When can you determine the gender of a clothed baby or toddler - What age specifically?

I can usually tell, but it’s true that in some cases it’s the clothes (and also the haircut) that helps. My daughter looked like a boy when I cut her hair (and she always wears trousers anyway) even though she was 3. But I think that I could probably guess pretty accurately, even with neutral clothes if they’re around 6m.

My grandson was mistaken for a girl continually until I had his hair cut when he was just over two years old. My own son was mistaken for a girl most of his life, whenever he decided to play the part of a girl. Both impressions were heavily dependent on long hair.

I don’t think you can tell definitively apart from clothes and hair until around 5 or maybe even later. Since most children are dressed or groomed for their gender well before then, it’s hard to say. If kids were groomed and dressed entirely neutrally, I would guess it wouldn’t be until puberty and even then there are occasional cases of ambiguity.

There’s very little difference structurally between boys and girls for several years. I think @janbb is right, with 5 being about the age when you might always guess correctly.

All three of my kids were bald little babies. As their mom, I naturally thought their gender was obvious right from the start—but of course it wasn’t. Once, I had my daughter out shopping. She was wearing a pink and white flowered dress, and someone asked if she were a boy or a girl. My youngest is 4 and has adorable, long curly blonde hair. No matter how he’s dressed, people will mistake him for a girl. It happens about once a week. He doesn’t care, doesn’t want a haircut because he likes his curls, so we keep it long. The vast majority of people can tell right away that he’s a boy, so it makes me wonder why some people don’t see it. It doesn’t bother me, and I don’t go out of my way to correct people. Sometimes my son will laugh and say, “I’m a boy!” but usually he doesn’t even notice.

with my sister it was her hair cut. Even in first grade when she wore more girlie cloths it was always “can I help you boys?”

You are not going to get any help from me. Twice this week I caused high dudgeon to young men (agres 4 or so) in the pool who were submerged up to their little necks, because I mistook them for little girls.

Usually not, unless they have some special feature that you can’t deny. But I think I can get away with that considering I was bald and toothless until I was three and most people thought I was a golem.

I had serious long hair in my teens and nice soft skin. BUT I WAS ALL MAN. OK!

But still I would be mistake as a girl now and then. :-)

I’m surprised that the length of hair seems like such an important factor. There are so many well-known grown men with long hair. I always thought other factors are more relevant. I found an interesting web page

http://www.virtualffs.co.uk/male.female%20facial%20differences.htm

explaining about foreheads, noses, lips and cheeks.

Older? Angelina Jolie and Julia Roberts are not spring chickens. How about Brooke Burke (as SirBailey just reminded me in another thread)

Everyone thinks my son is a girl. He has rather long hair, it’s golden and curly. He has large blue eyes, and looks a lot like me. People seem to assume he is a girl, but I’ll admit…he does look like one. He’s a pretty-boy, very feminine looking. Can’t help being good looking.
No matter what we dress him in, even now as he is 2, people still cannot tell that my little guy covered in dirt usually in brown or black shorts, and a boyish shirt, is a boy. It used to bother me when he was little, but not so much now.
The long hair definitely has something to do with it though. I think especially because of his golden curls. This confuses people.

Oops, wrong thread! My post above.

@Marina Yea, I was wondering about that…hehe

@Clair It was supposed to go in the long hair thread.

Hey @Marina I almost lost sleep over the connection of spring chickens and gender-specific foreheads and cheeks. And what has Julia Roberts to do with all of this? I saw it as a challenge to solve the puzzle.

@mattbrowne Apparently, there are more things than small child gender that I can’t discern the differences between.

In my defense on the kid thing, in a pool, wet, with their dewy little cheeks and big eyes, and without being able to see their suits, it was tough!

right around 18. That’s years, not months.

@evelyns_pet_zebra – Interesting answer. So when your boyfriend was 17 years old you had to undress him to find out he’s really a boy. Fascinating.

@mattbrowne I had a boyfriend back when I was around 14, but since society frowned on same sex relationships back then, it didn’t last. My answer was pretty much a joke, you know, a smart ass answer.

I don’t have any boyfriends now, or girlfriends for that matter, as my lovely wife is all the woman a man like me can handle.

you are another of those folks to assume I am female. =)

@evelyns_pet_zebra I feel like I’ve asked you your sex multiple times. It’s very ambiguous (in my opinion) I think it’s the screenname. It throws us all for a loop ;)

@casheroo I’ve put a gender specific explanation in my mini bio just for that reason.

@evelyns_pet_zebra Your answers have a male flavor.

@evelyns_pet_zebra – Ha! You see, Evelyn is a quite popular name for girls in Germany. But when it comes to their favorite pets I guess they prefer cats over zebras ;-)