Science people, help me out, please (eye color)

[Queen Mamadala]

How likely is it for blue and green-eyed parents to have a brown or hazel-eyed child? 

H's mom has olive green eyes and his down has blue eyes. H says his eyes were brown until late teen years. They're hazel now. I know it's possible, though extremely rare, for blue-eyed parents to have a brown-eyed child if one of the parents blue eyes were due to missing or defective genes that determine pigment. Would it be the same for blue/green?

There's this eye color offspring calculator I've used a number of times before, but it doesn't give me a result this time because H "shouldn't" have brown or hazel eyes.

Also, this eye color, is it blue/grey hazel? (random eye, but LO's looks exactly like this). My mom asked if her eye color is changing. I wasn't sure how to describe it.

[erbear]

It's not impossible. The old square thing you learned in Bio is simplified. Eye color is all about dominant traits; you can be a carrier of a color, so it's possible to get pigment shades.

My daughter's eyes are close to that color you posted. She says she has green eyes

[Deleted]

I would say those eyes are grey or hazel.
I love genetics. DD is the perfect example of recessive genes - my dad and MIL have blue eyes, my mom and FIL have brown (but my moms' are a tad green). I have green, DH has greenish brown and DD has bright blue with an outer ring of navy.

[bowies]

My eyes are close to that color. My mom calls it hazel I call it blue-gray. They often show up as light green in pictures.

[mainelyfoolish]

I would call that hazel. Eye color isn't determined by a single set of genes, so it's not something you can predict easily like blood type. I'm not sure there is a way to determine a precise probability of a certain eye color.

[thebreakfastclub]

I couldn't find an eye color calculator that factored hazel eyes when I was pregnant. H has green/brown hazel, mine are blue and DS has brown eyes. Other than eye color, he looks just like me.

[timorousbeastie]

Does this page help you understand the genetics of getting a brown eyed child? genetics.thetech.org/how-blue-eyed-parents-can-have-brown-eyed-children I'm sick and tired right now, so my brain isn't functioning well enough to translate the page into less scientific terms, but I could try tomorrow if you'd like.

[sparty04]

My eyes look almost exactly like that. The brown ring is maybe a bit more yellowish. I consider myself to have blue eyes (they show up blue in pics).

[livinitup]

That eye looks pretty green to me.

[Queen Mamadala]

Apr 23, 2015 19:50:06 GMT -5 timorousbeastie said:

Does this page help you understand the genetics of getting a brown eyed child? genetics.thetech.org/how-blue-eyed-parents-can-have-brown-eyed-children I'm sick and tired right now, so my brain isn't functioning well enough to translate the page into less scientific terms, but I could try tomorrow if you'd like.

This article definitely delves into this not so simple matter. Very fascinating.

@simpledog

Yes, her eyes were dark blue/grey at birth, and then started developing the copper ring around 3ish months. My other kids have light brown/amber-colored eyes with flecks of green and copper. Dd1's were her final color by 4-5 months, and the others not until 8-12 months, but their eyes looked different than LO's. Her eyes look dark blue/grey in normal lighting conditions. The ring is barely visible unless outside. They look green outside. There seems to be a variety of hazel combinations.

[meij]

Well it's possible because green eyed me and blue eyed H have a brown eyed son. He's young yet, so I guess his eyes could change but they've been dark since he was a few months old. Sometimes I look at them and wonder if they are dark grey or something. DD has bright blue eyes.

I didn't know it was supposed to be impossible until a couple people brought it up to me. Hey did you know it's not really possible for this kid to be your kid because he has brown eyes. Um...ok, thanks?

The eyes you PIP I'd consider hazel.

[glinda]

I consider that hazel, that's what DS' look like (3 this fall). My eyes are very blue and H's are dark brown.

Eye color genetics are super strange and like pps have said not at all simple.

[elocrates]

My short answer to your question is "not terribly likely." But like PPs mentioned, eye genetics is complicated.

My eyes are very similar to the one you posted. My drivers license says hazel. The outer grey-ish ring changes color depending on what I wear (brown, grey, blue, green).

[ringstrue]

I have blue and DH has hazel. From what I gathered hazel eyes are going to win out on the odds for your kids but not totally. If you are blue/green I'd bet on your kid having hazel, if that's what you are getting at.

ETA: I would describe the eye picture as hazel.

[ringstrue]

Also I'm guess your MIL actually has Hazel eyes too- they just read more greenish. Olive green isn't really the same as blue/green.

[MadamePresident]

I feel like hazel is a catch all term for "I'm not sure what to call this eye color".

[matildasun]

My husband and I both have hazelish eyes that change colors. We always joked about the chameleon eyed children we would have. Nope. My daughter has bright blue eyes, and my son's are brown.

[gibbinator]

Dh's eyes and my parents eyes look just like that. We call it hazel.
My eyes are blue-grey with green centres. They were straight blue until I was 12 ish.
Ds1 seems to be working toward having hazel eyes too

[rugbywife]

I believe there are two kinds of hazel...hazel brown eyes and hazel blue eyes...anyways...this classification system might help (from wikipedia):

The Martin–Schultz scale is a standard color scale commonly used in physical anthropology to establish more or less precisely the eye color of an individual; it was created by the anthropologists Martin and Schultz in the first half of the 20th century. The scale consists of 16 colors (from light blue to dark brown-black) that correspond to the different eye colors observed in nature due to the amount of melanin in the iris:

1-2 : blue iris (1a, 1b, 1c, 2a : light blue iris - 2b : darker blue iris)
3 : blue-gray iris
4 : gray iris
5 : blue-gray iris with yellow/brown spots
6 : gray-green iris with yellow/brown spots
7 : green iris
8 : green iris with yellow/brown spots
9-11 : light-brown iris
10 : hazel iris
12-13 : medium brown iris
14-15-16 : dark-brown and black iris

[auntie]

The genetics of eye color are complex.

I'd say those eyes are a version of hazel.

My oldest niece's eyes changed color for a long time- they were bright blue at a year, bright green by the time she was 2, then hazel for a few years, brown by puberty and are now a sort of mustard and amber color. My son's eyes were grayish green at birth and never changed. I was hoping for DH's dark brown.