Does the child have to be a certain age to perform a DNA paternity test?
There are no age restrictions with DNA paternity testing. Traditional blood testing required that a child should be at least six months old. In addition, a large sample, usually two big tubes of blood, was required. This would be very difficult on a small child. However, DNA paternity testing only requires a few drops of blood (1/4 to 1/2 a teaspoon), or cheek cells collected by swabbing the mouth. This small amount of blood, or cheek swab, permits the testing of newborns and infants. Since DNA is set at conception, a paternity test can be performed before the child is born, through Chorionic Villi Sampling (CVS) or Amniocentesis. Paternity testing can also be performed using post-mortem specimens collected by the coroner’s office. A paternity test can be done when that person is deceased or missing by reconstructing his/her DNA patterns with samples from the deceased’s biological relatives.
– There are no age restrictions with DNA paternity testing. Traditional blood testing required that a child should be at least six months old. In addition, a large sample, usually two big tubes of blood, was required. This would be very difficult on a small child. However, DNA paternity testing only requires cheek cells collected by swabbing the mouth. This small cheek swab permits the testing of newborns and infants. Is the mouthlbuccal swab accurate? – An alternative to testing blood is a method of sample collection called buccal (cheek) swab. Since the DNA is the same in every cell of the body, the accuracy of testing performed on cheek cells collected with a swab is the same as using the blood. The phlebotomist collects the sample by using a buccal swab and gently massaging the inside of the mouth. DNA can be extracted from this sample. How does the paternity testing process work? – DNA is extracted from a few drops of blood, cheek cells, or cultured cells. Enzymes are used to cut
