is your dc highly sensitive to chocolate?

[Finch]

I just wanna know what it's like for other moms. My ds has been given chocolate twice in his lifetime. Once without my consent :, once by me without really thinking.

The first time he was about 14 mos. old, and my SIL gave him 3 plain m&m's on easter morning without asking me first. : We had to about peel ds off the ceiling that night, I don't think he went to sleep until like 1am. :

The second time was a couple of months ago, he was just over 2 years old, and I wasn't thinking and gave him 2 small chocolate chip cookies to eat. Omg. Same results. HYPER HYPER HYPER HYPER. : : : :

We have a standing rule in our house that ds gets NO chocolate and NO caffeine (relatives try to give him candy and sweet tea....), and tell everyone that if they give him either of those things we expect them to be on night duty and peel ds off the ceiling at 3 am.

Do ALL little kids react this way or is it because my ds is autistic? I don't think the kid needs to be eating chocolate anyway, so that's not a problem. But I'm wondering if when he's older...will he still react this way?

Enlighten me.

[majikfaerie]

while my dd can handle chocolate (and sugar) quite well, she CANT handle CORN-based sweeteners, like invert sorn syrup. this stuff sends her HYPER.
actually, we never even tried her on tasting chocolate or much sugar before about 2.5yo, so maybe that was a big part of it.

I did however notice that when she was very small, like, still ounting the age in weeks, *I* couldnt eat chocolate, or she would be colicky from drinking my milk.

AND (perhaps most relevantly), about 18 months ago I discovered that *I* amd allergic to chocolate - If I eat even the smallest amount of cocoa, I get severely depressed, even suicidal, feelings of hopelessness, emotional, irrational, bitchy, crying...
I suffered terribly from chronic depression my whole life - was under psychiatric care from the age of 7 or 8, was hospitalised as a teenager, the worst possible nightmare of a life you can imagine...
UNTIL
I found out it was the chocolate that I was addicted to (I ate it a lot because I was so depressed )
once I quit chocolate, it was amazing - the sun came out in my life for the first time ever - I became a regular, functioning person!


anyway, I do think that (allergies aside) your ds will grow out of this reaction, well, not really "grow out" but develop a tolerance. which I think can be a good thing.

for a while I was doing a really strict sugar-free diet, for like 18months, and then, one day (due to some really obscure circumstances) I drank a can of sprite...
it was like being in hell - I was shaking, screaming, running around, became violent - it was like being on bas LSD mixed with bad Speed
so I think a little de-sensitisation can be a good thing, unless you think you can keep your child from being exposed to these things all his life. and still, I'd wait till the child is a bit bigger before introducing such stuff into his diet.

[The Lucky One]

My kids do fine with chocolate and they (like their mother ) eat some every day.

I am suprised that such a small small quantity of chocolate could make your ds hyper that many hours later.

Wonder what it is in the chocolate that he's reacting to? The amt of caffeine in chocolate is miniscule. Actually, an entire Hershey's bar has only 6mg, which is LESS than a cup of DEcaffinated coffee.

[RubyWild]

It's the same with my daughter. It is extremely stimulating to her. Dark chocolate is just impossible. My SIL was watching her for us and gave her diluted hot cocoa at about 5:30 (she thought she knew better than us). My dd was still awake at 2 a.m. Nothing else does this to her, just chocolate.

But, hey, if I drink a cup of coffee after about 10 a.m., I can't sleep that night. Some find that difficult to believe, but it's happened too many times for me to doubt it.

[BelgianSheepDog]

I really reacted to caffeine until I was about 12. I mean once I had a little mountain dew thinking it was sprite and I was shaking like a leaf and jittery for hours and hours--I was about 9. Now I have to have a lot more before I even notice it.

[Wooly]

any type of chocolate really gets to my dd stomach , we have really nasty nappies if she's eaten some and she is also a bit hyper and gets irratable too. the rellies are getting the idea now after having to do the bottom end clean up if they decide i'm depriving her... lol... now they decide to buy her fruit instead!

[majikfaerie]

Actually, its NOT the caffeine in chocolate, its the THEOBROMINE, a similar chemical that has a similar effect as caffeine. and the combination with sugar and a tad of caffeine, and all the other additives that often get in there...
WATCH OUT!

[RubyWild]

Originally Posted by majikfaerie

Actually, its NOT the caffeine in chocolate, its the THEOBROMINE, a similar chemical that has a similar effect as caffeine. and the combination with sugar and a tad of caffeine, and all the other additives that often get in there...
WATCH OUT!

Interesting. Is there more theobromine in dark chocolate, because I know there's less sugar, but it much harder on my Dd.

[bobica]

food coloring does this to dd. it's frightening. i picked her up at daycare today & they were having a halloween party- orange cupcakes, multicolored cookies, etc. naturally, she couldn't nap when we got home. it'll be an interesting afternoon

[newmommy]

You would have to peel DS off the ceiling too He cannot handle chocolate at all. Therefore, it is not allowed in my home.

I recently found out pudding makes him hyper. What's in pudding that makes him bounce off the walls?

[Finch]

Originally Posted by bobica

food coloring does this to dd. it's frightening. i picked her up at daycare today & they were having a halloween party- orange cupcakes, multicolored cookies, etc. naturally, she couldn't nap when we got home. it'll be an interesting afternoon

I would have to strangle the dcp's.

[Rainbow Brite]

*I* don't react too well to chocolate or caffeine. It's pretty obvious if I've had either. Pop is out of the question- if I have any, I can't sleep at all, regardless of the time I had it.

[majikfaerie]

Originally Posted by RubyWild

Interesting. Is there more theobromine in dark chocolate, because I know there's less sugar, but it much harder on my Dd.

Yes, because the theobromine is in the COCOA, so logically, the higher cocoa percentage, the higher the theobromine.

and to the mama who mentioned pudding - read the label!
what kind of sweeteners are in it? what kind of flavourings? what kind of preservatives?

I GOOGLE every ingredient, and am often scared silly! (so perhaps its not such a good idea) and I tend to err on the side of caution - if there's debate about something, like SLS or MSG for example, I'd rather not eat it - Even if it turns out that the whole thing was a scare or a hoax and Sodium Laureth Sulphate is fine, I'd rather not make myself or my child the guinea pig and find out!

[Jilian]

I had to peel DS off the ceilling last night. He had a little too much candy (mainly chocolate) and he was out of control. I've never seen him like that before. He threw the biggest tantrum I've ever seen and we had to cut Trick or Treat short. He ended up crying himself to sleep on the car ride home I've learned my lesson, only tiny bits of chocolate at a time for DS, if at all.

[OakBerry]

Chocolate makes ds hyper, but it's the colored candies and drinks that make him BESERK. I think it's a combo of the high fructose corn syrup and the artificial colors.
If he eats Skittles I'm peeling him off the wall an hour later.

[linguistmama]

My dd can't sleep well if she has had more than 2 m&ms, up till 2:00am and/or wakes up alot and can't go back to sleep. I think it is the caffeine and/or the milk in it since milk also causes her problems. I also have the same problems with milk and chocolate as an adult, but I am able to eat larger amounts of it than she is. Maybe your dc will be able to handle some when he is older. It's such a pain though to have other people not seem to care about your wishes especially when they don't deal with the consequences of going against them.