After years of struggle with my children's behavior. I finally eliminated red dye 40 from their diet 2 years ago. What a change! My son, who was four years old during his worst time, had so much anger and uncontrollable frustrating episodes. I thought he could have some sort of conduct disorder and worried many nights about him growing into a man without regard for others. I knew that I needed to act right away and before he turned into a very strong teenager! I remember telling someone that we were eliminating sugar from his diet and she brought up eliminating red dye 40 and also other similar dyes.
His favorite drink, beginning when he was two, was strawberry milk- colored with red dye 40! After immediately eliminating that I noticed a significant change in his behavior and reactions to his brothers. It was then that I recalled a more peaceful son - when he was under two years old and dye-free at the time. Then I noticed every time he accidentally ate something with red-dye, he got this look on his face (a blank look- kind of angry or depressed look). It is a look that helps me to identify even to this day if he has had red-dye 40 or not accidentally. I need to feed them breakfast for now... so I will continue this later and also add suggestions for how you too can eliminate red dye 40 and other dyes.
The Look! I so know what you mean. That's how my huband and I know.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how they all get "the Look!" It is good that we recognize it, right?
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this information. I knew about Red #40 about 8 years ago. To this day I do my best to try and avoid Red #40 in my son's diet. However we have a fovoirte cereal, Blueberry Muffin from Kellogs. Guess what? It has Red #40 in it! I am mortified that I did not think of checking the label. I finally found a ceral that is NOT loaded with surger, we can eat on the run and..... it has the worst ingrediant in it! The horrible thing is I just baught about 9 boxes of it because it was on sale. Now I am on the hunt for a new breakfast cereal that a working mom and her son can eat together in the AM.
Our son used to wake up screaming every night with night terrors. He also was very angry all the time and like to correct everyone when they were speaking. You didn't dare mis-pronounce a word or he would let you know. Then about 3 years ago we figured out that Red#40 was the problem. And over the years we believe that Yellow #5, Yellow #6 and maybe Blue dyes effect him too. And yes, my son gets the look. I would describe the look as sort of a glazed look in his eyes, reddish tint in his cheeks and a look on his face like he's trying to hide something. It's weird but I can spot it as soon as I walk into the room.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter is almost 9. We discovered her red dye allergy when she was 1yr old. she had eaten a Bryan hotdog (the kind that turns the water red when cooked) she immediately had hives, and started vomitting. she will occasionally cheat and I know it. It causes her allergies and asthma to be out of control. There is a web site called Red40 that actually lists products by manufacturer and product name. This is great. She also reacts to annatto and carmine. We had her allergy tested and she has alot of allergies I can control by exposure but the food seems to be really hard since they can say "artifical Coloring". I am a nurse and her dad and his family think i'm nuts but a mom just knows. Besides you can't exactly hide an asthma attack or hives.
ReplyDeleteIn need of help,
ReplyDeleteMy 6 year old daughter seems to have anger issues and seems to have a small bit of wanting to hurt her 3 year old sister.....Just this morning she was set off just because i told her we didn't have donuts for breakfast and it seems if she starts her day off wrong it's a recipe for disaster. What is the easiest way to eliminate red #40???????? This will be a change for both of my girls as long as my husband and I ,I understand that it's easier to do it as a whole rather that one person.