My ds is 4yo and has been a real behavior problem for most of his life. Sometimes he is the sweetest, most loving child and then others he is out of control and bouncing off the walls. We have rules and we try to be as consistant as possible, but he really seems to not care about the punishment. He'd rather do the crime and do the time. Well, about a week ago a lightbulb when off in my head and I started wondering if food dye (specifically red and blue) could be part of the problem. I had read a little in the past about how some behavioral problems can be linked to these dyes, but I didn't really pay much attention to it at that time. So anyway, I decided to do a little experiment and started giving him a dye-free breakfast and I quit sending anything with food dyes in his lunchbox this week. I noticed right away that he was controlling his behavior a little better when I picked him up from school and the mornings were fairly pleasant for a change. Well, today I sent a GoGurt (it had both red and blue food dye in it) in his lunch box and the child has been totally out of control all afternoon. He was calm this morning when he went to school, but this afternoon has been awful. He can't sit still for more than 5 seconds, is constantly making loud noises (yelling, screaming, talking very loudly, singing at the top of his voice, etc), and he is just being plain naughty and won't listen or do what he is told. I'm really starting to think that I've stumbled onto something here and I am going to try to eliminate all red and blue food dyes from his diet for a whole week and see what happens.

Anyone else with this experience? I'd love to hear what you have gone through.

By Melanie on Wednesday, September 15, 2004 - 05:24 pm:

No experience with this, but I sure hope you have pinpointed it! Keep us posted on how the week goes.

By Kate on Wednesday, September 15, 2004 - 07:04 pm:

Red #40 and yellow #5 are supposed to be the biggest offenders.

By Fionadeassis on Wednesday, September 15, 2004 - 09:27 pm:

I sometimes wonder with Eliah(also 4 and just out of control-almost hyper...definitetly bouncing off the walls....)...

I am going to pay attention to the dyes as well...

fiona

By Karen~moderator on Wednesday, September 15, 2004 - 09:36 pm:

Ditto Kate. The Feingold Association has a wealth of information about this and a diet that eliminates those and other additives that have been linked to hyperactivity.

By Rayanne on Thursday, September 16, 2004 - 09:07 am:

Red dye could be the problem. I knew a little girl who could not have it or else would be a terror.

By Tunnia on Thursday, September 16, 2004 - 09:12 am:

Well, I watched what he ate last night. The only dye he had was in the one crescent roll he ate and it was a yellow dye that I guess I need to watch as well. This morning I made sure his breakfast was dye-free and the lunch I packed for him was dye-free as well. He was fairly calm this morning and only got in trouble once for not doing as he was told. All in all, this was a great morning for us! When I told him to get his shoes on and brush his teeth he actually did it the first time he was told!!! I started reading some of the labels of the food in our pantry and I can't believe how many of them contain food dyes! The crescent rolls were already in the oven before I thought to check their label. I thought that since they were natural looking in color that they probably didn't have any dyes in them. Wrong!

I'd still like to hear from BTDT moms. What do you feed your children? It seems that almost everything, especially the quick and easy stuff, has dye in it.

By Karen~moderator on Thursday, September 16, 2004 - 09:55 am:

Stacy and anyone else who might be interested, please check out The Feingold Association. My boss's youngest son had ADHD, and it was mostly controlled by following the diet.

I used to get regular newsletters from them when my kids were young, because we had a problem with the dyes, particularly red dyes, in foods.

It's worth checking out.

By Cat on Thursday, September 16, 2004 - 11:17 am:

Stacy, I have heard of the diet Karen is talking about and that it's worked wonders for some kids. It really is worth checking into, especially if you've seen some improvement in the past few days. I watched what Robin ate for a while and we cut back on some things just to see what happened. For him it didn't make any difference. Each child is different and what works for one may not work for another. Good luck.

By Lauram on Friday, September 17, 2004 - 03:00 pm:

It doesn't make any difference for my son- but if you are seeing a difference, I think you might have your answer. My son can't have caffeine including chocolate. Every child is different.

By Feona on Saturday, September 18, 2004 - 11:03 am:

Those dyes are made from petroleum.

Yuck! They use petroleum as the base. Delicious.

By Tunnia on Monday, September 20, 2004 - 11:59 am:

Thanks everyone! I plan to check out the Feingold Asso. today. This morning I did my grocery shopping for the next two weeks and I did a lot of label reading and I was very careful to not buy things with red, blue or yellow food dye in them. So we will go two weeks without food dyes and see what happens. I figure that if it isn't good for my ds then it isn't good for me, my dd, or my dh either so we are all going dye-free.

By Karen~moderator on Monday, September 20, 2004 - 03:25 pm:

Stacy, that's a great start. Just remember that it's not *just* the dyes, it's additives too. For one thing, I remember from the Feingold diet, the recommended mayo to use is Blue Plate. There are other common foods that they have a *recommended* brand, for their reasons. I've forgotten a lot of what I'd learned about it, but I STILL use Blue Plate mayo!

By Feona on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 07:02 am:

Tunnia,

It might be enough just to get rid of the dyes though. Hope it is enough.

Even a small change is quite a commitment.

By Monicamomof3 on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 03:22 pm:

I eliminated dyes-esp. red and my dd excema has gone away! I was so suprised to see just how many foods contain dyes.

By Monicamomof3 on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 03:25 pm:

even some of the salmon at Costco has dye!

By Jayne2 on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 03:30 pm:

I am reading this book ADD- Nutrition Solution and it talks about how nutrition plays the part in our children's behavior. Additives, preservatives, sugar, dyes and certain foods like milk, peanuts, oranges, etc. Also what is so interesting is what children lack in their diet such as protein and fish oils. It is very interesting, I recommend it to any parent dealing with a child who has this concerns.

By Tunnia on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 - 05:51 pm:

Wow! I am really learning a lot by what I'm reading online! I would have never guessed that food dyes and additives can contribute to such a wide variety of problems. It's also just plain disturbing to read about what goes into our food as "safe". Scary! I'm going to try to get to the library this week and see if I can find a few books on this subject. Thanks for the advice!

By Lauram on Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - 12:31 pm:

I'm not sure I would agree that *true* ADHD is caused by sugar, food additives, etc.... I would call that a food allergy myself.

By Cat on Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - 12:37 pm:

I agree with Laura. I think food sensitivities/allergies can cause ADHD like symptoms, but true ADHD has nothing to do with diet.

By Jewlz on Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - 03:59 pm:

http://healingwithnutrition.com/adisease/add-adhd/feingoldstudy.html
this page says that alot of foods do affect childrens moods and behaviors ... not sure what the others have said but this amazed me .. and am going to do more research on it and learn more about it