My good friend Kelli at
Stories of Natural Healing on Facebook, asked me to write about my experience with my daughters intolerance to the petroleum based food colorant Red Dye 40.
I am not a medical professional or a nutritionist. I am just telling my story and relating my experiences with you, in hopes to get the word out that this stuff is bad for children and adults alike.
Since my daughter Allison began eating the “normal” foods
kids of 2 and beyond are exposed to, her behavior change dramatically. Every time we visited the doctor’s office I
would mention some of the symptoms she was exhibiting and their suggestions
were always the same: normal childhood behavior. At one time the nurse
suggested giving her coffee to help her sleep (it would have the reverse affect
and make her sleepy), we tried it, Allison threw up. My instinct was telling me
this just isn’t normal. Always trust your instincts, they will never steer you
wrong, and in this instance mine was spot on.
I started doing research on behavior problems and diet. I just recently, fall of 2013, by some
chance, discovered an article about red dye 40 and the affects it had on
children. After reading, bells and whistles started going off. My daughter
Allison had shown those same symptoms, symptoms we thought were linked to some
behavioral problem, lack of discipline, too much sugar, or not enough sleep.
Her symptoms after eating any amount of the petroleum based
food dye, found in most processed foods, include:
Sleeplessness
Confusion
Severe emotional melt downs
Combativeness and argumentative
We immediately stopped all red dye 40 intake. Cleaning out
the cupboards of all the “bad” foods we replaced them with healthy alternatives
and we started making a lot of her favorites from scratch. We started reading ALL
labels carefully. Foods you would never suspect having a colorant added just
might have it lurking in the ingredient list (even a brownie we purchased at
the farmers market had it listed). From yogurt to chips, from chocolate to cake
mix, it really is amazing how many “convenience foods” and foods that are
geared towards children carry this harmful dye.
Since we nixed all red dye 40 from her diet we have seen a
dramatic change in her mood. She is happy, bright, loving, focused, and her
emotional melt downs are now the typical kind you expect from a 5 year old.
We did have one set back though. She ended up getting
bronchitis a few weeks back and the medication* they put her on contained red
dye 40. I really didn’t think much of it at the time, since it was prescribed
by her doctor, but after the first dose of the stuff she was off the deep end
with emotions, confusion, and sleeplessness. It was only after her father
pointed out that it could be her medication that we really do have to watch
EVERYTHING she eats or drinks and help guide her to make the healthy choices
when she is at school or at a friend’s house.
I do have to note that I am really glad we discovered this
intolerance before she was any older. I couldn’t even imagine what life would
be like for her as she got older and we never had figured it out. What
medications would she have been prescribed to help with her “mood swings”,
would they have classified her as ADHD, would they have tried to prescribe her
sleeping pills or some other useless drug that could have only worsened the
problem? It is hard to say but, I am happy that we discovered that Red Dye 40 affected
Allison in such a horrible way.
Maybe one of you reading this will discover your child or
yourself are suffering from the same sort of symptoms. I hope that in some way
it will guide you and your family into making a life changing decision to eat
better, get rid of the processed foods, and discover the bounty of fresh and
healthy local alternatives.
I know it has helped
us really get back to basics with teaching the kids about organic gardening and
where our food really comes from, making healthy choices when eating out,
cooking foods we love to eat from scratch as a family, and best of all it has
brought peace to our family, knowing we are making better choices for all of us
and the emotional meltdowns and the fighting have all together stopped. She is
now a very happy and content child all because we changed her diet.
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| last years colorful assorted veggies grown at Garden 118 |
*prescribed medication usually never has the ingredients
listed so ask your pharmacist
Please leave a comment if you have any questions, or if you have suffered from similar experiences. I would love to hear from you.
