Colour Blindness

YORKSHIRELASS

Thanks for letting us know that Kingfisherblue, bet you are glad you have got an answer. I would try and encourage your son not to think of it as a big deal or be embarrassed about it. My OH is really sensitive about it and that makes life harder for him. I wish sometimes he could just laugh and say, oh sorry I am colour blind so I didnt know that was pink, or whatever.

kingfisherblue

YORKSHIRELASS wrote: »

Thanks for letting us know that Kingfisherblue, bet you are glad you have got an answer. I would try and encourage your son not to think of it as a big deal or be embarrassed about it. My OH is really sensitive about it and that makes life harder for him. I wish sometimes he could just laugh and say, oh sorry I am colour blind so I didnt know that was pink, or whatever.

I've already said that it isn't a big deal - he's just different to most people in a small way, just like having bigger feet, brown hair, or a different accent. He seems to have accepted it well enough, and now that it has been diagnosed, the only thing that he has said is that he would like me to tell his teacher (the optician pointed out potential problems in art).

Jo4

Thanks for the update and I am really glad you got answers to your questions! :j

Rainey_LB

My son is also colour deficient, especially with pastel colours, he doesn't have too many problems with it other than with art projects, the teachers are aware at school and help him out when he is just about to colour the sky pink!!

For anyone interested we researched a little about how it comes about and is passed on.

Red-green colour blindness is a recessive condition passed on the X chromosome. Only one healthy colour vision gene is necessary to provide colour vision. Since boys have only one X chromosome, it is much easier for them to be colourblind. If their mothers are carriers (having 1 normal X chromosome and 1 colourblind X chromosome), the sons have a 50% chance of having the condition.

These men cannot pass the condition on to their sons (since they give their sons a Y, not an X, chromosome), but they will pass the gene to their daughters who will become carriers.

All girls whose fathers are colourblind will at least carry the gene for colourblindness. In order for a girl to actually be red-green colourblind, she must have a mother who is a carrier AND a father who is colourblind and is therefore much less common. Any sons the girls then go on to have will have a 50% chance of colourblindess and any daughter a 50% chance of being a carrier and so it goes on........

rachelet

kingfisherblue wrote: »

I've already said that it isn't a big deal - he's just different to most people in a small way, just like having bigger feet, brown hair, or a different accent. He seems to have accepted it well enough, and now that it has been diagnosed, the only thing that he has said is that he would like me to tell his teacher (the optician pointed out potential problems in art).

My brother is colour blind but he actually did art at college and then went on to do Fine Art at University as well. He now runs his own vintage clothes and accessories shop in London. So don't let colour blindness stop you from doing art. My mum found a set of pencils that had the names of the colours on them so my brother could tell the difference when he was doing art projects!

Mokeyjen

I am colour blind and it hasn't affected me at all during my life! Most of the time I am confident with colours and people don't believe that I am actually colour blind! I am sometimes not convinced, however I have just done the colour test and couldn't see a single one! Hehe!

I get it from my Dad and he is quite bad with his colours sometimes but it hasn't affected him in his life either!

It is nothing to be embarrassed about, it is something to be proud of because it makes you unique!

Jen (Proud to be colourblind!)
:T

kingfisherblue

Mokeyjen wrote: »

It is nothing to be embarrassed about, it is something to be proud of because it makes you unique!

Jen (Proud to be colourblind!)
:T

That's exactly what I have said to my son - be proud to be different. He also has very large feet (size 11, and he only turned eleven years old a month ago). There are three male teachers in his school, and he has bigger feet than any of them. It's another way that he is different, and I have worked hard to make him feel good about being unique. He is quite proud of his large feet now, especially since moving to Scouts and finding that he has bigger feet than any of the leaders there as well!

Rachelet, I will look out for pens and pencils with the colour names written on, simply because his confidence has taken a bit of a knock, despite my best efforts to make him feel good about himself.

My older son is also different - he has Down's syndrome, with a number of other conditions as well. Those conditions are rare - two affect one baby in 3000, one affeccts one in 40,000, and the fourth condition is so rare that the doctors couldn't give me any statistics. To have all of them, and DS as well, is unheard of. It is the range of conditions, and how they affect his life, that make my son the person that he is.

My younger son is also unique - I love him for who he is, not for who he might have been, or for who people think he should be. I do tell my kids how much I love them - they might drive me mad at times, but I love them to bits, regardless of their differences. And wouldn't the world be a boring place if everyone was the same?