[veronicathe curious (OP)]

I was reading something on here about Major Histocompatability Complex (MHC) and it was saying that women are attracted to men with MHC's the most different from their own. The scent of the compatable male is appealing.
Now, I have 4 kids from 2 marriages, a boy and girl from each. My first husband had a low I.Q, but I thought he smelled really good, I was very attracted to him. Both children from him are very bright. My second husband is very bright, but I think he smells awful. I'm attracted to his personality. My children from him are both mildly delayed.

Is it possible that my husbands and my MHC's are similar? And what about the intelligence of my children, do you think it's at all possible that my ex was more genetically compatible with me than my current husband?

I was expecting my children from my second husband to be brilliant, but it's just not the case at all. I think it's important that I understand because if there is a real scientific and concrete explanation for the slow development of my younger 2 children, then I think I should reconsider having more children.


If so, should I teach my children to look for mates who naturally smell good to them?

[smiley]

Very interesting topic! []
I don't know much of the subject.
But I just want to jump in and say that you probably can not judge how brilliant a child will be by looking at his/her performance at very young age.
If I remember correctly Einstein did not impress his primary school teacher at all. []

[RD]

The theory is that people choose mates who have different immune systems to their own so their children will have more comprehensive immune responses and therefore better protected from infectious disease ...

It has been suggested that MHC plays a role in the selection of potential mates, via olfaction. MHC genes make molecules that enable the immune system to recognise invaders; generally, the more diverse the MHC genes of the parents, the stronger the immune system of the offspring. It would obviously be beneficial, therefore, to have evolved systems of recognizing individuals with different MHC genes and preferentially selecting them to breed with.

Yamazaki et al. (1976) showed this to be the case for male mice, who show such a preference for females of different MHC. Similar results have been obtained with fish.]

In 1995, Swiss biologist Claus Wedekind determined MHC-dissimilar mate selection tendencies in humans. In the experiment, a group of female college students smelled t-shirts that had been worn by male students for two nights, without deodorant, cologne or scented soaps. Overwhelmingly, the women preferred the odors of men with dissimilar MHCs to their own. However, their preference was reversed if they were taking oral contraceptives. The hypothesis is that MHCs affect mate choice and that oral contraceptives can interfere with this. A study in 2005 on 58 test subjects showed similar results.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_histocompatibility_complex

[Alan McDougall]

They say it is all about chemistry do you love your present husband or are you still longing for your ex.

[veronicathe curious (OP)]

I don't miss my ex AT ALL. lol. Believe me, he was no prize. After I left him he moved in with his parents, he's still there last I heard. Still unemployed. Once in a while someone I know says they saw him walking down the street. He would have a license, if he had paid his child support.

To the one who mentioned Einstein, that is a good point. I think my children are bright, but tests say I'm wrong. But my 2 year old is clever, even if his speech is delayed. He has an amazing personality. Recently he and his sister got into a fight over a sausage. He was done eating, went over to her and took the sausage right off her plate. She tried to snatch it back, he leaned in with an open mouth, but he couldn't quite get it because her hand was holding him by the wrist, preventing him from moving the food to his mouth. I of course didn't interfere because I was curious. He then proved to me that he was no dummy, he used his other hand to grab the food and crouched down and started biting before she even had her hand off his other wrist! lol

He also gets a kick out of turning the tv off when people are watching it. He creeps up, presses the off button and takes off running, lol. He DOES say a lot of words, but they are all so blurry. For example, he has a great interest in airplanes. Every time he sees one he shouts "MERMAID! MERMAID!!" I know he's trying to say "airplane", but "mermaid" is the word we all hear. Also, I think he is left-handed.


The baby is still pretty behind as far as I'm concerned, but I do suppose she could turn around and surprise us. It's just that all my other kids were sitting MUCH better than her at only 6 months, crawling at 9-10 months, walking by 14 months ... she is different. Each ones speech is a little less developed than the one before.

I love my husband and all that, but if I have another slow-to-develop baby with him, then I will know we have a genetic conflict. BUT, I suppose my theory could be all flawed, because with my first pregnancy I took ALL my vitamins. My second pregnancy I took my vitamins a lot but they made me sick, so I stopped. My 3rd one I took vitamins once in a while. My 4th one I think I took my iron pills a couple times, but no pre-natals. I was anemic so I HAD to take my iron. sh1t, now that I think about it, it's probably all my fault. I'm going to start taking a multivitamin every day from now on!!!

(I feel rather embarassed now)