Jun 02 2009
My Uncles Are Colorblind
I wrote about my suspect on Ian being colorblind earlier. Someone left a comment discussing the inheritance of the colorblind gene in the X chromosome, i.e. I must be the carrier for him to be one.
Today, I asked my mom about her family trait, whether any one in the family is colorblind… And she told me my 2 uncles (out of 3) are colorblind.
My heart sank.
I’ve decided to make it positive. I don’t want to scare my little boy. He could sense something was wrong, and he kept asking me about our discussion (we were talking in Hokkien).
Finally, I decided not to hide it, and wanted to explain it to him (although DH holds a different opinion, he prefers not to tell him until he is much older).
I sat him down, and told him that he is a gifted and blessed boy, to be so smart, tall, and charming. None of us are perfect. So, it is alright that he cannot differentiate some colors.
I went on explaining what is colorblind, from the very technical angle. My boy loves science, so it is okay to explain things from very scientific ways.
He revealed that he often sees red color as orange, and cannot differentiate yellow from green. On the spot, he named the yellow color as ‘green’ without realizing he made a ‘mistake’.
I knew he was a bit sad last week, so I decided to tell him everything. I am so glad that, after explaining to him, and reading stories about other people sharing the same deficiency, he seems to cheered up. He even found himself special! In fact, after knowing his 2 granduncles are colorblind, he sort of like got curious and excited…!!
I pray that the deficiency won’t affect his life too much. Anyhow, will visit the GP to find out more…
It is quite common. One of my colleague & DH’s colleague is colour blind too. Nothing much affect their dairy life. Except when come to choosing colour they are confuse, they will ask is this blue or green, is this yellow or red? But is ok, just that what they see is different colour from what we see, that’s all. Not all human will have the same opinion,what you see is different from
what others see. So is the same for colours.
Piggy: Ya, you are right. Just need to console my boy, that he is not too different from others. I think he is scared of the term ‘colorblind’ like he is cacat like that!! Hehehe, another problem I think will occur, is the color coordination in his clothing. LOL! Hopefully not too bad. :p
oh ya, why didn’t I thought to telling you about the genetics of color blind. I should know, my father is color blind. I’m definitely a color blind gene carrier. If I have a son, he has 50% chance of being color blind.
and for my father, it doesn’t affect him much, he still can drive, etc.
But sometimes, he complains why 2 football teams are wearing the same color (actually they are not), and matches the wrong cards during our ‘gin rummy’ games (though we suspect he purposely do it to try and cheat us. ha!)
Hmm … I also suspect Ryan is a little colour blind, he always insist that “green” is “blue” and he is always a little unsure even when we probe him. Think he gets it from his daddy.
But I have not confirmed this with the doctor yet, am still praying (and hoping) that it is not!
glad that he can ‘accept’ it after your explanation
Aiyu: Ya, today we went to the clinic, and our dearest doctor was so helpful. He told Ian that he has a SPECIAL GIFT, that he can see a world of different colors from others. And he also shared with us a neuro-specialist who is also a colorblind. Ian felt so special after the visit to the clinic!
Busy Bee: Hmm… if Ryan is color blind, then he gets it from mother, not dad. It is in the X chromosome. Since he is a boy, he gets Y from his dad, even if his dad is a colorblind. Then your daughter will be a carrier if your hubby is a CB. Sounds confusing? :p
Pei Wei: Ya, especially after visiting the doc today!