If your child is color blind

amother

Wed, Jan 18 2023, 9:07 pm

did you buy the enchroma glasses? Do they work well? At what age did you buy them?

My DS is 5 y/o. He knows he is color blind and I told him that when he gets bigger, I would buy him the glasses that will help him see colors. Today while we were coloring, he asked, "ma, when will you buy me the glasses?

amother

Petunia

Wed, Jan 18 2023, 9:24 pm

What colors does he have colorblindness with?

I do not have kids with color blindness but I do have a brother who has it. Never impacted his life at all and he's never brought up the topic.

amother

Hawthorn

Wed, Jan 18 2023, 9:27 pm

My husband is colorblind. He's tried the glasses, they do work but he felt it was just a cool novelty. Like it was nice to finally understand what purple is, but it's not like it was something that necessary to his functioning so he never actually bought them. None of our kids are colorblind (they can't be, as far as I know, it doesn't run in my family. Our girls are carriers though, so I guess we'll see with their children).

amother

Blue

Wed, Jan 18 2023, 9:31 pm

Your daughters will most likely have at least one son that is colorblind. It runs from fathers to daughters sons. It’s very rare for a girl to be colorblind.
My father, one son and some nephews are colorblind. It hasn’t really impacted their lives in any way. The interesting thing that I noticed is that they don’t even realize that they don’t see colors as the rest of the population does.

amother

Mintgreen

Wed, Jan 18 2023, 9:39 pm

amother Hawthorn wrote:

I have several color blind sons and they had the same reaction. We bought the glasses and they love to try them once in a blue moon but don’t wear them for more than a minute at a time. It was really cool for them the first time to see what everyone is seeing but not something they were/are interested in permanently wearing. My dad (who they get their color blindness from) had the same reaction.

They’re close to $200 and I think make a really special gift for a color blind person but I (personally) wouldn’t spend that amount on a 5 year old and would wait until he’s older.

If you know someone who has them borrowing them would do the trick as well.

amother

Aster

Wed, Jan 18 2023, 10:41 pm

I’m color blind and so are 2 of my children.
It’s only with certain colors so it’s not so bad. It’s really with browns and greens. Sometimes I have a hard time figuring out if something is black or navy… it never even occurred to me to try the glasses but Im actually very curious about it… I guess if it would be worse I would have thought of it. My kids seem to be just like me. Often we have to ask our non color blind kids to tell us what color something is.
How much do the glasses cost and what happens if I already wear glasses for distance?

amother

Wed, Jan 18 2023, 10:43 pm

amother Aster wrote:

I assume all your sons will be color blind and not your girls, unless your husband has the gene too.
It cost a few hundred dollars and I believe that you can get prescription ones.
check out the website.

amother

Aster

Wed, Jan 18 2023, 10:52 pm

amother OP wrote:

Actually it’s one son and one daughter… I have more than one son but only one is slightly colorblind.
Yes, my husband is also colorblind.
I always thought our couch is gray. He’s positive that it’s green. We’ve been arguing about it for years…
My father was also colorblind. My mother said shortly after they were married she asked him why he wears a green sweater. He told her he doesn’t have a green sweater… his sweater is black!

amother

NeonYellow

Thu, Jan 19 2023, 1:28 am

I always had a black/navy issue but honestly it never occurred to me that it was related to color blindness. 2 of my sons were diagnosed with color blindness as kids but it has not cramped their style in the least and they both dress nicely.

amother

White

Thu, Jan 19 2023, 2:19 am

My son is colorblind, which we discovered by accident. He mixes up blue and purple. It doesn't affect his life overall except the one time where he took a purple pen to use at school. He found out very quickly it wasn't actually blue Smile

When I found out it's passed through the mother, I asked my father about it and tested my other kids. My father is not colorblind and neither are my other kids. However one of my brothers is - and he didn't know until I asked him to test, when he was around 30. It made no difference to his life whatsoever. I imagine if it was severe or affecting my kid's functioning, I might invest in the glasses, but at this point there really is no need.

Elfrida

Thu, Jan 19 2023, 2:45 am

amother OP wrote:

This sounds hard for a five year old. He knows he has some kind of limitation. He knows there is a whole world out there called colour, but he doesn't have any real concept what this means. He has been told there is a magic wand (pair of glasses) out there which will give him access to that world - but he can't have it until he is older. In the meantime, he is in kindergarten, where a lot of emphasis is placed on different colours, and he can't fully participate in what is going on around him.

As most people above have stated, and as I know from my father, when you grow up colourblind it doesn't make a great deal of difference to your daily life. The same way that it doesnt bother us that under normal conditions we can't see ultra violet light. But when you are five and are told that there is help but you can't have it yet - that sounds both tantalising and challenging.

Bnei Berak 10

Thu, Jan 19 2023, 4:20 am

amother NeonYellow wrote:

You don't have to color blind to have an issue with black/navy. Some navy shades are darker than others.

amother

Eggplant

Thu, Jan 19 2023, 7:45 am

My son is colorblind. Every year I tell the rebbi/ teacher because offer they will have them use red/ green for worksheets or blue/ grey/ purple… it’s important for them to know. Also to let them know which colors your child doesn’t mix up so if they need to color code something, it should be done using those colors.
Another important thing to know is that some color blindness (like my son’s) causes them to see everything in varying shades of green/ brown. So my son sees a rainbow as different shades of brown. He knows that we call this shade of brown “red” this shade “orange” this shade “yellow”… he likes to draw and color so he has all the colors “memorized” but to him they’re all the same color, just lighter and darker.
All the food he eats is the same color. Strawberries oranges, bananas, peas, carrots- same color.
It impacts his food choices ( he chooses foods based on taste and texture only.)

amother

Tomato

Thu, Jan 19 2023, 10:51 am

amother RosePink wrote:

My hub is colorblind. It really doesn’t affect him on a daily basis. It does get frustrating when I need let’s say new pacifiers and he’ll buy a light blue one instead of pink.

My dh did this too! lol