thread: When did you realise your child was colourblind?

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  1. #1
    BellyBelly Life Subscriber & MPM

    Feb 2007
    Melbourne
    5,462

    I'll be interested to know too. My DH is colourblind (red/green) and DS1, who is 4, gets red and green confused a lot. It took him quite a while to name colours. I suppose it's one of those things that we'll work out over time? DH never found out until he was tested for a job he went for in his mid-twenties!

  2. #2
    Registered User

    May 2007
    3,341

    Trish -
    generally speaking Colourblindness skips a generation,

    It is a gene that is carried on the X chromosome on the (maternal side) and often passed to males.
    (female colourblindness is less common than males for this reason.

    So you have a good chance there will be no colourblindness in your DS as your DH would have passed on his Y chromosome and not the X carrying colourblindness gene to your son ( i hope this makes sense).

    However your DH can pass the X chromosome onto his daughters who will often dormantly carry it until they have children.


  3. #3
    BellyBelly Life Subscriber
    Add Schmickers on Facebook

    Jan 2006
    Port Macquarie, NSW
    1,443

    I'm not sure - I've always assumed that the condition is present from birth.

    You could take him to an optometrist to be checked out - the tests for colourblindness are pretty quick and easy, and I'm sure there are special cards for children that have pictures on them instead of numbers.

  4. #4
    BellyBelly Life Subscriber & MPM

    Feb 2007
    Melbourne
    5,462

    Interesting PP! I just think it's weird that he seems to muddle green and red sometimes. Maybe it's just one of those things.

  5. #5
    Registered User

    Dec 2005
    In Bankworld with Barbara
    14,222

    MY DH never found out he was colour blind till he had a medical for work - not red/green, but the other one. It explained a lot of his dodgy colour choices though ROFL! It is passed down on the maternal side as a general rule.

  6. #6
    Registered User

    Feb 2006
    Newcastle, NSW
    4,219

    My father is colourblind (red/green) but I have no issues at all.
    My DS1 however was diagnosed as colourblind when he was almost 7. He practically can't see the colour green and has issues with many other colours like he will see some shades of green as grey, bolder greens he can see... he sees some shades of red as purple, sometimes green he sees as orange etc.
    The test he took was some pictures and he was able to see numbers or shapes in the dots... then they had a little machine thing that looked into his eyes at the colour cones where it was noticed my son has only 3 green cones when he is meant to have many more.
    I will need to test DS2 for this when he is old enough.