Hello everyone. I see a lot of information on here about food dyes and allergies. We are trying to gauge my daughter's reaction. I am curious to know how long after your child has food dyes do you see a change in behavior? If she has a bad day do I need to think about what she ate days ago is it the effect more immediate?

Thanks.

Not sure what you mean by food dyes. I am very familiar with food allergies.

If you have an allergic reaction to food you can have it immediately to several days later. Some reactions can take a week or more to recover from. Fatigue and allergic shiners are common multi-day reactions and can be hard to find the trigger of.

There are many different ways a person can react to food allergies.

If you suspect food allergies, you should see a food allergist about getting a Skin Prick test done. Test for as many foods as possible, especially foods that you think your daughter is having the most problems with.

There are dyes that are often used for coloring food that some people are allergic to. I know someone who is allergic to Red #40.

(04-16-2012, 11:25 PM)Tuttleturtle Wrote: There are dyes that are often used for coloring food that some people are allergic to. I know someone who is allergic to Red #40.

Yes, I am talking about food dyes like Red #40 and the idea that they might increase behavior problems in children with SPD. For those of you who feel that it affects you or your children, how long before it takes effect? If she has an abnormally sensory-seeking day today do I need to think back to what she ate yesterday or the day before? Or do the behaviors start immediately?

(04-17-2012, 09:50 PM)GCMom Wrote: Yes, I am talking about food dyes like Red #40 and the idea that they might increase behavior problems in children with SPD. For those of you who feel that it affects you or your children, how long before it takes effect? If she has an abnormally sensory-seeking day today do I need to think back to what she ate yesterday or the day before? Or do the behaviors start immediately?

if my son consumes red dye #40, we see major behavior changes within 20 minutes.

Gluten, however, takes about 24 to 48 hours to affect his behavior, but it affects his gut within 90 minutes.

We discovered that my son was intolerant of Red #40 before we ever knew he had SPD. I think within 20-30min after consumption he turns into this super hyper and irritable child! I hate Red #40.

Same here, it is about 15 to 30 minutes, and the change is diabolical. My son reacts most to sunset yellow and tartrazine (yellow and orange), in Australia labelled as 102 and 110. We have never given him food colouring, but when others have...look out! he reacts to natural red foods too - tomatoes, strawberries and raspberries being the worst.

~Sharon

My daughter (5) reacts to some dyes within an hour (the worst being whatever they put in azythromycin to make it pink), and the reaction (anger, meltdowns, inability to cope) lasts about 48 hours--imagine giving that to her for five days when she's already sick on top of it. When my son was little (now 25) anything purple made him break out in a rash within 24 hours. We recently discovered the effects of evil BHT. The reaction doesn't begin until about 24 hours later, then lasts another 48 hours. We had to strictly keep a food diary for several weeks to determine all this, which is difficult, especially if your child attends school or day care. To sparklepanda I would add that it would be worth investigation salycilate sensitivy in addition to food dyes because the three foods you mentioned are very high in salicylate. If you want to investigate, I would recommend Feingold.org.

It's not an allergy, as much as the dyes, which are made from petroleum (crude) oil, are harmful.

We put both of our children (son 5 with definite SPD, daughter 2.5, with some sensory issues, possible ADHD) on the Feingold diet which eliminates dyes, artificial flavors, and many preservatives.

We noticed a HUGE difference in our daughter within 4 days. She was cuddly, listening better, had better attention, wasn't so hyper.

We've noticed an improvement in our son as well, but it's a bit harder to tell as he's had some "no no" foods (couple Christmas parties for kids where DH or I forgot to tell them not to give them to him).

At any rate, we're 9 days into the diet and we've seen improvement in both children. But... if you want to follow Feingold (with the preservatives) you NEED to spend the $70 and get the program materials, because you can't tell what foods have preservatives just by reading the label, as many companies use harmful preservatives in their packaging that don't have to be listed on the box etc...

(12-14-2012, 09:03 AM)sparklepanda Wrote: Same here, it is about 15 to 30 minutes, and the change is diabolical. My son reacts most to sunset yellow and tartrazine (yellow and orange), in Australia labelled as 102 and 110. We have never given him food colouring, but when others have...look out! he reacts to natural red foods too - tomatoes, strawberries and raspberries being the worst.

~Sharon

Sparklepanda, I swear I've notices something with tomatoes and raspberries, too, but my husband thinks I'm nuts b/c there is nothing added to them. What have you noticed? Has removing those things from the diet made a noticeable change, too?