Are your DC colour blind?

[Cupidity]

Recently suspected that ds is colour blind. A trip to the opticians today confirmed it. He can't see red, orange, pink, and greens.

Just curious to know if anyone else has colour blind DC and if they've had any issues because of it (apparently he won't be able to work as an electrician or pilot - not that he's ever shown any interest in these jobs!)

[Blueemeraldagain]

@InTropicalTrumpsLand

Thank you so much for taking the time to give such a detailed response. How interesting that my male and female children have an equal chance of being colour blind when it’s normally a male dominated condition (due to the XY chromosomes).

[Gilead]

No idea if my father was colour blind. I think ex dh was, but he denied it. Couldn’t be anything less than perfect.

[RandomMess]

My daughters isn't genetic and very rare with it being blue/green 🤷🏽‍♀️

[Sleepinyourofficeinstead]

We'll go back in a year as suggested when he'll be 5.5y, but we have a special book we got free at birth with sight tests in it (Zookeeper Joe I think it's called) and he fails the colourblind tests in that.

I'm very, very short-sighted, none of my other 4 siblings are at all so I'd be happy if he had decent eyesight even if he was colour-blind.

[InTropicalTrumpsLand]

@Blueemeraldagain

My male partner is colour deficient (red/green) as is his twin brother. His oldest brother is colour blind (full blown- black white grey).
It hasn’t held any of them back bedsides some dodgy clothes combos. My partner is a semi-pro football referee and besides the occasional orange cone on green grass moment and keeping his red and yellow card in separate pockets, he does great.

If I can hi-jack for a moment? Just because there are knowledgeable people on this thread? If my partner is red/green colour blind and so is my mother (I and my father have no colour deficiency and neither do my partner’s parents). What are the chances of our children being colour blind/deficient?

Your family genetics say you are a carrier and your partner is affected.
So a son would have a 50% chance, because he will necessarily inherit one of your X chromosomes (and you have one healthy one and one affected one). He would inherit your partner's Y chromosome, so no concerns there (as someone mentioned upthread, colour blindness is inherited through the X chromosome, not the Y).
What is different is if you have a daughter. That would mean she is AT LEAST a carrier (because in order to be female, she necessarily has to inherit your partner's affected X chromosome) but she also has a 50% chance of being colourblind herself, which would happen if she happens to inherit your affected X chromosome. Two affected X chromosomes equal the condition manifesting in females

Hope this helps!

[Cupidity]

This is all so fascinating. Especially the genetic stuff. I don't this my dad was colour blind, but my mum's brothers (so my uncles) are. Only found that out about them when I told my aunt ds is colourblind in a random chat.

The only reason I discovered it was because he had a bright orange bathbomb in his bath and commented on what a lovely green colour it was.... I think as a toddler he did get colours mixed up when playing colour games but I just put that down to him being little andd getting confused.

DS is 6, and opticians were more than happy to test for colour blindness using those dotty number pictures.

[Blueemeraldagain]

My male partner is colour deficient (red/green) as is his twin brother. His oldest brother is colour blind (full blown- black white grey).
It hasn’t held any of them back bedsides some dodgy clothes combos. My partner is a semi-pro football referee and besides the occasional orange cone on green grass moment and keeping his red and yellow card in separate pockets, he does great.

If I can hi-jack for a moment? Just because there are knowledgeable people on this thread? If my partner is red/green colour blind and so is my mother (I and my father have no colour deficiency and neither do my partner’s parents). What are the chances of our children being colour blind/deficient?

[MrsMcMuffins]

My father is and both my sons. It does interfere with daily life but sometimes I get reminded when they see a colour completely different to me.

[Mangofandangoo]

DH is and didn't know untill he applied to be a fireman in his mid 20's. Hasn't held him back but I don't ask him to put the bins out 😬

[MaxinesTaxi]

Most of the men in my family are colour blind, it’s completely normal for us really. I don’t think my son is, but you never know.

[SmileyClare]

True Flamingo when the optician broke the news to me that my youngest was colour blind I just nodded and said I know, his brother is and my younger brother is too.

[Flamingolingo]

To be honest, I think most parents who are looking for it (because of a family history) will spot colour blindness quite easily. For us it’s the red/brown/green muddle. And also very occasionally some pink/blue. But at the same time, I grew up with my dad as a near constant source of amusement in this regard.

[SmileyClare]

The toddler ones are pictures, can you see the duck, fish, car?

My sons were diagnosed at 4 but that was over 15years ago! I'm sure you're right that the tests are more toddler friendly these days. I suppose a 2 year-old might struggle to concentrate or refuse to do it at that age. Maybe some opticians might say it was "inconclusive".

[Flamingolingo]

@SmileyClare the toddler ones are pictures - so can you see the duck/fish/car?

[SmileyClare]

RandomMess I looked onkine at a how a colour blind person sees a sunset and it was very undramatic. Not the end of the world but quite surprising how things are different.

[RandomMess]

DD had issues on the climbing wall, also some odd combinations of clothing...

It's important to know as you could sit exams where there are graphs or bar charts with colours on they can't distinguish between...

It also explained why she was a bit prone to mistaken identity of friends/people in the street! You can look on line to see comparison photos of what you see and what someone with x colour blindness sees. Have to say there isn't much range of colour in her life

[SmileyClare]

Most colour blind tests are a picture of a number in red dots on a background of green dots. The child has to read the number. There are others where they are asked to trace a red snake on a green background with their finger.

It's probably hard for a toddler to do those tests. You can look at them online but your toddler might find it really boring!

I think mine were diagnosed at 4yrs. It useful to know for school, although it was never much of a problem. Sometimes they got muddled up with coloured graphs or maths questions. It's helpful to let their teacher know in case.

[Natsku]

I'm wondering if DS is, he calls green things brown and all shades of red he calls pink but not sure how much of that is just toddlerness or whether its that he sees them differently. What age can they check for colour blindness?

[SmileyClare]

Yes my son's are both red/green colour blind and it really doesn't impact their day to day lives. Agree, about gaming, they both struggle on Fifa if one team are wearing a green strip and the other a red! Some XBox games have a colour blind mode you can switch on in settings.

There are advances in manufacturing colour blind "correcting" lenses and there are glasses on the market,but they only increase the contrast between red and green, they don't magically make the person see a colour they can't.

Gilead Its interesting you and dd are both colour blind. That's quite unusual, meaning your mum would have been a carrier (not necessarily having it herself) and your dad would have been colour blind.

Your daughter's father would have also been colour blind to pass it to her on his X chromosome.

It's such a non issue for most people that many don't know they have it or only get it diagnosed in adulthood so your dad may not have even known!.
People's brains learn to distinguish between different shades of Brown and they learn to call a particular shade green even if they don't see the green as others do.

[PuttingOnMyParts]

Both of my DS are, kind of expected as my grandad was. He actually worked as a bomb disposal expert during WW2 - we always thought that he was teasing us but apparently he had someone accompany him to tell him what colour the wires were

[Flamingolingo]

@Sleepinyourofficeinstead how strange - my DS was officially diagnosed at 3ish, but that was at the eye hospital for another reason. They had special paediatric cards and it was very clear that he was.

[RandomMess]

My DD is blue/green and didn't find out until she was 18...

[Sleepinyourofficeinstead]

We just took our 4.5yo to the optician this weekend to test for colour-blindness. We've noticed recently that although he's very proficient with colours, letters, numbers etc he will say 'they're both the same' when one thing is green and one is red. Other times he manages no problem so it must be about the lighting/pigment. He can't differentiate purple and blue.

My dad is colourblind so I'm almost certain but the optician wasn't keen to diagnose as she felt he was too young. She said come back in a year.

My Dad wasn't able to join the merchant navy as he was supposed to. I often wonder how much more exciting our lives could have been if he had...

[Flamingolingo]

My 6yo is and so is my dad. I don’t think my 4yo is.

The 6yo is aware that he sees colour differently to the rest of the family and we talk about it sometimes. He’s also much much better at seeing contrast and things that are camouflaged. So we talk about his colour vision as his ‘superpower’ - the thing that makes him special.

So far it hasn’t been a big deal. And I am relieved that high risk jobs are off the table.

[Gilead]

I’m female, obviously dd is too. So we must have the full whack. I don’t know of anyone colour blind in the family but my Mother wouldn’t have told me anyway. She’s odd!