Red Dye 40

Red 7 ... really?!

nobody@vox.com(Jeepz) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:14:02 -0800

It's been a long time since I blogged here. Been a long time since I blogged anywhere, really, but when I've blogged it's been over at my blogger.com site rather than here. Here might become where I focus my attentions on artificial colors, eating naturally, and healthier eating. We'll see. Anyway ...

There is a reason for my return. Those of you that have read my blog over the years might remember M's allergy to Red 40. Well, we just discovered a new one and promptly put it on the list. I thought I'd blog about it here just to raise awareness about it. The apparent new red dye du jour is Red 7. Hadn't seen it before until we were reading labels on Children's Chewable Tylenol, as M is wanting to get away from the dye-free drinkable stuff and take medicine "like a big girl". So, we looked at the label, it said Red 7 instead of Red 40, so we thought we'd give it a try.

The first dose, a week or so ago, seemed to go without incident. This weekend, however, she had two doses at grandma's because she's got a new tooth coming in and add to that a headache from a stuffy head. Both doses resulted in a really mean, nasty case of hives all over her face and ears and neck. Mean, red, puffy rash. My mom thought it might have been from M playing around the artificial Xmas tree with the cats, because she wasn't thinking of the medicine and couldn't pin it onto anything she might have eaten (my folks are great about watching out for her Red 40 allergy). She had another dose before coming home, and the rash really exploded when she got to our place, and it was while we were talking about it that mom remembered the Tylenol. There is no doubt that's what it is, as the hives came with a vengeance about 45 mins after taking the Tylenol.

I'm so pissed about this, so very very frustrated. And M's not at all happy about it either, because for one it means she's got to go back to "kiddy" dye free liquid medicine, and for another it means that there's one more thing we need to look out for and that she can't have. It's certainly served as a reminder to all of us, and has renewed my determination to be as all natural as possible, despite how hard it is.

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tigger - Wednesday, February 25, 2009 1:56:40 PM

nobody@vox.com(tigger) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:57:07 -0800

Just joined the group as I have a 9 year old son that has been sensitive/allergic to red dye since he was a toddler. He used to get extremely hyper and aggressive and I discovered the connection to red dye when he was in kindergarten when his behavior correlated with all the parties full of colored drinks and snacks. We have avoided the dyes at home but he would still have them at picinics and parties where I could not supervise what he consumed and around 7 years old he started experiencing migraines and horrible violent vomiting immediately after consuming juices with dyes. We are now extremely careful and i am certain that if we were not careful he would have been labeled ADHD. The doctors have not offered any kind of testing for us.

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Dye-Free Valentine's Day Goodies

nobody@vox.com(Jeepz) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:15:40 -0800

I was reminded by an e-mail from the NaturalCandyStore.com that the deadline for getting goodies shipped in time for the holiday is fast approaching (sign up for their e-mail list, bottom left of their homepage). Valentine's Day is perhaps the hardest holiday for M in avoiding the Red 40 menace. With X-mas it's easy to get the dye-free candy canes and everything else is baked goodies, with Halloween it's lots of chocolate and we just toss the Skittles and other assorted chemically tainted hard candies. But obviously everything to do with V-Day is red and pink and next to impossible to avoid Red 40 on the shelves.

She's very good about knowing what she can and can't have, and that Red 40 is bad for her, but she's also getting older and more aware of how prevelant it is and generally bummed that she can't have it. She's asked several times recently (no doubt with the colors of the holiday coming around) when she'll outgrow her allergy to Red 40, so it's no doubt on her mind. Because of this I figued it would be worth the splurge to get her some fun and tasty V-Day treats that she can enjoy. So I hopped on over to the naturalcandystore.com and checked out their V-Day offerings. I immediately saw the heart lollipop and decided that M would LOVE this as a surprise. It's a HUGE lolly, it's sweet and red and what's not to love, right? Next up was the raspberry licorice hearts, as M loves chewy licorice, loves raspberry and will love munching on these. Then I saw the raspberrry and strawberry decorating sugars along with the pink and purple nonpareils. Now we're set to do some baking for the holiday and have all sorts of tasty treats that we can all enjoy.

After I placed my order and got my confirmation e-mail, I replied to let them know we're on the hunt for natural food coloring, that we just haven't been able to find it anywhere and if they run across it, we'd love to get it. Irene (that's Dawn's sister, if you remember Dawn from a previous post) wrote me back with a link to their natural decorating food coloring! Now, it's the first thing to pop up on their decorations page, but in my defense I hadn't searched for it and only got to the other decorations from their V-Day offerings page. And to be honest, I didn't search for it because last time I checked (and admittedly it's been a while) they didn't have any and it just wasn't on my mind when I was shopping the first time. Anyway, Irene got me all straightened out and added the food coloring to my order and will be shipping things out later this afternoon. Rae and I are very excited to get the food coloring and try out some fun treat baking with M, and I have NO doubt M will be very very excited by the V-Day goodies. If you're in the market for some great tasting, natural treats and baking stuffs for Valentine's Day (or any day, really), it's worth it to check out naturalcandystore.com.

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Oh!

nobody@vox.com(JuliaBorn) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:09:44 -0800

Couldn't even imagine such a problem(

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My experience with red dye #40

nobody@vox.com(jettman) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:49:03 -0800

I have had 3 experiences of anaphylaxis due to red dye 40, two resulting in ER hospitalization which were nearly fatal. My ER physician advised me they would only grow worse and that I should call LifeFlight when the next occurred. The first two were from Cherry Kool-aid and ICEE machine drink. (Cherry of course) The last was from salsa from a local restaurant. I live in fear of another reaction and read labels constantly, which mostly read artificial color added.

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Teacher needing Red 40 help

nobody@vox.com(Lindsey) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:29:06 -0700

Hey everyone I was excited tonight to come across the group and I hope you all can help. I'm a teacher and have twins this year with Red 40 and nut allergies. With Halloween coming up this month and other parties and celebrations during the year I would like to be able to have food that my students can eat during these events.
I talked with their mom already and she suggested Oreos but I wonder what else is out there. Can you all recommend Red 40 free food and candy items? This food allergy is new to me so by reading your postings I've learned a lot! JP I stumbled across your personal VOX blog that lead me to the group when I googled Red 40 help.
I don't provide my kids with much candy or food during the year but I feel that every once in a while it's okay and don't want the girls left out. We do have 2 organized parties for Halloween and Valentines day (yes I realize that one is filled with red 40) so if I can plan ahead I'm ahead of the game. Thanks for any information you all can help me with this year!
Lindsey
lwhyte1980 (at) hotmail.com

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Two Questions

nobody@vox.com(mknight1103) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 07:44:23 -0700

Hi everyone,

I'm the newest member of our group. My son Caden has a red dye 40 intolerance....meaning crazy wild behavior after eating anything with red dye. As of June I removed EVERYTHING with it in it from his diet. We instantly saw an amazing improvement. Very little outbursts and that demonic look on his face from what I call a "red dye coma" has gone away. My husband and I have been trying to get the rest of the family on board with the removal of red dye. So far, my parents (who watch the boys for us) have gotton on the same page. I've got them looking at labels on everything.

My mother in law is a different story. She feels that it's a crock of crap. When she is around we have to watch her like a hawk. She'll say stuff like...let him be a kid, (as she is giving him a handful of M&M's behind our backs) and the ever famous...you guys ate it when you were growing up and you were both fine. Sometimes I just want to choke her out:) Anyways, I have two questions, 1) Since it is an intolerance (behavioral) not an actual allergy how did you guys get your Dr's. to comply with a note for daycare. My Dr. doesn't believe that there is any problem with Red Dye 40, or the rest of the dyes for that matter. As in her words "it has been deemed safe to eat".

Question 2) How do you deal with the candy that comes from Birthday Parties, Halloween, Christmas, and Easter. Caden is really good about not eating anything that is Red, Orange and Purple..but we all know that it isn't always that easy. He's 5, I can't expect him to always get it right, and although he hasn't had a "fit" in sometime, I'm sure just one and he would be kicked out for sure.

Michelle

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Question about red dye 40

nobody@vox.com(pumpkinbuddy) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:31:31 -0700

I have a question. My child has gotten hives since she has been a toddler. I think that she is allergic to red dye but I am not totally sure. She does not always get hives if she eats something with red dye but, it appears that when she does get the hives she has always had the red dye. Does this make sense to sometimes get hives and other times she will not. I wonder if it has something to do with how much red dye is in the product. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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I "ain't" no chicken little...

nobody@vox.com(BarefootArtistSC) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:07:06 -0700

Ok, I am from the South but we don't all have to talk like that. What I mean to say is: Hello I am new to the group. I have two toddlers and am just getting on the Red 40 wagon and trying to prevent harmful things from getting into their system. I am not running around judging others with what their kids take in and goodness knows I look like the HIPPY FREAK in my family, but the fact is I was the first in my family, and in my in-laws family to have a child and I wanted to make sure I did what I could to protect their bodies while they were in my care. I didn't know about Red 40... and don't know much now, except it is in EVERYTHING!! And I really want to work it out of our diet. I am ADHD, DH is ADD and both kids are pretty much carbon copies of us. I have a 2 and 3 yo and just want to start this process now before school. They don't really have any behavior patterns that I am unfamiliar with. Two toddlers really sorta takes the cake or hyper, bickering, attention span, etc. But curious what characteristics could be muted by a change in "dye"-it. So, my first question is, can we get a compile list of foods that have it, or manufacturers? Or some sort of check list form somewhere?

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son with red40 allergy

nobody@vox.com(lonels) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 21:46:49 -0700

I'm very happy to have found this group. I am at a loss with my son, I discovered after doing my own reserch that my son who is almost 21 months is allergic to red40, he almost immidiately will throw up or have diarhea. The thing of it though is that it seems to only be with things that are really red, juices, popsicles, etc so I still will give him food with it in there just not the red red stuff. I have 2 problems, my first is that I don't know if that is the only thing because he has also thrown up after drinking red juice that is 100% juice, which doesn't have the additives in it, and my second problem is that his dr won't do an allergy test on him until after he turns 3...thats another year and a half or so of not being really sure on what he can or can't have. I also have a new problem that I have to figure out on my own because the dr's have all basically told me to live with it and hopefully he will out grow it, is the other day I gave him a donut and it had a blueberry jelly filling in it well after he was done eating I went to clean him up and noticed that he had a rash around his mouth where the jelly had sat before I cleaned him up. Well I just assumed that maybe it had a little red dye in it and he reacted a little to it, well then the next day I gave him carrots with ranch dressing, and the exact same thing happened only this time with the ranch. In both cases it went away but now I just don't know what to do with it. I'm mostly concerned that he has an allergy to something else too that I just haven't figured out and I'm afraid it might get worse and I won't know what to do. And now after doing more reserch on the red40 I'm even more concerned about what I'm reading about with kids having behavioral issues with it. What is this stuff and what is it doing to our kids? I'm just at a loss!

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