Do Mothers With Freckles Have Kids With Freckles?

If you̵7;re sporting freckles and want to know if your bloodline will continue on the freckle tradition, you need to know a little about the science behind it. A mother may pass on those little spots to her young ones, but it all depends on the combination of genes she has and which gene she contributes to her baby -- unlike some hereditary traits, freckles are determined by a single dominant gene, not a pair.

  1. The Dominant Gene

    • Physical traits, like freckles, are determined by specific segments of your DNA. You have two copies of each gene that you inherit, and each gene can be either dominant or recessive. Freckles are caused by a dominant gene, according to the University of Utah̵7;s Genetic Science Learning Center. If you have freckles, you have at least one dominant freckle gene. Your other gene may be either a freckle or no-freckle gene.

    Who's To Blame?

    • You got one freckle gene from your mother and one from your dad upon conception -- and if you have freckles, that means at least one of those freckle genes is dominant. But since it only takes one dominant gene to produce freckles, the other could be either dominant or recessive. So when it comes to passing your own genes on to your baby, even if you have freckles yourself, you could pass on a recessive rather than dominant freckles gene -- in which case, unless the baby's father contributes a dominant freckles gene, your baby will be spot-free.

    Freckles Explained

    • Freckles are areas of skin that produce more melanin than the surrounding skin. They appear on the skin that is exposed to the sun, usually the cheeks, nose, arms and shoulders. They are the size of a pin head, although they can cluster together to become bigger freckles. You can find red, yellow, black, light brown, dark brown or tan freckles. Children are not born with freckles on their skin, even if they inherit the gene, but they can start to develop on children as young as 1 or 2 years of age.

    Types of Freckles

    • Two kinds of freckles may appear on your skin. One type will appear when your skin is exposed to the sun during the summer and fade away during the winter. These summer freckles tend to clump together more when they are a result of sunburn. Limiting direct sun exposure by having your children wear sunscreen, hats and long sleeves will cut down the amount of these sun-induced freckles. The other kind of freckles are darker and don̵7;t fade during the year.

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