Parrothead Posted July 13, 2012 Author Share Posted July 13, 2012 My son has red dye #40 sensitivities. Irritability and insomnia. I clued in pretty quick to what was causing it because my niece was the same way. Amoxycillin (pink antibiotic) would turn her into a little hose beast. So yes, make sure your kid's chart at the pediatrician is flagged. If you are having problems finding dye-free medications (especially cough syrup) check in the diabetic section. Typically their sugar free medications are dye free. And yes, it's incredibly difficult to find dye free foods. But as far as eating ground up beetles, tell them it's for their Ancient History class - you're just doing what the Egyptians did. :) It was dh, not dd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted July 13, 2012 Author Share Posted July 13, 2012 Seriously, check out Feingold.org! They maintain a foods list that has made grocery shopping SO much easier, and it includes toiletries and household items. Will do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellmomma Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I don't know if ds's anger comes from red dye, but I will tell you he will never drink red powerade again. He got 2 bottles of the stuff once because it was on sale. The bottle of blue no problem, more sugar than I would like for him but whatever. About 6 hours later he drank teh red one. His reaction was like being drunk/high. He was slurring his words, swaying when he walked, giggling about everything, just not like my son at all. It was really weird. Afterwards he felt so sick, headache etc. I don't know if it was the sugar or the dye, but like I said the bottle of blue was fine. SO I suspect it was the dye. It is one of the theories I intend to test out regarding his mood swings- if certain dyes are affecting it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted July 13, 2012 Author Share Posted July 13, 2012 Seriously, check out Feingold.org! They maintain a foods list that has made grocery shopping SO much easier, and it includes toiletries and household items. Wow! It is expensive to look at their list of foods. I guess I'm just going to have to read labels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiniBlondes Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 It's also in many purple, blue, and sometimes orange things as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoLuRu Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Wow! It is expensive to look at their list of foods. I guess I'm just going to have to read labels. I signed up last year and have used the book for more than a year. They send a monthly newsletter with updates as well. My daughter has problems with dyes, flavors, and preservatives, so it's been worthwhile for me. Reading the labels is definitely an option, but I find it much easier to shop with a list of things I know work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Yes, the Feingold Association is awesome. It was organized 35 yrs ago by parents and is still run by parents. You can't be sensitive to just one of the dyes made from petroleum so if you see a problem with red, you will also see a problem with the other 6. It's just that red is used the most so the kids get more of it. I also like the Yahoo group: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Feingold-Program4us/ and the Facebook page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristineW Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 I don't know where you live but for families with dye sensitivities Trader Joe's is awesome (no artificial flavors, colors, limited preservatives). DS and DD2 have dye sensitivities and I try to get most of my processed food from there. Christine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawneinfl Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Yup. Irrational anger and hysterical crying. The same thing happens to my dd within 30 minutes of red dye ingestion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Posted July 14, 2012 Share Posted July 14, 2012 Red dye #3 & #40 are made from crude oil BUT so are Blue #1 & #2, Green #3, Yellow 5 & 6. Your son just gets more of the red. Avoid all of them and see what happens! :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest IndieMama Posted July 15, 2012 Share Posted July 15, 2012 I'm all too familiar. It's so awful for us. Red dye causes aggression, violence, growling, spitting, and awful mean talk. Yellow dyes cause the Screaming Weepies, paranoia, hours-long tantrums, lack of reasoning, etc. Annatto, a natural colorant, causes a similar reaction to Red dyes. And fake "vanillin" flavoring causes a similar reaction as Yellow dyes, except it lasts a few hours instead of 2-3 days. And the dyes affect my husband and me, too. I blog about our struggles with petroleum food coloring at www.DieFoodDye.com, write content on how to spot and avoid dyes, collect guest blogger stories about their own journeys going dye-free, interview dye-sensitive kids, and moderate a discussion forum (for folks to post questions and suggestions for traveling dye-free, dealing with school food, surviving special occasions & events, rants and raves, alternative safe foods and treats, restaurant info, and dye-free craft ideas). I have a facebook fan page and twitter @DieFoodDye where I post relevant content, and folks can post up stuff that they find. Right now, I've got t-shirts for kids to wear to school, summer camps, and Grandma's house, which have a very funny and to the point message that the kid wearing it cannot have food coloring. Pre-sale ends this Tuesday - 20% off. Please join in our fast-growing community, we are there to support and help each other. Regards, Rebecca http://www.DieFoodDye.com :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clear Creek Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 My son has red dye #40 sensitivities. Irritability and insomnia. I clued in pretty quick to what was causing it because my niece was the same way. Amoxycillin (pink antibiotic) would turn her into a little hose beast. So yes, make sure your kid's chart at the pediatrician is flagged. If you are having problems finding dye-free medications (especially cough syrup) check in the diabetic section. Typically their sugar free medications are dye free. And yes, it's incredibly difficult to find dye free foods. But as far as eating ground up beetles, tell them it's for their Ancient History class - you're just doing what the Egyptians did. :) I wanted to bump this thread up to say a huge THANK YOU for mentioning the insomnia. We knew our daughter had behavioral reactions to red food dye, but we never connected it to her insomnia. The girl has rarely slept through the night for months now, and we were just about at our wits' end. We were trying to keep her from eating/drinking anything with the red food dye, but we weren't overly vigilant about it...but for the past few days (since you posted this) we have checked everything before she has eaten or drank it, and she has slept through the night every night except one night (after she had an orange popsicle, go figure!). Honestly, this is the most consecutive nights she has slept through the night since she was about four (and she is eight now), so again, THANK YOU!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizaG Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 I'm all too familiar. It's so awful for us. Red dye causes aggression, violence, growling, spitting, and awful mean talk. Yellow dyes cause the Screaming Weepies, paranoia, hours-long tantrums, lack of reasoning, etc. Annatto, a natural colorant, causes a similar reaction to Red dyes. And fake "vanillin" flavoring causes a similar reaction as Yellow dyes, except it lasts a few hours instead of 2-3 days. Oh yeah, I forgot about vanillin. We have to stay away from that as well. It's in most mainstream caramel and chocolate products, even Nutella. There's a bigger issue behind all of this, too. The FDA used to be called the "Bureau of Chemistry." Their mandate was to ensure that drugs and packaged foods were "pure" -- i.e., without any fillers or adulterants added, and without any cosmetic changes to trick the consumer by making foods seem higher quality than they really were. The Pure Food and Drug Law was supposed to be one of the great glories of the Progressive Era. But within five years, the first head of the Bureau, Dr. Wiley, had resigned in disgust, because he believed that the interests of big business were taking over. The FDA conveniently omits this fact in all the glowing mentions of him on their web site. The original mandate, though, was based on the sensibilities of consumers at the time. People were used to shopping with their senses, because that's all the information they'd had to go by for thousands of years. They believed that by choosing grocery items that had a good color, smell, texture, and taste, they were choosing foods that were fresh and had good nutritional value. And this was generally a reliable guide. 100 years later, the businesses have got their way. Even many health-conscious consumers take the presence of additives for granted, as if the only issue were "natural" vs. "artificial" ones. But if the sensory qualities of foods are supposed to be an indicator of their quality and freshness (and I think we all still shop with this in mind, even if we aren't conscious of it), then any attempts to doctor these up with colors, flavor enhancers, preservatives, gums, etc., are kind of fraudulent, IYKWIM. The manufacturers are tampering with the internal "good food detection" system that we've had for all of human history. And it's not only happening with processed and packaged products. It's got into fresh foods via animal feeds, so we have "fake orange" egg yolks, "fake dark pink" salmon, etc. I don't care if the color comes from flower petals, or whatever. It's still fake, in that it was added to make the food look like a higher quality version of the same product (e.g., truly pastured eggs). And we have no way of knowing how much of the additive has been used, nor how palatable the food would look without it. (In the Little House books, Ma Ingalls added carrot juice to her butter to color it when the cream wasn't as yellow. But she chose to add it herself, and saw the butter beforehand. Nobody was using it as a marketing device.) I've come around to thinking that this widespread fakery is a major factor in America's nutritional problems in general. The book The End of Overeating talks about restaurant meals and packaged foods being made more palatable through adding sugar, fat and salt, but for some reason (hmm...), it doesn't mention additives. I suspect that they might be an even bigger part of the puzzle. Because their whole purpose is to convince you to buy and eat all kinds of stuff that you might otherwise stay away from. :001_huh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WhyDye Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Hello, Based on our eperiences with a child who is highly sensitive to artificial food dyes we have compiled pertinent dye information at: http://www.whydye.org/ the site is dedicated to presenting blog info, resources, and latest news on the status of artificial dyes. Many thanks, Martha at WhyDye Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 Trader Joe's can be a fun place to shop, but not all their foods are free of flavors, colors, or preservatives. I don't know where you live but for families with dye sensitivities Trader Joe's is awesome (no artificial flavors, colors, limited preservatives). DS and DD2 have dye sensitivities and I try to get most of my processed food from there. Christine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munchkins_mama Posted July 26, 2012 Share Posted July 26, 2012 Bumping this up to ask a few questions. My DD6 has always been ' special'. She's not on the spectrum, very intelligent and kind, but something isn't right. For the last couple weeks, she has been throwing HUGE fits. Crazy tantrums that she hasn't had for a couple years. It's like she just can't control herself once she gets going. I realize that all kids have fits, but this goes beyond 'normal' and my mommy gut is telling me that something is wrong. The problem is, we don't eat much processed stuff, and when we do, her reaction isn't immediate. Can a dye reaction come on randomly ( on a day that she hasn't had anything but homemade food)? Her fits come out of nowhere, not after eating. I made an 'emergency' appt tomorrow morning with her Ped to clear up any physical causes before I look into mental issues. The family thinks I'm nuts about the food dye but after looking at the Feingold site, she has sooo many of the 'symptoms' that I know something is up. Hey, even if that's not the problem, what harm can it do to cut out all processed foods? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebel Yell Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Bumping this up to ask a few questions. My DD6 has always been ' special'. She's not on the spectrum, very intelligent and kind, but something isn't right. For the last couple weeks, she has been throwing HUGE fits. Crazy tantrums that she hasn't had for a couple years. It's like she just can't control herself once she gets going. I realize that all kids have fits, but this goes beyond 'normal' and my mommy gut is telling me that something is wrong. The problem is, we don't eat much processed stuff, and when we do, her reaction isn't immediate. Can a dye reaction come on randomly ( on a day that she hasn't had anything but homemade food)? Her fits come out of nowhere, not after eating. I made an 'emergency' appt tomorrow morning with her Ped to clear up any physical causes before I look into mental issues. The family thinks I'm nuts about the food dye but after looking at the Feingold site, she has sooo many of the 'symptoms' that I know something is up. Hey, even if that's not the problem, what harm can it do to cut out all processed foods? With my sensitive child, she rarely reacted immediately- like how a peanut allergy would result in an immediate reaction in the allergic child. Hers was often more delayed- like closer to bedtime after a day FULL of food dyes. Good luck- I hope you find answers! :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleIzumi Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Bumping this up to ask a few questions. My DD6 has always been ' special'. She's not on the spectrum, very intelligent and kind, but something isn't right. For the last couple weeks, she has been throwing HUGE fits. Crazy tantrums that she hasn't had for a couple years. It's like she just can't control herself once she gets going. I realize that all kids have fits, but this goes beyond 'normal' and my mommy gut is telling me that something is wrong. The problem is, we don't eat much processed stuff, and when we do, her reaction isn't immediate. Can a dye reaction come on randomly ( on a day that she hasn't had anything but homemade food)? Her fits come out of nowhere, not after eating. I made an 'emergency' appt tomorrow morning with her Ped to clear up any physical causes before I look into mental issues. The family thinks I'm nuts about the food dye but after looking at the Feingold site, she has sooo many of the 'symptoms' that I know something is up. Hey, even if that's not the problem, what harm can it do to cut out all processed foods? It could take hours to over a day with dd. And then she would react for hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YourFidgetyFriend Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 Red dye sensitivity over here as well. We first noticed it when it would exacerbate her eczema. After that, we found it was directly related to insomnia, hyperactivity, and a complete inability to listen. It would be like her brain shut off and body took over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiniBlondes Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 My sensitive DD would display reactions like this. 8 am she eats red Pop-Tarts. 10 am she breaks out in a rash and is crazy hyper. 8 pm she is irritable and mean. 3am the following morning she wakes up puking. Then she was fine. The whole process of getting it out of her body takes about 18 hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munchkins_mama Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 I'm trying to keep track of what she eats but I'm not the only one that feeds her. I need to ban everyone else from giving her food. ( The In-Laws think I'm crazy and feed her goodies to spite me. ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizaG Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 For the last couple weeks, she has been throwing HUGE fits. Has your family recently been eating an unusual (for you) amount of some kind of seasonal produce, such as strawberries or tomatoes? Quite a few popular summer fruits and vegetables are high in natural chemicals that can cause reactions in sensitive people. There's a lot of discussion about this at the FAILSAFE/RPAH web sites that I linked to above, and also a bit in the Feingold literature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brendag Posted July 27, 2012 Share Posted July 27, 2012 (edited) Both of my kids, b/g twins get SUPER hyper. The first time they were up every hour, all night long. It was like they were different kids! They were always wonderful sleepers. It took us a few times to realize it was the red dye. For them though, it has to be a pretty decent amount to affect them it seems and we do everything we can to avoid it. We loved the red velvet cake from Costco, but it is evil in that sense! :tongue_smilie: Brenda ETA - I've always been pretty strict about limiting processed foods so it became apparent something happened when they were each allowed 2 pieces of the cake from Costco (I typically make the cakes). My friend brought up food dye sensitivity thank goodness! This thread has got me thinking about all of the other things that have the dyes so thank you. My dd is now on the pink amoxycyllan (sp?) and has had a couple of more rough days. I know antibiotics in general make me feel *blah*, but I didn't think about the dye. Vitamins...ack! Not thinking here!!!!! Now I'm also wondering about how many school kids have the sensitivities and people think they are just unruly/mean kids. Hmm... Edited July 27, 2012 by brendag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 You can't rule out a mom's gut feelings, right? We are a Feingold family. I've known kids that don't react until the 3rd day but I'd say most react within a few hours or the next day. A study in 2007 shown (Lancet) that all kids react. Her random reactions could be a build up of things you hadn't thought of or circumstances around her. Another good place to look into, ask questions, etc. if you are on the fence about joining the Feingold Assoc (best money you can spend, btw) is the Yahoo group: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Feingold-Program4us/ Bumping this up to ask a few questions. My DD6 has always been ' special'. She's not on the spectrum, very intelligent and kind, but something isn't right. For the last couple weeks, she has been throwing HUGE fits. Crazy tantrums that she hasn't had for a couple years. It's like she just can't control herself once she gets going. I realize that all kids have fits, but this goes beyond 'normal' and my mommy gut is telling me that something is wrong. The problem is, we don't eat much processed stuff, and when we do, her reaction isn't immediate. Can a dye reaction come on randomly ( on a day that she hasn't had anything but homemade food)? Her fits come out of nowhere, not after eating. I made an 'emergency' appt tomorrow morning with her Ped to clear up any physical causes before I look into mental issues. The family thinks I'm nuts about the food dye but after looking at the Feingold site, she has sooo many of the 'symptoms' that I know something is up. Hey, even if that's not the problem, what harm can it do to cut out all processed foods? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 A really good books is Jane Hersey's Why Can't My Child Behave? Part one is online http://www.feingold.org/why1.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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