Do food dyes affect kids' behavior?

[wetmores]

From the Los Angeles Times

No fee to read it:

www.latimes.com/features/health/l....0,6585950.story

Happy reading!

peace,
marge
www.net-haven.net/schedule.html

[bugsmom]

Thanks for posting this wetmores. I the site was having difficulties, but I will check back later.

My son has a terrible reaction to Red Dye 40. It makes him nuttier than a fruitcake. We really watch him when it comes to this issue. It's especially hard this time of year with all the Halloween candy. We let him have some, but boy, he'll be bouncing off the walls if we let him have too much.

[wetmores]

Bugs,
It's pretty amazing isnt it?

My family has used the Feingold diet along with meds to help deal with ADHD and LDs for 30 years. We found that both our daughters reacted to many things we take for granted in our fast food world. We could use no artificial flavors and colors,sugar,preservatives, and in the case of our younger daughter, milk and eggs.
We started on the diet when my now 39 year old daughter was 8. She had been dxed with ADHD and severe LDs at the age of 6. We found that after eating anything with food coloring she could not read for 72 hours. We ran a "double blind" study and found that her teachers could "see" the change when artificial things were added to her diet.
Fast forward to today..we have found that several of my 4 grandsons react the same way. Ain't genetics fun?
One argument against the diet is that it is hard to follow and that it restricts things that kids like. I agree that it can be hard but our family has found that it is well worth the effort!
Please feel free to email me if you have any further questions.
Peace,
Marge Wetmore
www.net-haven.net
[e-mail]

[bugsmom]

Marge, I would really like to hear about your experiences with this issue. We actually tried to do the Feingold diet many years ago, but it was so hard for us. We gave up way too soon because at the time, the one thing Josh loved to eat was ketchup. I remember that was one of the first things that was off the list.

My son has many food allergies. He's deathly allergic to any type of dairy or nuts. I mean scary allergic. We have many epi-pens around our house. He also has reactions to any types of berries, or melons. He did finally outgrow his egg allergy at about the age of 6.

You've really got me thinking here. Maybe we should give the Feingold diet another try. I just hate to restrict him from the things he can have because his diet is so restricted anyway. I'm going to do a little more reasearching again.

Thanks for the great info.

[jj]

I couldn't get that link to work either so try this:

www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-foodcolor13-2008oct13,0,6585950.story

[charliegirl]

Oct 15, 2008 16:47:15 GMT -5 bugsmom said:

We gave up way too soon because at the time, the one thing Josh loved to eat was ketchup. I remember that was one of the first things that was off the list.

You've really got me thinking here. Maybe we should give the Feingold diet another try. I just hate to restrict him from the things he can have because his diet is so restricted anyway. I'm going to do a little more reasearching again.

Thanks for the great info.

You should be able to make ketchup from scratch and leave out the dyes. It won't be exactly like what you get in the stores but it should come pretty close. It would certainly be worth a shot if it enabled him to be happier with the diet.

Marge, maybe you should have a chat on the Feingold diet and other similar type diets on Nethaven soon. I bet there are a lot of people who would love the one on one conversation and a chance to ask questions of people who have used it successfully.