Jane in NC Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 There are some new studies suggesting a link between food dyes and hyperactivity in children. The studies also look at the preservative sodium benzoate. You can read about this in an article published in the Washington Post. It seems that science may be acknowledging what a number of parents had already discovered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cin Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 This is so ironic. We were just reading this last week. So it's not necessarily the sugar, it's the additives and artificial crap (a word I don't use liberally, but sometimes, there is just NO. OTHER. WORD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Yes, discovered here when both kids were little. Yellows and reds were the worst! Our doctor figured it out (45 minute fits in kids that usually didn't do that) when they got sick and for 10 days straight got the color in the liquid antibiotics. He said back then that the doctors were begging the companies to take the color out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 My son reacts to red40 & yellow5. I agree, science is *maybe* starting to catch up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cin Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 My son reacts to red40 & yellow5. I agree, science is *maybe* starting to catch up. I think science has known all along, being whereas they are prohibited in Europe. I think that Big Business is starting to see that PEOPLE are catching on. I'm not certain, but I think sodium benzoate (sp?) is also prohibited in Europe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bettyandbob Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 My son reacts to red40 & yellow5. I agree, science is *maybe* starting to catch up. the science on this has been out for years. Big food companies have lobbied against doing anything. Many people seem to think if our Government says it's ok to eat then it must be OK. But it's really about big companies having the money to lobby against change. European countries have never had the amount of dyes we have and the few they used have been banned for a few years now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted March 27, 2011 Author Share Posted March 27, 2011 My son reacts to red40 & yellow5. I agree, science is *maybe* starting to catch up. Food companies also do not want to say that they were previously using "unsafe" additives. I think that Cin is right in her post when she notes that Big Business is reacting to the concerns of the consumer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissel Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Thank you for sharing this. I have finally narrowed down some of my DD5's difficulties to something that can be found in M&Ms--probably the red, since we've also had trouble with "strawberries" (HA!) and cream Quaker oatmeal. Now that I can eliminate that stuff, I have to start watching for other things as well. I'll keep an eye out for sodium benzoate too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissel Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 (edited) Yes, discovered here when both kids were little. Yellows and reds were the worst! Our doctor figured it out (45 minute fits in kids that usually didn't do that) when they got sick and for 10 days straight got the color in the liquid antibiotics. He said back then that the doctors were begging the companies to take the color out. :eek: I never even thought about things like that!!! I literally just figured out the M&Ms thing last week (stupid trail mix), but DD5 has been taking an off-brand Benadryl-type product for a rash. I never even thought to look! I have to go check... ETA: OMG!!!! Red #40 is in all of the things that set her off--the oatmeal, the M&Ms in the trail mix, the Benadryl, and the dang "fruit snacks" that she ate yesterday, about two hours before all of last night's insanity started :crying: How did I not see that?! :banghead: Edited March 27, 2011 by melissel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinder Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 Hadn't heard the sodium benzoate thing, but we discovered the food coloring problem when ds1 was little. It took us awhile to realize what was causing ds to get so hyper. He could drink Sprite and be fine. If he drank koolaid or orange soda he went crazy. Same difference with plain Lays potato chips and Doritos. He did grow out of it; as he got older he stopped having those reactions. I know that's not the case for everyone, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hockey Mom Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 I figured out my DD was allergic to red dye 40 when she was 2 years old. That was almost 17 years ago. We figured it out when the babysitter gave DD "all natural" fruit juice. Red 40 was the only common ingredient to her "fits of rage", followed by UTIs about 10 days after ingesting red 40. It is in EVERYTHING. We had to be very careful with what she ate, as it's not only in red foods/medicines/beverages, but in blue, orange, yellow, and purple foods as well. Even now, when she eats something with red 40, she is very hyper then crashes with a horrific headache, followed by terrible acne. I'm glad science is figuring this out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa in Jax Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 :eek: I never even thought about things like that!!! I literally just figured out the M&Ms thing last week (stupid trail mix), but DD5 has been taking an off-brand Benadryl-type product for a rash. I never even thought to look! I have to go check... ETA: OMG!!!! Red #40 is in all of the things that set her off--the oatmeal, the M&Ms in the trail mix, the Benadryl, and the dang "fruit snacks" that she ate yesterday, about two hours before all of last night's insanity started :crying: How did I not see that?! :banghead: Don't feel badly for not knowing. It takes a real detective to make these connections, b/c there are so dad-gummed many ingredients in processed foods! I'd bet that all of those things (except, perhaps, the Benadryl), also had high fructose corn syrup, too. My son reacts to Blue #1, sodium benzoate, and polysorbate 80 (mostly used in ice cream). He does NOT react to sugar. In our case, the issue is the chemical "ick" in candy, cookies, etc., not the sugar content, but it took a long time to figure it out, b/c the chemicals are in *so many* things. We realized that Blue #1 was an issue when another child at school gave him some sour candy "straws" that were bright blue. After eating them, he spent about twenty minutes standing in the dining room, stimming (spinning in circles, looking at the floor). Frankly, he acted like a kid with autism for the rest of that day. B/c of that incident, we pulled *all* colors from his diet. For the last 5+ years, he has very rarely had any FD&C colors or corn syrup. (He's also gluten-, dairy- and artificial-preservative-free.) When he eats colors, preservatives, gluten or dairy, he acts like a completely different child. When we feed him a more whole-food, simple diet, he is much easier to parent! ;-) Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandamom Posted March 27, 2011 Share Posted March 27, 2011 I thought my daughter had grown out of food dye reactions because she hadn't had a major meltdown in years. We've let her eat candy and other dye laden things for years now with no problem. Yesterday, she went to a party and had rainbow icecream and a bakery cake and raged for 2.5 hours (she's 10, BTW) today. I then had to ask my other dd what they ate and made the connection immediately. At least she had sprite to drink instead of Koolaid or Hawaiin Punch. She was one that also had a dye reaction to a kid make-up kit when she was 4 which went through her skin. So, now she's banned from dyes for at least 1 month until her system clears out again. We don't eat packaged foods at all so it won't be too hard to do. Just no more Skittles. But, boy was she a mess today; well I guess we all were :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissel Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Don't feel badly for not knowing. It takes a real detective to make these connections, b/c there are so dad-gummed many ingredients in processed foods! I'd bet that all of those things (except, perhaps, the Benadryl), also had high fructose corn syrup, too. Thanks, I appreciate that. I'm mainly mad at myself because I suspected something was going on about a year ago. I even posted a few times about it here! But I didn't follow up on it because I was so overwhelmed at the idea that it might be gluten, which I have issues with, or dairy, and because she's so strong-willed to begin with (and has been since birth), I just chalked a lot of it up to her personality. We don't generally drink juice or punch or kool-aid (maybe apple juice at parties, if not water), and we don't eat a lot of candy (she prefers chocolate anyway). I think it might have occurred to me sooner if we did eat that stuff, but you're right, it's in so many things that I WOULDN'T have thought to look in that I just never made the connection. I told my mom about this and she said, "Oh, wouldn't it be nice if this could solve all of her issues?" (meaning her bullheadedness). I was like, "Yeah, I'm not getting my hopes up." She's been the way she is since birth--there are stories about her that are family legend now :001_huh: But I know how miserable she is when she's raging, so to even help her eliminate those would be a huge, huge thing. Argh! I'm so sad for all of us that I didn't see it sooner :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alenee Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Someone mentioned the other colors of "food" that contain red dye so I wanted to add: Chocolate pudding Cream Cheese frosting...can't remember the brand. I opened a can of it last week. Dd who isn't allowed to have red dye commented that the frosting was slightly peach-colored. Sure enough, it had red dye. No reason for it, either. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissel Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 (edited) Chocolate pudding I just checked ours and all it says is "artificial colors." :glare: Hmm, well, I guess I know what I'm having for dessert tonight :tongue_smilie: We never suspected that it would be in the infant vitamins. The stinking vitamins!!!!! Off to go look now... ETA: The vitamins are safe, whew! Edited March 28, 2011 by melissel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meet me in paris Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 Someone mentioned the other colors of "food" that contain red dye so I wanted to add: Chocolate pudding Cream Cheese frosting...can't remember the brand. I opened a can of it last week. Dd who isn't allowed to have red dye commented that the frosting was slightly peach-colored. Sure enough, it had red dye. No reason for it, either. :glare: Dyes are in almost everything. Chocolate cake, yellow cake, all commercial frostings (yes, even "white"! They use blue to make it more "white"!) ice cream (not Breyers), cereal, bbq sauce - you name it. When we first figured out what was going on, I was in SHOCK when I started reading the labels at the grocery store. That was 8 years ago, and I'm still dumbfounded by the junk in our foods. Thankfully, if you shop at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, you won't find a single product with food dye (even the gummy vitamins! yea!). WF is a bit more expensive - TJ is generally not, but it is SO worth it to me to not have to be a food detective. Food additives are bad. bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meena Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 My DS7 is highly sensitive to food dyes, especially red 40 and yellow 5. He is old enough now to steer clear of obvious triggers (Hawaiian Punch, orange Hi-C). But as someone already mentioned, dyes are in so many foods--even ones you'd think would be safe--that I have to keep a close eye on labels for him. DS was given Dubble Bubble gum by his coaches at his baseball game yesterday. In about 20 minutes time after he started chewing, he went from being super-focused and concentrating on his game to zoning out and being distracted by the other team's dugout and the soccer game on another field nearby. I suspected the gum was a contributor and looking up the ingredients today, sure enough it has a variety of dyes including red & yellow. For those who want to learn more about safe foods and additives that trigger behavior changes (such as hyperactivity), I would suggest checking out The Feingold Program (feingold.org). We have not purchased the books yet (financial reasons, plus we seemed to have figured out a lot of what DS is sensitive to through trial and error), but I do subscribe to their newsletter and peruse their website and find both very informative. Incidentally, the Feingold Program is based on research from the 1960s/70s. This food dye information is far from new. It's sad that it has taken this long for manufacturers to react and even sadder that it's not of their own volition or research but because of consumer demand. It's sickening how companies care more about their bottom line ($$) rather than producing high quality, nutritious, *safe* products. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 (edited) :eek: I never even thought about things like that!!! I literally just figured out the M&Ms thing last week (stupid trail mix), but DD5 has been taking an off-brand Benadryl-type product for a rash. I never even thought to look! I have to go check... ETA: OMG!!!! Red #40 is in all of the things that set her off--the oatmeal, the M&Ms in the trail mix, the Benadryl, and the dang "fruit snacks" that she ate yesterday, about two hours before all of last night's insanity started :crying: How did I not see that?! :banghead: Ds was a toddler, went into a terrible fit. I had been telling dh about my suspicions of the dye. It was a little bit after supper. We both dove for the trash. Well..... it was yellow #5. In the pickles, in the Kraft Mac & Cheese, in the Gatorade. Ds is in college, just got over a cold. He got moody, I wondered about the red in the Sudafed he was taking. Actually, red #40 was what the doc said to get instead of the Red #3, that one gave us trouble, but the #40 was ok. I guess everyone is different! And, when ours got older, we can cheat a bit if there is a meal with the offending additive (still bad on empty stomachs). More of them to process it than when they were little. But we do still have to watch it. Edited March 28, 2011 by Susan C. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SweetMissMagnolia Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 yep---they should have listened to the MOTHERS a long time ago..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 I thought this was already accepted fact, LOL! I've begun having allergic reactions to dyes in foods - they break me out now - it's the natural life for me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
workingmom Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 We noticed after several months that it was the kids crest mint toothpaste that gave ds a rash around his lips and upper lip skin. I had never heard about dyes doing it until I spoke with a friend who works at P&G and she said its probably one of the coloring agents that caused his rash. I just have stopped that particular item, however this is soo interesting I didn't think that a dye would be the culprit? I don't notice rashes with other things except popcorn (which I just assumed was the massive amount of salt). But I'll have to go see about these two dyes. wow, thanks for the info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in OK Posted March 28, 2011 Share Posted March 28, 2011 I always have to hang my head and chuckle a little when scientists act like they have found something they think is new information and is some amazing discovery. If you are questioning if your child is reacting to food dyes, food additives, etc. read this book to get started: The N.D.D. Book Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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