It came out of no where. Ben sat down to do his homework and immediately started whining, complaining, getting frustrated, saying he didn't want to do it. He is normally my good student who always does his homework and rarely complains. I figured it was dye induced and asked him to just be honest with me. The guilty look on his face gave him away but he wouldn't admit to anything at first. He finally told me that he had a birthday treat at school yesterday. He said he tried to scrape off the sprinkles but might not have gotten them all. It may have been the vanilla frosting since most brands have yellow and red 40 in them.
Now he is crying about piano practice but is too moody/whiny/irritable/non compliant to accept help with it. The cry turned into a repetitive sob about "it's tooooooo haaaaaaard!" He might have even hit himself. I held him and comforted him for a while. I forgot how much of my time and energy all the dye induced behavior used to take up. I worked with him on telling himself good things like he can do it and he is smart. He finally got back on track. Whew. I can't imagine if he were like this all the time again. I don't know how we would get any of the basics done. I'm sure I would have made him quit piano a long time ago. Wouldn't that be a shame. It's normally something that brings us all joy. I think that's the big part for me, dyed foods cause behaviors that rob my family of joy. I refuse to live that way. I wish other families knew they had a choice.
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3 comments:
(((Hugs)))
Does he have a "safe food bin" in the classroom? My dd feels better having that alternate available. Although, after I sent her to school feeling rotten she's been much less likely to "cheat".
It's hard as an adult to pass up food that looks good and I'd enjoy. It takes an awful lot of will power from a kid!
I tried sending in stuff at the beginning of the school year. Ben kept saying he forgot to ask for something and I think the teacher forgot to offer his safe foods. He was doing really well passing up on things, so I had stopped sening in the extras. SIGH
Hi, I am a brand new blogger. I started making a blog to help others to be aware of how red dye (and artificial dyes) affect behavior. My site is reddyefree.blogspot.com. I found yours after creating some of mine. I have three boys who are very much affected by this junk and I wanted to be an advocate for the children. I worry about all of the kids out there whose parents don't have a clue as to why their kid is behaving a certain way. I don't ever want to live with red dye the way we used to. Two of my children go to school and the teachers are pretty good about my request for dye-free. Sometimes, though, it sneaks in and it is a shame! I hate to see my kids frustrated, angry, and unhappy just because they ate food with it. Thanks for everything you are doing! Lets help to make this world better! :)
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