***Emmy***

Luckystar2

I would love to hear more about your experience with food dye and Jake! I really haven't thought about food before and her behavior. The thought of trying to eliminate food dyes sounds a bit intimidating though. Would love to hear what behavior issued you were having, how you figured it out and how eliminating it has gone.

Thanks!

egpitt22

Happy to talk about it, here is what I wrote on my blog about it (there are 3 posts, though it finding these just now makes me realize I never did a wrap up/results kind of post like I had hoped):

http://www.misadventuresinbabyland.blogspot.com/search/label/Artificial%20Food%20Dye

To give an update here about the results...it's like having a different child.  don't get me wrong, he still has his moments and I think that's just his personality (sounds similar to your daughter) but I can't even begin to describe to you the difference this elimination diet has made for all of us.  Things still set him off sometimes, but instead of him being hysterical and out of control for an hour, it's now more manageable.  He can calm himself down when upset, whereas before, he was just out of control and would get very physical. 

Since we started this a little over a year ago, he had food dye one time without us knowing.  But I could tell, from the second we walked in the door after school/work, he was like a different child.  couldn't maintain eye contact, couldn't get control of his body, was making screeching noises that he used to make all the time but had stopped since we cut out the food dyes....I said to Brian, "he had food dye, I just know it.  this is like a flashback from hell"  I sat Jake down and went through his whole day with him, every single thing he put in his mouth...he's usually very, very good about knowing what to eat and what to not eat (and the school is supportive too) but one thing slipped past him in the lunch line and that's all it took. 

I could go on and on, but I don't want to go into too much detail for the sake of his privacy on here, I edited myself on the blog, too, for that very reason.  I'm happy to discuss off the board if you want more details about how he was and the steps we took, the doctors we saw, etc. 

egpitt22

emmylou1222 at gmail.com

Luckystar2

Wow Emmy! That sounds like it's made such a huge difference. The behaviors prior to cutting it out do sound like stuff we go through. I'm going to read your blog and I'm sure I'll shoot you an email. Thanks!

ericnstacey1

I read your blog posting about this.  It sounds like my life! My 4 year old twins are at each other all the time, more than normal.  The aggression is intense.

Can you give us a list of foods that Jake likes so that I can try on my boys.

Thanks

Stacey

northhillsbride

I agree with the food dye. When Gavin was really young, we found that after he took medicine with dye (like Tylenol, etc.), he would be NUTS. So, we put it in his medical files and everything, that we were trying to avoid food dye.

I'm going to read your Blog about this, Emmy, as I'm intrigued as to how you completely removed it from his diet; that can not be an easy thing to do! 

egpitt22

ericnstacey1 said:

I read your blog posting about this.  It sounds like my life! My 4 year old twins are at each other all the time, more than normal.  The aggression is intense.

Can you give us a list of foods that Jake likes so that I can try on my boys.

Thanks

Stacey

Hi Stacey,

No problem, the good thing is, once we figured out what it's in, it was fairly easy to find alternatives.  For example, it was in the Eggo brand of blueberry waffles (i'm sure you can find it at whole foods or something with the blueberries in it without food dye) but the easiest thing to us was just to switch to cinnamon waffles.  He was eating the strawberry nutrigrain bars, which contain dye, but the apple cinnamon ones don't, so we switched to those.

For some things, it was just a matter of thoroughly reading labels and seeking out brands that don't have it.  For instance, you know those little packs of crackers that have peanut butter in the middle, they come with like 6 crackers?  Some brands have food dye in the crackers but other brands (like Keebler and Target's Market Pantry brand) don't have it.  Some mac and cheese has it, but there are certain shapes (still by kraft, but some shapes) that don't (which is so annoying, why not just remove it from your whole company??)  but I digress.  Jake won't eat shapes though, so I buy the regular mac and cheese from a brand called I think Simply Nature that I find at Target.

I put this in the blog, but sweets can be a challenge, especially for special occasions.  I didn't want to say to him that he can never have cupcakes or cake for his bday, so now I either make my own icing (you can find the cupcake mix itself that doesn't have it, I think it's Duncan Hines brand) or I have also purchased cake from Whole Foods.  He's also a fan of brownies, so I did that for his bday party last year. 

We didn't have to actually eliminate any foods altogether, it was more just researching and finding alternatives and being vigilant about reading labels. My suggestion if you're going to give it a shot is to read, read, read and then read some more when you shop!!  Look at the labels very carefully, most of the time the colors are the very last thing listed, but sometimes they're not so I always scan the whole thing.  They may be listed as the actual colors, or sometimes it will just say artificial dye, or the name of the dye itself (FD&C lakes, for example):

egpitt22

northhillsbride said:

I agree with the food dye. When Gavin was really young, we found that after he took medicine with dye (like Tylenol, etc.), he would be NUTS. So, we put it in his medical files and everything, that we were trying to avoid food dye.

I'm going to read your Blog about this, Emmy, as I'm intrigued as to how you completely removed it from his diet; that can not be an easy thing to do! 

Clare-it wasn't easy, but not quite as hard as I thought.  We still have our challenges (especially when he's at someone else's house or at a party, I worry) but overall, it was easier than I anticipated to remove it altogether. 

In my research, it seems like the red 40 dye is the biggest culprit for a lot of kids, so I guess you could probably try to eliminate that first to see if you get results.  But honestly, we were so, so very desperate and just at the end of our rope, that I wanted to eliminate it all, and not run any risk or it not workign with just red and having to live being so frustrated and upset for more than we already had been.

After the time Jake accidentally had some, I asked him a few days later (when he was back to normal), how it made him feel when he came home from school that day and told me that something was wrong.  he said he felt like his skin was itchy (he couldn't explain it more, but he kept like, shimmying his body and pushing his shoulders up and down when trying to explain it....my guess is that it felt like he was crawling out of his skin, similar to when you have an adverse reaction to cold medicine or something similar...that unsettled feeling) and that he felt like screaming. 

bride2003

Is he allergic to it & will he have to stay away from it forever?  Not that that is a bad thing just curious whether he will outgrow it?

egpitt22

bride2003 said:

Is he allergic to it & will he have to stay away from it forever?  Not that that is a bad thing just curious whether he will outgrow it?

Our pediatrician said there's no formal testing to know if he's allergic to it, especially since it's a behavioral reaction and not physical in any way.  It's more of an intolerance.  But he did say that many kids outgrow the reaction to it around puberty, once his system can process it a bit easier. 

ericnstacey1

Emmy,

Thank you soo much, we will be reading and taking a trip to the store with out the boys so I can focus on the labels and find alternatives so that they won't miss their favorites.

Thanks again for giving me some hope.

Stacey

Luckystar2

ericnstacey1 said:

Emmy,

Thank you soo much, we will be reading and taking a trip to the store with out the boys so I can focus on the labels and find alternatives so that they won't miss their favorites.

Thanks again for giving me some hope.

Stacey

I wanted to update that I looked at a lot of our common foods last night and was happy to see that we apparently are already choosing a lot of dye free foods. Some of the biggest things I was worried about like yogurt and Mac n cheese don't have dyes listed. I know Emmy mentioned in one of her posts that som of the Mac n cheese shapes don't use dyes and luckily that's what we get! So there must be a decent amount of alternatives out there. I'm glad to see Dd's most commonly eaten items are dye free but there are a few other items I found that had it so I will be looking for alternatives for those. I am going to track behavior and see if maybe the bad days are linked to exposure to some of those or not.