If your kid has a sensitivity to food dyes/additives, can you answer a few questions for me?

[BarefootScientist]

Hopefully this will get some responses when everyone is done partying. I'm such a loser I have nowhere to be tonight.

Ok, background: We highly suspect that some kind of preservatives or food additives may be contributing to my 4 yo's behavior problems. At least red 40 has been confirmed so far, but I think there must be others. We weren't able to figure it out over the holidays, but we did have him off all food additives for a long weekend, just long enough to get a glimpse of the child he could become without whatever he's reacting to. Unless that was a coincidence, but he was seriously good, like I've never seen him good. Anyway, I can say more about our situation if anyone has questions, but I'm trying not to turn the background into a novel like I usually do, so here are the questions:

If your child reacts to a food dye:

*Which dye(s)?
*What kind of reaction do you see?
*How did you discover this?
*How much does it take to cause the reaction? Is it dose-dependent?
*If he/she eats some, how long does it take to see the reaction?
*How long before it goes away?
*Does he/she have other sensitivities?
*Did he/she every outgrow it?

And if your kid isn't sensitive to dyes, but to some preservative or whatever, I would love to hear about that too!

TIA!

(edited to add one question I forgot)

[jmarroq]

I know my son has sensitivities to several foods. When he was younger, I noticed it with Red 40, but only sometimes. One time, he ate a small pack of jellybeans (about 5-10) and was unable to sit in his chair and was bouncing and jumping all over at a restaurant. When I grabbed his shoulders, looked directly in his eyes and asked him to stop jumping and to sit on his bottom, he looked at me very confused. He had no idea what was happening, or why he couldn't sit still. It was really scary. Another time....red gatorade. Oh my! There must be a LOT of red 40 in there...A babysitter came over one night after my husband let him have a glass of gatorade. She said he was running around in circles around the island in the kitchen and humming non-stop from the time we left until he was completely exhausted and went to sleep. The weird thing is, there were other times, when he was around the same age, when he barely reacted to candy with red dye 40 in it. So I suspect there are different types of 40, or the reaction is much worse with a combo of 40 and other ingredients...or something else in his diet. 

[MarciaD]

We were where you are many years ago when our son was 4 and can answer your questions.

If a person is sensitive to Red #40 and avoids foods containing it, the person should also avoid the other 7 artificial dyes--all are derivitives of petroleum. Yes, crude oil. Red gets the publicity because it is used in greater quantiities than Yellow #5 & #6, Blue #1 and #2, Green #3 and Red #3. For example, Red #40 6,205,374 lbs of the stuff was used in 2009 and 711, 659 lbs of Blue #1. So don't stop at just eliminating $ed #40

Reactions-- many: irritibility, low frustration level, poor sleeping, poor focus, hyperactiviity, etc. plus many health concerns such as excema, asthma, etc.

How much depends on the person. Size is a biggie. So a 4 yr old would react longer and stronger.

The sensitivity doesn't go away but the symptoms are manifested differently.

Other sensitivities? You would also want to eliminate artificial flavorings such as vanillin, some preservatives, etc. Go to www.feingold.org , the parent support group formed my parents in 1976 who were once where you are.

There's also a good Yahoo group but no substitute for the Feingold Associaiton. http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Feingold-Program4us/

[heatherdeg]

Originally Posted by MarciaD 

We were where you are many years ago when our son was 4 and can answer your questions.

If a person is sensitive to Red #40 and avoids foods containing it, the person should also avoid the other 7 artificial dyes--all are derivitives of petroleum. Yes, crude oil. Red gets the publicity because it is used in greater quantiities than Yellow #5 & #6, Blue #1 and #2, Green #3 and Red #3. For example, Red #40 6,205,374 lbs of the stuff was used in 2009 and 711, 659 lbs of Blue #1. So don't stop at just eliminating $ed #40

Reactions-- many: irritibility, low frustration level, poor sleeping, poor focus, hyperactiviity, etc. plus many health concerns such as excema, asthma, etc.

How much depends on the person. Size is a biggie. So a 4 yr old would react longer and stronger.

The sensitivity doesn't go away but the symptoms are manifested differently.

Other sensitivities? You would also want to eliminate artificial flavorings such as vanillin, some preservatives, etc. Go to www.feingold.org , the parent support group formed my parents in 1976 who were once where you are.

There's also a good Yahoo group but no substitute for the Feingold Associaiton. http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Feingold-Program4us/

I'm late to this thread, but  .  Our household doesn't react to dyes/preservatives (well, actually, I guess I can't say that definitively--we haven't really had them since before our son was born) but we ds and I both reacted pretty seriously to naturally-occurring salicylates.  Feingold is best known for helping with ADHD but in my house it helped with "impacting daily life" excessive urination in me and daytime poop accidents with my 8yo.