skin colour or blood group alone are not a reliable basis for questioning a child’s biological relationship with their parents, especially when such a child has one different from their parents, maintaining that only DNA testing can conclusively establish biological parentage.
