When Tyler was a very small child (when he started eating his first solid foods), my mom mentioned that she had me on a special diet when I was a child. The diet was, I believe, the Feingold diet, which eliminates all artificial colors and flavors from the diet of a child. The theory is that these artificial ingredients have an adverse affect on behavior. My mom said I was always a very active child, and being a stay-at-home mom, she needed every bit of sanity she could muster to make it through the day with me. I found a fantastic article that has 25 years of research in that theory here. To sum it up, literally thousands of children over the year have participated in double-blind studies, and the conclusion is that artificial dyes and flavors have at least SOME affect on child, and in ADHD children, has a considerable affect.
Now, how does this matter to me...
It's no secret, Tyler has always been a very "active" child. (Being his mom, that's what I will call it!) I always chalked it up to him just being a boy, and let it go. When most people at work were looking forward to the weekend, I would just dread it. Sometimes, I would cry on the way home from work on Friday because I didn't know what I was going to have to put up with that weekend. I hated it. Hated it. Hated it. Although Tyler was only one child, I couldn't go anywhere alone with him - because I never knew when he would just "freak out", and if we wanted to go to Wal-Mart as a family, it literally took both of us to "handle" him. To this day, I will not take him to the store by myself.
Last night, Tyler got home from daycare and asked for his "Santa Snacks". My dad gave all the kids Gummie Life Savers for Christmas, and there is a Santa on the box - thus, "Santa Snacks". I opened the box and put about 10 in a bowl for him. He happily went into the living room to play with daddy.
Fast forward 15 minutes.... Tyler is literally bouncing on the furniture. He is running in circles, hitting Connor, trying to STEP on Connor, hitting his dad, throwing toys, and cannot even begin to contain himself. He is put in time-out, he is spanked, he is yelled at, etc. This is the exact behavior that happens every once in a while that I can't control. I always chalk this up to him just wanting attention, or just being a brat.
Last night, after the kids were in bed, I started surfing the internet, and happened upon a blog of an acquaintance that mentioned the affect that Red Dye #40 has on children. It caught my eye, and I read on. HOLY COW! THIS IS TYLER!!!!!!! I almost fell out of my chair, and continued to read every article I could find. There are some good ones here and here. I jump up from the chair and go to the box of "Santa Snacks" - Red Dye #40 (sorry Dad!), and read the box of Diego Fruit Snacks, same thing!
I'm really hoping I'm on to something here. Most of these behavior episodes, I can trace back to food containing Red Dye #40. Last week when I picked Tyler up from daycare on Wednesday, the owner of daycare pulled me aside and tell me that they had some "behavior issues" with Tyler that day. He was choking kids and telling them he wanted to kill him - seriously. I was beside myself. What do I do? I'm not there to punish him, and that's probably a good thing because I consider that COMPLETELY unacceptable, and that is worthy of more than just a time-out. So, What? You ask..... Tyler had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast that morning. Strawberry Jelly with Red Dye #40!
Frequently Tyler's Daily Sheets from daycare say "Tyler had an emotional morning". We went through a period where Tyler had Nurti-Grain Cereal Bars for breakfast - and what's in those. You guessed it. The weekends that were hell - by 10am Tyler was asking for fruit snacks (gummy snacks) and I would give in, "what could that hurt?", I would say. Red Dye #40 all over those fruit snacks! On top of the cereal bar he had for breakfast!
Okay - sorry I'm so excited about this, but I'm kicking myself over and over for not listening to my mom years ago when she mentioned this. As the articles I have linked in above say, most of Tyler's behavior grew to be normal for me, and when others saw it - you could see the look on their face that "That is NOT normal"!
I know a lot of Tyler is just Tyler - and he is exactly a combination of both his dad and me, which makes for a very active child that doesn't have a very long attention span. That I can deal with, but hopefully we can eliminate the out of control behavior that I'm thinking is caused by the dyes. Of course, these foods with the dyes are also high in sugar, which doesn't help, but I think everyone would agree that there is a huge difference between natural sugar and the "corn syrup" sugar found in most of these foods. Either way, elimination of them I'm certain will help.
So, I'm going to try to fit a new diet into our schedule - not sure how I will do that, but I'm going to head to New Pioneer Coop today (our local natural/organic grocery store) and see if there are substitutes for the foods we eat now that don't have all the artificial crap in them. And maybe I'll have to dust off my apron and start cooking again. Yuck! =)
3 comments:
Hi,
You may be about the same age my son is. He, too, used the Feingold diet (since 1976).
You do not need to go to a health food store to find substitutes for your favorite foods or the ingredients for your favorite menus. You can find most everything you want in a regular supermarket. I sure do encourage you to join the Feingold Association. Was your mom a member? The membership materials are ingredible. Here's a link to things you receive: http://www.feingold.org/pg-program.html And the message boards are a huge support!
Best wishes!
Another Feingolder.
My family has been on the Feingold Program since 1975 and now the third generation of our family is enjoying the benefits. You can be sure that any parent who needed the Feingold diet will have children who need it as well.
When your child eats Red 40 or Red 3 or Yellow 5, etc, these are petrochemicals. In fact, most of the synthetic additives in our food originate in the petroleum refineries in China! Why should anyone be surprised that a child cannot act appropriately when he has consumed such nasty chemicals? If you gave your child beer and he acted strangely, it would be no surprise. Even those children who do not appear to be affected by food dyes would be advised to avoid them. Laboratory tests have shown that they are linked to DNA damage, immune system damage, nerve damage, reproductive damage, and cancer, to name a few.
There are plenty of foods of all types, including candies, that use natural colorings and flavorings and are delicious.
You can also find a list of all Feingold approved foods that Amazon.com ships at The Asperger's Store.
Currently, we list about 2,000 Feingold-approved food items. Most of these items are offered in bulk quantities and are much cheaper than you would find in the supermarket. Additionally, the list is much more diverse than what you would find in a typical supermarket.
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