Anyone here have a brown-eyed child without either parent having brown eyes?

[maize]

I know it is relatively rare but I am really hoping that Baby Boy's eyes will turn out to be brown--they are a dark steel grey at the moment, darker than my other babies' were.

 

Dh's eyes are blue and mine are grey-green. My maternal grandparents had the same combination and my mom ended up with brownish hazel.

 

I just happen to love brown eyes; I think dh's genes are pretty straight-up blue but 23andMe actually predicts my eye color as brown based on genetics, so maybe we could have a brown eyed child :)

 

So far we have various shades of blue, grey, and green-with-gold-flecks.

[EKS]

My son has brown eyes and my husband and I have green eyes.

[Kebo]

From my 2 blue eyed parents, there were 4 brown eyed (leaning hazel) children and 2 blue eyed children. 

[Amira]

A lot of people say one of my sons has brown eyes, although I think they're hazel.  Dh and I both have blue eyes.

[Mbelle]

Dh has hazel and I have brown.  2 of our kids have blue and 1 has brown.  

[TammyS]

No, but I have two blue eyed children even though neither parent has blue eyes.

[SparklyUnicorn]

My husband's eyes are gray/green.  Mine are blue.  Older kid has brown eyes (he was born with blue, but they changed). 

 

 

[scrapbookbuzz]

Well, brown is a dominant gene color, whereas blue is recessive, so it could happen if there are brown eyes

in the ancestry somewhere.

[Selkie]

Me: green

Dh: brown

Ds1: blue

Ds2: green

Dd: brown

 

Not the same situation as you, since dh has brown eyes, but I did want to point out that dd (my only brown-eyed child) did have much darker eyes than her brothers when she was born. The  boys had grayish-blue eyes, but hers were more of a dark steel gray like you described - so maybe your little one will end up having brown eyes, too.  :)

[fraidycat]

I have pukey green, DH has pukey light hazel, DD has rwally dark brown eyes, and DS has silvery grey. The kids definitely got way prettier eyes than their parents!

[Bluegoat]

I have blue eyes, dh hazel.  All my kids except dd9 have blue eyes.  Dd9 has very brown eyes.

[cjzimmer1]

 

I just happen to love brown eyes; I think dh's genes are pretty straight-up blue but 23andMe actually predicts my eye color as brown based on genetics, so maybe we could have a brown eyed child :)

 

 

 

This does nothing to answer your question but I would love to have a brown eyed child.  I have brown eyes so you'd think that was a reasonable request but after 6 kids I've yet to have even 1 brown eyed child. 

[maize]

This does nothing to answer your question but I would love to have a brown eyed child. I have brown eyes so you'd think that was a reasonable request but after 6 kids I've yet to have even 1 brown eyed child.

My parents both have hazel eyes; out of their ten children, only one ended up with hazel eyes.

 

They did get almost every shade of blue, green, and brown.

[J-rap]

No, but some of them started out a dark brown and then eventually changed to blue.  

[Crimson Wife]

My child with grey eyes as a baby wound up with a very pretty shade of green. My child with brown started out with navy eyes as a baby.

[rocassie]

2 of my 3 children have brown-eyes from a green-eyed dad and a blue-eyed mom.

[nixpix5]

Eye inheritance is interesting because brown is dominant meaning a parent can have either 2 alleles for brown or 1 allele brown and 1 something else. If parents have blue eyes then it typically means they both carry 2 copies of blue alleles which would mean children have blue. However, with green and hazel all bets are off. These colors work in a gradient fashion so if blue eyed parents have a green or hazel allele then it is possible to get green or hazel eyed children that can sometimes appear brown.

 

The best way to figure out your chances is to do an inheritance tree for eye color in your family.

 

For example, my mom has brown eyes and my dad had blue. However, my grandma had brown eyes and my grandfather had green. My dad had blue eyes and both his parents had blue and a blue/green. My eyes are brown so I know I carry a brown allele from my mom and either a blue or a green from my dad.

 

My hhusband comes from a long line of blue eyes. Everyone is blue so it is pretty clear his parents probably carry only blue allele copies. Our kids: 3 brown eyed, 1 hazel and one green :) So I was able to figure out I inherited a green from my dad by my kids since one got hazel and one got green. No blue and I probably could never get a blue if I only contribute brown or hazel/green.

[Paige]

My eyes are pale green, not brownish hazel green, and DH's eyes are yellowy, brownish, green. We have 3 brown eyed children. But- DH's eyes were brown until he hit about 30! They were definitely brown, brown, brown. I don't know what caused them to change, but I think eye color changes more than we realize. When I was a kid mine were bluish, grayish, and green depending on my clothes, but now they are only green. 

[Hilltopmom]

Yes, but shes adopted :)

[mamakelly]

I have light blue eyes, Dh has green. We have 4 kids;

 

1 blue

1 green

1 brown

1 hazel

 

It's really kind of strange, how different our kids eye colors are.

[mykidsrmyjoy]

My husband has very blue eyes, I have blue eyes with a small hint of green and all five of our children have very bright , striking blue eyes. My husband's side of the family has several people with beautiful chocolate brown eyes and I have always wanted a baby with brown eyes, but so far it hasn't happened. We'll see with #6.

[Matryoshka]

In basic biology they teach that brown is supposed to be dominant so unless one parent has brown eyes that should be impossible.

 

BUT... eye color has multiple alleles and I think some mixed dominance and honestly I can't figure it out at all.  I never got to advanced genetics, and eye color doesn't work in a simple Punnett square, I don't think.  There are even many different 'browns' - so what is a brown allele - there must be more than one?

 

Dh and I both have hazel eyes.

 

We have two blue-eyed kids and one hazel.  But what I find interesting is that the two with blue eyes have different blue eyes.  One is more gray-blue with a ring at the outside and a bit of yellow in the middle, the other has cornflower blue eyes from the pupil to the edge. (they're exactly the same color as my dad's).

[nixpix5]

In basic biology they teach that brown is supposed to be dominant so unless one parent has brown eyes that should be impossible.

 

BUT... eye color has multiple alleles and I think some mixed dominance and honestly I can't figure it out at all. I never got to advanced genetics, and eye color doesn't work in a simple Punnett square, I don't think. There are even many different 'browns' - so what is a brown allele - there must be more than one?

 

Dh and I both have hazel eyes.

 

We have two blue-eyed kids and one hazel. But what I find interesting is that the two with blue eyes have different blue eyes. One is more gray-blue with a ring at the outside and a bit of yellow in the middle, the other has cornflower blue eyes from the pupil to the edge. (they're exactly the same color as my dad's).

It is because of the non expressed/recessive allele. Hazel and Green don't work as a all or none function. They infuse color with gradient. So if a parent has a green or hazel allele it does alter the expressing allele. It can make brown eyes appear more golden or hazel and it can make blue appear more greenish. It is really neat.

 

In your case one or both of you (probably both of you) carry a green or hazel allele to produce such a wide variant of eye color. So awesome :)

[Paige]

I wonder how many women in history have been mistreated for having a brown eyed baby because of a poor understanding of genetics? It's kind of scary and sad.

 

My DS has an interesting eye that looks a lot like this: https://goo.gl/images/hEkf74

It's been cool to watch it grow and change over time. Eye colors are very complicated!

Edited May 31, 2017 by Paige

[Matryoshka]

It is because of the non expressed/recessive allele. Hazel and Green don't work as a all or none function. They infuse color with gradient. So if a parent has a green or hazel allele it does alter the expressing allele. It can make brown eyes appear more golden or hazel and it can make blue appear more greenish. It is really neat.

 

In your case one or both of you (probably both of you) carry a green or hazel allele to produce such a wide variant of eye color. So awesome :)

 

 

So cool.  Have they figured out how many unique eye color alleles they are and what different combinations make?  Is there even one 'hazel' allele, or are there multiple 'mixers'?  It seems like there's way more variety than brown, blue, green and hazel could make.  There are many colors of blue, many colors of brown, violet, and of course a profusion of different eye colors all called hazel...

Edited May 31, 2017 by Matryoshka

[MistyMountain]

I have a very light shade of brown eyes and my husband has green eyes and two of my kids have a much darker shade of brown eyes then me. I babysat a family where the parents had light colored eyes and blond or dirty blond hair and they had a kid with brown hair and brown eyes and it was their genetic child. I know of other kids who have brown eyes with light eyes parents. I also see a lot in some mixed raced kids that one parent has only brown eyes in their genetics and the other parent light eyes and the kid ends up with light colored eyes. Basic biology is that brown is dominant but it is actually a little more complicated than that.

Edited May 31, 2017 by MistyMountain

[nixpix5]

So cool. Have they figured out how many unique eye color alleles they are and what different combinations make? Is there even one 'hazel' allele, or are there multiple 'mixers'? It seems like there's way more variety than brown, blue, green and hazel could make. There are many colors of blue, many colors of brown, violet, and of course a profusion of different eye colors all called hazel...

It has been a while but I do recall variants of alleles and they are dose dependent in how they are expressed. If they haven't already discovered it, I am sure they will at some point know there are different types of expression. In some flowers they call white a diluted allele. So if a white flower and a red flower crosses in some species you will get pink. This tends to be how green alleles work in eyes. Some genes are linked to others and that can also have an impact in expression dose. It is all very complicated but super fun to think about!

 

Funny aside but noses can work in a dose dependent way too. Sometimes you will notice that some kids or people have a blend of their parents noses. It doesn't always work that way though. Neat stuff!

[ErinE]

DH (blue eyes) and I (brown eyes) have one brown eyed child, one blue-eyed child, and two hazel-eyed children. No one in my family background going back three generations has hazel eyes. The eyes are either brown or blue. On DH's side, his mother has hazel eyes and his father has blue eyes. The descendants have various combinations of hazel, blue, or green eye color. So I think it would be possible for someone with DH's genetic background to have a child with a hazel/brown eye color.

Edited May 31, 2017 by ErinE

[Tanaqui]

When my mother was in high school, her bio teacher gave an example of eye color as a recessive trait - two blue-eyed people can't have a brown-eyed child. And my mother, innocent and naive, asked "But what about me? My mother has gray eyes, and my father has green eyes, but my eyes are brown!" at which point, apparently, the teacher stammered a bit and changed the subject.

 

My mother swears she didn't understand what was going on until a few days later, when the teacher sat her down and explained that she'd done a lot of research and my mother didn't have brown eyes, she had hazel eyes, voila! And so she does, and there's really no doubt at all that both her parents are her biological parents, but that teacher must've really thought she stepped in it that time!

 

(Which is why you shouldn't use human body traits in biology class. Most traits commonly used as examples aren't hereditary at all, some are more complex than depicted, and as for the rest... do you really want to reveal a family secret in such a public way?)

[maize]

According to wikipedia, human eye color may be influenced by as many as 16 different genes. Definitely not Punnet-squareable.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_color

Edited May 31, 2017 by maize

[Katy]

I've seen steel gray turn to hazel - which many people think is brown.  It's really a light brown surrounded by a ring of blue or green, depending on the child's mood it seems.

[6packofun]

Dh has blue, I have green.  We have one brown-eyed child among the blues and greens.  :)  (My dad and dh's mom have brown eyes.)

[zaichiki]

My DS has an interesting eye that looks a lot like this: https://goo.gl/images/hEkf74

It's been cool to watch it grow and change over time. Eye colors are very complicated!

One of my brother's eyes is like that, too. I've not seen it in anyone else. It must be rare!

 

(My mother used to tell a crazy story that his pupil was damaged during birth and "leaked" into the color of his eye, creating a brown "smear." Sigh. It was years before he believed me when I told him that story was hogwash.)

[Guest]

I've seen steel gray turn to hazel - which many people think is brown. It's really a light brown surrounded by a ring of blue or green, depending on the child's mood it seems.

We have a steel gray boy that is hazel - he has the palest gray blue eyes and then for a wash of orange over them. They tend to like whatever shirt color he is wearing, but usually muddy gray or green. They only look brownish when he is wearing white.

[AK_Mom4]

Yes definitely possible.

 

Oldest DS has brown eyes. DH Has hazel and mine are blue. The other three kids have blue.

[foxbridgeacademy]

My mom has light green (like seafoam green- yes I'm jealous) and my dad has blue, my sister KK and I have blue eyes (mine are more gray) and the other sister has brownish hazel but she started out with the darker grayish-blue.  DD had the brightest blue eyes, people would stop and make comments.... now they're turning green like my mom's. :glare:

[slackermom]

My brother and I have dark brown eyes, while our father has blue eyes and our mother has greenish-gray eyes.

 

[Pam in CT]

My husband and I both have blue; one of the kids has just lovely green-hazel (depending on what she's wearing) and the others blue.  

 

I love brown eyes too; they catch the light in a way blue never does.

[Katy]

One of my brother's eyes is like that, too. I've not seen it in anyone else. It must be rare!

 

(My mother used to tell a crazy story that his pupil was damaged during birth and "leaked" into the color of his eye, creating a brown "smear." Sigh. It was years before he believed me when I told him that story was hogwash.)

 

Kate Bosworth (an actress) has eyes like that too.

[BlsdMama]

My mom.  My grandparents had blue/green.  Out of eleven kiddos, I believe my mom was the only brown eyed child.

 

Ironically, my parents, both brown, created a brown, a blue, and green eyed children.

 

So odd.