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Eye Color

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bballstarburst20

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Eye Color Posted: 05-13-08 16:59pm


I would just like to hear some personal stories about baby's eye color. My eyes are a stoney blue, and my partners were dark dark dark brown. I know that brown eye color is dominant, but I also know that it would be possible for my child to have lighter eyes, whether it be blue, green, hazel or otherwise.... of course I just want a healthy baby and that's all I hope for but who wouldn't want to know what their baby is going to look like! :0

Biani

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Posted: 05-13-08 17:44pm


Sadly there's no way to know yet... I know brown is supposedly dominant, but i've known people that have kids that turn out with blue eyes when one of the parents has dark brown and the other has blue. So, it does happen... i don't know how much 'chance' of it happening there is though... I guess there's no other way but to wait and see what your baby looks like!

Lilly Ivy

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Posted: 05-14-08 15:12pm


My husband has BLUE eyes and so does his son, but his son's biological mother had brown eyes. I have hazel eyes, and it looks like my baby girl is gonna have blue eyes. They get bluer every day, so I don't think they are gonna turn (I hope!)

Marianne0558

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Found this research: Posted: 05-14-08 15:21pm


We know that the inheritance of eye color is much more complicated than once believed. It is not under the influence of just one gene, or else people would be either brown eyed or blue eyed. This also does not account for the difference in shades of eye colors. Now it is believed that eye color is a polygenic (many genes) trait and it depends on how many active (additive) alleles(versions) you inherit. By the way, blue eyes is really an absence of color, similar to the way water appears blue by reflection but is really colorless. So people with blue eyes have not inherited any or very few active alleles. The more active alleles that are inherited the darker the color of the eyes. Let us say that mom has medium brown eyes and dad also has medium brown eyes, but each of them have 3 active alleles and 3 non active alleles. Let's say then that their first child inherits all 6 of their active alleles and has dark brown eyes. Let us say that child number 2 inherits all 6 non-active alleles. That child will have very light blue eyes. Green, hazel, gray, light brown, etc. are all as a result of how many alleles are adding to the eye color. This is also why brown is always dominant over blue and green is dominant over blue because they both have more active alleles than blue and add to the eye color.

Biani

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Posted: 05-14-08 17:20pm


So you're saying it's possible that two people with brown eyes, and a history of only brown eyes in their family could have a kid with blue eyes?? Never seen it happen. All the people i know who have blue eyes or green eyes is because it runs in the family.

bballstarburst20

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Posted: 05-14-08 19:09pm


Anything is possible I know... genetics are very confusing and it is possible to have recessive and dominant genes that may come out or may not... but like I said, I've read the "research" and just wanted to hear some personal stories. From what I have gathered, more likely than not, if the father has dark eyes so will the child? thanks for all the replies! I love reading them and sharing stories with others!

Marianne0558

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You will never know what color your child's eyes will be.
Posted: 05-15-08 07:37am

bballstarburst20 wrote:

Anything is possible I know... genetics are very confusing and it is possible to have recessive and dominant genes that may come out or may not... but like I said, I've read the "research" and just wanted to hear some personal stories. From what I have gathered, more likely than not, if the father has dark eyes so will the child? thanks for all the replies! I love reading them and sharing stories with others!

Not necessarily.
My friend has brown eyes. Her husband has brown eyes. Their first son was born with brown eyes, but their second son has green eyes.
It depends on which alleles the baby gets.
In basic biology, we learn that every trait has 4 alleles...2 from the mother, 2 from the father.
Say the father is brown eyes, dominant over blue eyes. We would note that as "Bb".
The mother has blue eyes, recessive over brown. We note that as "bb".
By doing a basic punnet square, you have the possibilities of offspring having Bb, bb, Bb, or bb. That is 50% brown and 50% blue or green.

It's confusing to explain.

You can never tell what color your child's eyes are going to be, even if both parents have blue eyes, both have green, both have brown or whatever.

Me and my husband have green eyes. Our daughter has the bluest eyes I've ever seen.
My mother has green eyes and my father has blue eyes. My oldest sister has brown eyes, My middle sister has gray eyes and I have green eyes.

Lilly Ivy

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Posted: 05-15-08 08:30am


my friend was always called the milk mans baby because he has light blue eyes while his father has brown and his mothers are hazel/green. I did punnet squares in school, but they always said brown was "BB" so it was impossible to have a blue eyed baby. They must have changed it in the past couple years if browned eyed people are having blue eyed babies.

Marianne0558

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Posted: 05-15-08 09:28am


They discovered that it was more than the 4 alleles, actually. There are a bunch of possibilities. If it were that brown was only BB and blue was only bb, there would only be brown and blue eyed people, no in-between colors like hazel, gray, green with brown rings, or any kind of flecks that many people have in their eye colors.

Biani

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Posted: 05-15-08 11:02am


Ok, again, i'm talking about experience here... My uncle had very brown eyes, and married a blue eyed woman. Their first child has hazel eyes, and their second one has very blue eyes, even bluer than his mother. My sister's brother in law has blue eyes, and his wife has brown eyes. All the people in the wife's family have brown eyes. On the side of the guy, the father had light eyes (i'm not sure if blue or green, he's kind of old now and they look grayish) and the mother has green eyes. His brothers have green and brown eyes. Ok, so with all this family background, his first kid came out with very blue eyes. The brother that has brown eyes, married a brown eyed girl. They had a child that has brown eyes as well. It's weird how genetics work. We're actually wondering what color my niece is going to get. My sister is married to the green eyed guy mentioned above, but everyone in my family has brown eyes, some lighter than others, but still brown. So we're thinking brown is dominant too... but who knows?

Lilly Ivy

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Posted: 05-19-08 10:26am

Marianne0558 wrote:

They discovered that it was more than the 4 alleles, actually.
There are a bunch of possibilities.

If it were that brown was only BB and blue was only bb, there would only be brown and blue eyed people, no in-between colors like hazel, gray, green with brown rings, or any kind of flecks that many people have in their eye colors.

That's what I said to my teacher, but of course she didn't have an answer for me. She was just going by what the book said (probably made in 1950, lol)

Eye Color