food dye allergies in kids??

[Reagan&Co.]

Hi-
MY DS gets diarrhea more often than he should- I figured out eggs (his favorite food)was the culprit. He was actually the one that linked eating those colored Goldfish crackers to more diarrhea. I have looked on the internet for more info...nobody else in the family has any food allergies, so this is all new to me. The only link I could really find with dye allergies was yellow 5. However, I think this problemmust be more common.

Any stories to share about your kids, any dye triggers? And if you know of any good books, websites, etc, I would appreciate some recommendations. I am fine to adjust his diet; I just don't know where to start!

Thanks!

 

[yankeechick]

yep it is my son could not have red dye,but he will be 9 on monday and he is fine now w/ red dye!!

 

[ChelleinNC]

A great resourse for food allergies is FAAN (Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network) http://foodallergy.org/

 

[ktdaiwik]

Red dye for my little guy too....

 

[Erin1700]

No red dye #40 for my DD

 

[happymommy]

Check out FAAN, like the others said! We're doing their walk here in Maryland in October.

My kids both initially developed food allergies as infants. DS was allergic to peanuts, sesame, milk and eggs. We had him tested, so we knew the levels (it's called a RAST test). He sees the head of the Pediatric Allergy dept at Johns Hopkins. His doctor has a book out "Food Allergies for Dummies" which is SUPER GREAT! My DD was allergic to milk. DS outgrew the sesame and peanuts, so is now only milk and egg. DD outgrew milk.

I'd get your child to an allergist to do testing. When you have a food allergy, your are allergic to the protein. Since a dye isn't a protein, you can't be allergic to it. I don't know anything about sensitivity to dyes, as I've never heard of anyone having this, sorry, can't help there.

My DD had very bad diarrhea when I had any dairy (she nursed), so this could be a food allergy. I had to avoid it completely while nursing.

The only way to rule out allergy is to do the test - it's easy just one blood test.

 

[tchrrx]

Red dye affects my daughter. I don't have it 100% out of her diet, but we really try to keep an eye on it.

For some reason, the worst thing she's ever reacted to was Flintstone vitamins. It was a very long week while I tried to figure out what was making her crazy.

 

[DreadpiratK]

Our DD4 reacts to food coloring- it took us a while to figure it out, but she is just off the wall when she has any at all, very hyper, angry, defiant- it's like she is a different kid! Now that we know it's under control, but wow, there is red and yellow coloring in just about everything. I feel bad because she can't have very many treats at all, including most flavors of ice cream. We've started to make ice cream and other treats at home so we can control what's in them. We have friends whose son was diagnosed with ADHD, but changing his diet and eliminating artificial colors really turned him around. I wonder if this isn't more common than people think?

 

[bumbershoot]

We have friends whose son was diagnosed with ADHD, but changing his diet and eliminating artificial colors really turned him around. I wonder if this isn't more common than people think?

I'm quite sure it's incredibly common.

We know that our son can't have corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, or even corn syrup solid (a Dole Whip at Disneyland showed us that). But things with red dyes and other color dyes are very often (usually!) in things that also have one or more of the corn syrup products. So we think it could be a two fold thing. But there's no way to really check. Well, except that our local store has cookies without the "big 3", but they do have icing on them in various colors. The one decorated as a panda is only white and black (which is actually dark dark green icing, as evidenced by DS's poops after eating one), and DS is totally and completely fine after eating that. But give him one with reds, oranges (obviously part red), and maybe yellows (the ones with yellow also always have red or orange!) and he goes a bit wild. Nowhere near like his corn syrup etc reaction, though.


We did a "family camping" trip with REI and our local parks department, and everyone was having s'mores. We don't eat them anyways, b/c we're veggie and marshmallows are not, so we were just eating our own dessert and chatting. A kind, polite, sweet, reasonable child went WILD shortly after eating a few s'mores. Graham crackers have HFCS in them, marshmallows pretty much ARE corn syrup and gelatin. The hershey bars they were using were fine, in terms of trigger stuff, unless he was super-sensitive to just sugar (my guy isn't). But he was a lovely child who turned in to a hyper, yelping, RUDE, running around boy.

The next morning his grandparents/guardians told hubby that he had just been diagnosed with ADHD, and hubby coudln't figure out a way to suggest that they look at the ingredients in his food, to see if there was an easier way to keep the wild behaviour at bay.


Given the prevalence of dyes and the ingredients DS (and DH too, but he has an opposite reaction in that he pretty much passes out) can't have, and how hidden the ingredients are in various items, I would imagine that many people are dealing with sensitivities that cause behavioural problems that could be controlled with diet.

 

[poohguys]

Marshmallows have blue dye in them.

Another thing you might try is the Feingold diet. It was founded by a Dr who noticed that his patients had reactions to certain things in foods and household products. They put out a list of Brand name , foods and other non food items that are free of artificial food colors, artificial preservatives, artificial flavorings. They also list what foods that they consider safe contain high fructose corn syrup, msg and a few other things. You have to pay to join and then they send you the materials. I found it to make shopping a lot easier if these are some of the things you are trying to avoid. We did it for ADHD, but did not notice a huge differance, but still tend to buy a lot of the stuff just because I don't think we need all of the artifical stuff in our diets.

 

[GoofyFairie]

Some foods are dyed with a red color called carmine that is a "natural" liquid extracted from an insect. Google carmine food dye and you will get more information. Some people are very allergic to it. I have been told people can't be allergic to food dye, but if you ask a mother of a child with excema they will tell you that when they removed food dyes from their child's diet the excema cleared up considerably or went away and that when it is ingested their child's skin would errupt with excema. FANN is a good place to start, but you should also try allergicchild.com and kidswithfoodallergies.org I recommend that you get to an allergist for testing, not a pediatrician. Pediatricians don't know much about food allergies, you need a specialist. Every child will present an allergic reaction differently, not necessarily classically with hives. Kudos to you for believing that your child is having a problem with food and know that you are not alone. There are many of us out there and by checking the websites I gave you will find tons of support.

 

[mrs.beast]

We too have used the finegold. We dont have the issues, but like the lists for avoiding chemically processed foods. We are total anti artificial colors, flavors, hfcs, and hydro fats. My favorite part is the restaurant lists. We can actually eat out once in a while without feeling guilty

 

[Miss LD]

We followed an elimination diet that basically followed Feingold. We went to a pediatric naturopath who was amazing (and worked with our doctor) and guided us through how to do the elimination diet without it being too tough on DS and also helped evaluate our food diaries.
It is really hard to do, but worth it.
We have cut out a lot of stuff. But, the worst worst worst thing for DS is nitrates - so hotdogs, luncheon meat, etc.
He goes insane when he has them. We can see it within an hour or less. Same with sausages.
We're still dealing with a behavioural issue, but we're having a lot less sudden outbursts. It's made life easier.
An interesting aside, we're having a major food recall in Canada right now because of listeria http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/corpaffr/recarapp/2008/list97be.shtml
Thanks to the diet we have not eaten any products on the list - so no worries.

 

[disneyJMD]

I don't know alot about the allergies, but I know when I was a small child I could not have red dyes either, as I had night terrors and my behavior was off the wall. No one else that we know of in my family had this type of allergy. I also was found to have reactions to the bleaching process in whote flour and white sugar. I did outgrow both of these problems by the time I was elementary school age, and am watching my children closely for any signs of similar problems. There was a lot less information out there 25 years ago, so it was definately tough for my mom to figure out that I wasn't just "crazy" like one of the doctors told her!

 

[antree]

Can I ask a question, the childern that are having outburst, anger, melt downs just out of control, how long after they had the dye do you see an reaction? The reason I am asking is I just brought this up to my DB his son is 2 yrs old with major anger problems it starts out of nowhere it gets worst when he is corrected. So I tried looking around the internet and I came up with red dye 40. He is waiting for their insurance to go through to get him to an allergist.

My nephew is such a sweet baby but in a snap he will snap he throws a fit, scratches his face up until he bleeds, he kicks and screams for hrs at a time, he will hit and throw things, he will be in a complete melt down. He does have eczema real bad all over.
His Ped. says it nothing and says he just has a temper, but that's not true something is just not right.

 

[happymommy]

Can I ask a question, the childern that are having outburst, anger, melt downs just out of control, how long after they had the dye do you see an reaction? The reason I am asking is I just brought this up to my DB his son is 2 yrs old with major anger problems it starts out of nowhere it gets worst when he is corrected. So I tried looking around the internet and I came up with red dye 40. He is waiting for their insurance to go through to get him to an allergist.

My nephew is such a sweet baby but in a snap he will snap he throws a fit, scratches his face up until he bleeds, he kicks and screams for hrs at a time, he will hit and throw things, he will be in a complete melt down. He does have eczema real bad all over.
His Ped. says it nothing and says he just has a temper, but that's not true something is just not right.

Good luck with your nephew - you know it's true, when the parents and family KNOW something isn't right, they are usually correct. You know your child, and obviously something is bothering him.

Eczema is a sign of allergy also - my DS had it so bad for 2 years, it cracked and oozed and bled on his face mostly, then went away thank God. Early on we discovered if he had any trace of sesame oil it flared up for 3 or 4 days after. So your nephew could be reacting to something around him.

Once again, good luck in helping him!