Anyone one heard of red, yellow dye allergies? no joke

[Brumeiser]

We are having behavioral problems with my 4 year old son. We have read of a red dye allergies in kids so we kept him off that in his diet and it has been working out pretty good. We had his eyes tested and they were fine. Were told bad eyesite in kids can make them agressive. Then my wife at work was given an article about yellow dye allergies uh never heard of that one. Well yesterday was a bad day for his behavior. For lunch he had cheeze pringles and that had yellow dye, and for dessert Toft Ice Cream yellow cake ice cream and it was yellow dye. He also had a ham sandwich so it was not all junk food. All afternoon he was agressive and not himself. So could this be the problem? I was also told by another person of wheat allergies this also new to me. I think the next thing we might do is to take him to see a pediatric neuroligist to get him tested for adhd. My 3 boys from the first marriage were adhd and my one son was ohd and adhd I hope these abbrieviations are right. We need to get this kid under control before he either hurts himself or his mother. She is short 5 foot and he is starting to beat up on her. Any suggestion out there? I am nervous about the testing for adhd because I have been told lately that any behavorial problems with kids they just slap this label on them and medicate them and I don't want to see this. Anyone else had these problems and can give any suggestion on what to do. You helped out with potty training so maybe someone can help me with this one. Thanks

 

[mickeyfan2]

Yes, my friends daughter has it. It runs in families and is most common in blond hair, blue eye and fair skin people.

 

[Jockaroo]

I worked with a woman who was allergic to a specific red dye--the one common in hotdogs, cake icing coloring, candies and fruit drinks. She would get severe headaches. Good luck getting your son's issues diagnosed.

 

[becka]

I have heard of allergies to food dyes but I have never researched them. We are also having some issues with our 4 year old son and we are taking him to a pediatric allergist next month for some testing. (Originally it was this past week but the appt. was rescheduled). We have a history of food allergies in the family and he has shown some symptoms for years of some kind of allergy (we are most concerned about milk/dairy allergies) but we have never had any testing done. There has been research shown the correlates behavior issues with allergies in some kids. I am not sure that is all of our problems with our 4 year old but we have been cutting back on the amount of milk he can drink and it does seem to have an impact but that could just be wishful thinking.

 

[lajones81]

My cousin was allergic to red dye. I think she grew out of the allergy.

 

[Jennasis]

I have known two people allergic to Yellow Dye #5 (which is actually a preservative) and one allergic to flour/gluten. Sounds like your son may need to see a psychiatrist/psychologist in addition to an endocrinologist or allergist to assess the allergies.

 

[Erin1700]

My DD age 6 is allergic to red dye #40. It never makes her aggresive, just HYPER!!! We can tell immediatly if she has had something with the dye in it. The hard part is like right now, she has a cough and I am giving her over the counter med at night, well they dont seem to make dye free cough medicine and they all have the red #40 in it. She is crazy all day!

 

[PattiPB]

Here's a different take on it!

One of my friends was told to take red dye out of her son's diet, and he stopped wetting the bed at night! Immediately. It was the craziest thing, and it totally worked.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Yes, my oldest had allergies to artificial dyes and foods. Anytime she would have "fake cheese" she literally turned beet red in the face before your eyes and it was painful as well.
It also affected her behavior. We really monitored her food when she was young.

You may say she "grew out it" but she really didn't. She is 15 and knows which foods make her "sick".

If you want to do the allgery thing...basically you do the Feingold diet or I bought a book by Doris Rapp.
You can do a single elimination diet to try and target the offending stuff.

In the meantime get him tested because that takes forever to figure out. You want to have it done and hopefully closer to solving before school starts.

 

[jan/cape]

My friend's son is allergic to red food dye #40. When he has it he gets a runny nose & itchy watery eyes.

For the longest time she couldn't figure out what was causing the symptoms. One day they went grocery shopping. He was fine no runny noe or itchy watery eyes. When the were finished shopping she gave him a tiny packet of gummy bears. Immediatly the symptoms started. She grabbed the box and stated reading. This was also confirmed with the pediatrician.

 

[Poohnatic]

Yes, have heard of them and we're living with them. My family has a history of yellow dye allergies. It causes a mild rash and makes the insides of my cheeks raw.

In my son, it exacerbates meltdowns-any and all reds and yellows. As a result, we've cut out ALL DYE for about 4 years now and it really makes a difference. When he does freak out more than is normal for him (he's on the autism spectrum), we check his upper arms for a slight rash-that's our clue.

For dye avoidance, some tips/suggestions:
Turmeric and Annato are frequently used for color in place of the artificial colors. If you're label reading, look for those.

*Macs and Cheese-Kraft is out, velveeta shells and cheese are okay
*Most Eggos are okay, but the lego ones are not (yellow 6 and yellow 40)
*Helluva Good cheeses use turmeric/most Cracker Barrel do not
*Kool Aid makes Invisible Kool Aid in Watermelon, Strawberry Kiwi, Cherry and Grape. The last two are the only ones you'll find sweetened. We have to pop between WalMart and Winn Dixie to acquire them.
*Coke and Root Beer are ok, caramel color is a natural flavoring
*Kosher hot dogs usually are fine-we use Nathans, Sabretts and Hebrew Nats
*watch your yogurts, my son prefers yoplait custard style. In those, he can't have the key lime or the orange creme.
*Pop tarts are EVIL! Believe it or not, store brand on this is the way to go. However, they've only been purchased once in the past 5 years (for a camping trip).
*Watch your ice creams, some vanillas are tinted.
*Goldfish are colored with annatto.

We've learned some coping strategies and my son has learned to accept that there are just some things he can't have. M&M's are out, lifesavers, lollipops, icees (except for the white cherry), fruit snacks and jello. He'll tell people that it has dye and he can't have it.

At Halloween, he knows we've got a bag of stuff at home for him to swap out all the things he can't have. Milk chocolate for him, so his brother sometimes gives him all the milk chocolate in favor of getting some dark chocolate. We've also been very fortunate that his teacher and last day care provider made sure he had no dyes when having parties for b'days or getting treats for good behavior.

It was a big adjustment at first, but now it's second nature to double check all those labels. All that effort does pay off, so hang in there.

Suzanne

 

[Wish I lived in Fl]

I have friends with 2 kids that can't have the red dye.

My DS had behavior(aggression) issues from milk protein intolerance. The intolerance didn't show up on skin scratch allergen testing but we did a food elimination on anything containing milk ptrotein including regular hotdogs, fish sticks,chicken nuggets and his behavior changed from awful to normal.

 

[tiggerlover]

We had problems with my son when he was around 5, a lot of people thought he was ADHD, but we refused to believe it. In doing research we found a link with behavior and red dye #40, so we cut it out of DS's diet. It made a big difference with his hyperness and was managable for a while. We did have him tested for ADHD and they wanted to medicate him at 6, but we didn't think that was the right choice for us, we chose diet and behavior modification, which served us well for a couple of years. When DS was around 8 we had him tested again, on the recommendation of his teacher and he was once again diagnosed as ADHD. This time around for various reasons we chose to give him medication and it has made a big difference.

At 4 I am not sure if you would find a doctor willing to medicate, they usually wait until 5-6, however, I have heard some will. I would do a lot of research and have him see an allergist as well, it also sounds like he needs some counselling if he is hitting his mom and she can't get him under control.

As far as being labeled ADHD, my DS has not had any issues with that. A lot of people that know him have no clue that he is ADHD unless we tell him. As a matter of fact a friend of ours who has known DS for a long time found out about DS being ADHD and said she didn't know, nor would she have suspected it. We don't go advertising it, but we don't keep it a secret either, it is a part of who he is.

Good luck.

 

[emdav]

My son is allergic to Red Dye. It took a long time to determine this. He would get hives and scratch himself until he bled. I gave him lots of Benadryl (with red dye) and he would never get better. I would throw my hands in the air and stop giving him Benadryl and he would get better. I finally figured out it was dye. I stopped giving him dye (all colors) and he has not had hives since (2 years in March.)

 

[Rella Bella]

We had a similar prob with DS's behavior when he was younger. When he was four we saw a pediatric Dr that specialises in nutrition. She told us to completely remove eggs, wheat, milk products, soy, peanuts, tree nuts and dyes from his diet for two weeks. Within 24 hours he started to improve and by day 3 he was a different kid.

After two weeks we added everything back one food at a time. Small serving first, if no reaction a large serving -- and skip a day in between foods.

It turned out for him it was milk products. The reaction was immediate and still is. We do occasionally let him have a small amount of ice cream -- late in the day. If it's very occasional he's not too bad. But two days in a row and even a small amount is too much.

I think these food sensitivities are often overlooked and bother more kids than we'd like to admit... when you think about what "they" have done to our food supply --adding tons of chemicals, preservatives and dyes -- it's little wonder we don't have more problems!

 

[pfishgirl]

My nephew is allergic to red dye as well... There is a hug list of food he can't have.. like... ketchup.. jello... juice.. strawberries even and a ton more

 

[Fan2CSkr]

I would have a look at these two websites, you can gain a wealth of knowledge that can help you greatly.

http://www.acaai.org/

http://www.aafa.org/

Years ago I read a book By Doris Rapp titled, Is This Your Child. It was an excellent source of information.

 

[transparant]

My 6 year old is allergic to red and yellow dye. We found out when he was about 2 1/2 years old.

He's become very good about avoiding the things that he can not have. It's hard with a little kid though - their always being entised by other kids. Holiday parties at school are tough too. It was hard to tell him he couldn't have any candy canes when every one else in his kindergarten class was eating the.

 

[transparant]

My DD age 6 is allergic to red dye #40. It never makes her aggresive, just HYPER!!! We can tell immediatly if she has had something with the dye in it. The hard part is like right now, she has a cough and I am giving her over the counter med at night, well they dont seem to make dye free cough medicine and they all have the red #40 in it. She is crazy all day!

That drives me crazy too - I wish those companies would make dye free meds! I think benedryl has a dye free liquid.

 

[Fiver]

My 4yr old son(ironically blond hair/blue eyes) started having major temper tantrums back in May. He would also become aggressive. At the time, we knew he had allergies because he showed many signs. His eyes look like he has a black eye, always has a runny nose, and Doctor said he had a rippled shape to the back of his throat which is a sign of chronic allergies. He is on medicine for allergies. We tried many things to curb his tantrums. We read behavior books, changed things at home, spoke to his doctor, and finally took him to a Psychologist. The last one saw his behavior more as resistance but warned that a Psychiatrist would just declare him as Bi-polar and give out the medicine. While I'm a supporter for meds when needed, I wanted to make sure everything was ruled out.
He started school in August and only 6 days into school the teacher recommended a observation to determine if Special Education was needed. At the time, he was starting Allergy testing in a week and the doctors tell you not to give them their medicines starting 5 days before testing. I forwarned the teacher that he would be off his medicine for 3 days of school(Behavior got worse each day). So 3 out of 6 days he was on no medicines, and I was pretty stressed out at this time. After researching on the web the various issues he was having, I noticed reports of Food Dye allergies and aggression issues with kids lacking in Omega 3. I also noticed that after eating certain foods, he would have a change in behavior anywhere from 5-30minutes later. M and M's, lollipops, and some foods set him off the most.
I decided to change his diet by cutting out food dyes. He loved Lollipops so I found a brand that Kroger carries in their health food section that have no food dyes and all natural ingredients. I bought a brand of Omega 3 supplements for kids carried by Nordic Naturals. After speaking to his allergist, we also increased his allergy syrup to 1.5tsp a day. After 3-4 weeks, he had a turnaround in behavior. The aggression had decreased by 80%, and now there is none with the RARE exception of a hit when frustrated. We started doing the 1-2-3 good behavior plan and things just started working. September and October were wonderful months at school. They give out stamps for good behavior and he was having weeks of perfect stamps. He occasionally has setbacks that last for maybe 1 or 2 days of whiny behavior but this is mostly when he is sick. The first special education observation happened in October, and they didn't see a need for anything further at the time. He has many friends in his class, and he is a happy child.
I wanted to relay this as a story where it shows that many roads were taken before answers came. Not all of these will fit, but perhaps some of these options might work. The MOST important thing is NEVER let someone tell you that allergies don't affect behavior. That is the one thing that I have heard some people say that doctors told them. I have been living with allergies all my life and there are still some food/environmental allergies that can make me hyper like a kid. If you really think its a possible allergy then find a doctor that will listen to you. I wish you good luck!!!

~Fiver