Well, we tried to get away to an indoor water park for a few days since the kids are on spring break. That's why I haven't posted in several days. It was really nice to get away, but I'm pretty sure we've had another "food dye mishap." It's been harder to narrow this one down since we were eating out for several days. My best guess is that the spicy curly fries from the hotel restaurant may have been the culprit. I'm not sure if it could have been the orange batter or the seasoning, or both. I should have been suspect of orange fries anyway.
All the same behaviors have returned in 2 of my kids. The hyperactivity, the impulsivity, the yelling, it's all there full force. It's amazing the complete difference in their demeanor. I hope for my husband's sake it wears off by Friday. He gets to stay home with the kids while I go to an all day training.
I'm tempted to go back through all my posts and count up how many times we accidentally get food dyes in restaurant food. It seems to be a trend now.
Showing posts with label food dye and hyperactivity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food dye and hyperactivity. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Sometimes I could just cry!
The director of my preschool/daycare called me today. The box of Little Debbie snacks that I provided as a safe alternative for colored birthday treats, the one I thought I had screened for all forbidden substances, actually contains red #40. UHHHHHG! Of course my boys both ate them yesterday. It figures, I really thought I was getting ahead on the food dye battle. Sometimes I just want to give in and let them eat whatever everyone else eats and who cares about the dye. But then I'm back to hyper, impulsive or argumentative kids whose personalities change and that's even worse, way worse.
If we follow trends of the past 2 years, Alex will be louder than usual (actually he was loud at breakfast and I reminded him 3 times use a quiet voice.) He's usually more distracted, and will probably throw things around more. I hope he can keep it together in school. Ben is usually fine the first day but around day 2-3 he usually blows up over homework or piano practice or both. I'm not going to tell them they've even had the dye and see if that helps.
This is exactly why I started this blog. It should not be so hard to keep your kids on a healthy diet. But the reality is, it is hard to read every stinking label of every darn food product that enters your home. It is so defeating to try and try for months only to get distracted in the grocery store with 3 kids along for the ride "helping" you shop. So I missed the crucial ingredient and actually encouraged people to feed it to my kids. I think it stings more to mess up and have someone else call to point it out, not that I'm not glad they did catch it, it just gets me feeling so defeated.
This is why I want food standards to change. It just shouldn't be so hard to keep track of food dyes. I wasn't even focusing on preservatives as much as I want to or I wouldn't have bought the Little Debbies. I wanted something with a shelf life of a few weeks to keep on hand for unexpected events so my kids wouldn't feel so left out. I guess what I should do is make my own cookies from scratch and send them in to the school/daycare to keep in the freezer and pull out whenever there's a birthday. Then I'm free of preservatives and colors. That's more like my mom and grandma would have done it anyway. I guess I can't get around the fact that good nuturtion takes a little work and planning.
If we follow trends of the past 2 years, Alex will be louder than usual (actually he was loud at breakfast and I reminded him 3 times use a quiet voice.) He's usually more distracted, and will probably throw things around more. I hope he can keep it together in school. Ben is usually fine the first day but around day 2-3 he usually blows up over homework or piano practice or both. I'm not going to tell them they've even had the dye and see if that helps.
This is exactly why I started this blog. It should not be so hard to keep your kids on a healthy diet. But the reality is, it is hard to read every stinking label of every darn food product that enters your home. It is so defeating to try and try for months only to get distracted in the grocery store with 3 kids along for the ride "helping" you shop. So I missed the crucial ingredient and actually encouraged people to feed it to my kids. I think it stings more to mess up and have someone else call to point it out, not that I'm not glad they did catch it, it just gets me feeling so defeated.
This is why I want food standards to change. It just shouldn't be so hard to keep track of food dyes. I wasn't even focusing on preservatives as much as I want to or I wouldn't have bought the Little Debbies. I wanted something with a shelf life of a few weeks to keep on hand for unexpected events so my kids wouldn't feel so left out. I guess what I should do is make my own cookies from scratch and send them in to the school/daycare to keep in the freezer and pull out whenever there's a birthday. Then I'm free of preservatives and colors. That's more like my mom and grandma would have done it anyway. I guess I can't get around the fact that good nuturtion takes a little work and planning.
Friday, August 29, 2008
What's up with food dye?
I figured there was something about red food dye 2 years ago when my son took a red antibiotic for 2 weeks. He was a wild and crazy 5 year old for the entire 2 weeks. It was awful. He changed into this crazed maniac that I was embarassed to be with. So I started watching and realized over several months that it was happening every time he had Red #40. I took out the Red #40 and realized it also happened with yellow #5 and #6.
That was 2 years ago. Now I have removed all artificial food coloring from the diet of all three of my children. If you've ever tried to do that, you know it's not easy. If you haven't tried it, you should start today. You may have no idea how many of the annoying things your kids do could be related to the food coloring in their diet.
I'll write more about my kids in other posts. If you don't believe me, check out the link I've provided to Center for Science in the Public Interest . There is recent research that verifies this problem is not just for ADHD kids but the general population.
Britain has removed food coloring from their foods. Why haven't we done that here in the USA? I hope this blog will help more people ask that question and start demanding answers.
That was 2 years ago. Now I have removed all artificial food coloring from the diet of all three of my children. If you've ever tried to do that, you know it's not easy. If you haven't tried it, you should start today. You may have no idea how many of the annoying things your kids do could be related to the food coloring in their diet.
I'll write more about my kids in other posts. If you don't believe me, check out the link I've provided to Center for Science in the Public Interest . There is recent research that verifies this problem is not just for ADHD kids but the general population.
Britain has removed food coloring from their foods. Why haven't we done that here in the USA? I hope this blog will help more people ask that question and start demanding answers.
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