Food Additives

It's one of those things that is nearly impossible to get away from... food additives. The hard part is that unless you have a really green thumb, an awful lot of time, and the same... you can't always eat food in it's natural form.

We began having issues with food when G3 was young. She has a mild lactose intolerance. Dairy products mess with her digestive track. Several times when she was little she would come home from seeing relatives and no more than five steps in the door throw up from eating banana pudding or ice cream or grilled cheese. We knew what it was because it was soured, and well... you just know.

To take care of the issue we switched to sweet acidophilus milk and didn't let her have dairy after lunch. It seems as long as the dairy doesn't sit on her stomach she does better. And she also seems to have built some resistance.

Then enter B3. Once he was nursing full time we started noticing that he would have sour spit ups and sometimes full vomiting. We made sure I quite drinking and eating dairy and he was fine. (Great for him, not for me) His colic was gone, his spitting up stopped, perfection. The problem there was when it was time to wean him he couldn't do milk. The sweet acidophilus was more tolerated than skim or whole milk, but it still upset the tummy. He had the same reaction to soy milk which surprised us until we learned that the make up of both are very close. We finally found Almond Milk and he loves it, plus it is good for him.

When B3 was about 2 1/2 we noticed he was getting very hyper and very fussy and got concerned. Started keeping a food diary in order to relate foods with behavior. This is when I got suspicious of Red 40. See, my niece is allergic to red 40. She gets very sick if she eats something with it. So I went a couple weeks with no red... Benji became a completely different child. His sensory issues calmed down considerably. So when he started preschool I expressed that I didn't want him to have anything with red in it. (this began my education in the education system)

Things went great for awhile, until one day he had a bad day. Seems that he couldn't control his behavior and was "bouncing" all over the room. I looked at him while me and the teacher were talking and noticed he had a koolaid mustache that was red. I asked what he had for snack and it was Hawaiian Punch and some crackers. I assured the teacher that we would talk with B3 and it would all be taken care of.

He was "bouncing" until about 11pm that night and missed school the next day due to "hangover" symptoms. I went to the doctor and got a note stating NO RED 40 or DAIRY products.

Now let me say, Red 40 has been approved by the FDA, but I think they need to do more testing. Another food additive that we noticed B3 reacts to is Azodicarbonamide. It's in most of your commercially made breads. The chemical is used to make the bread rise uniformly. Interestingly it is banned in Australia and most of Europe. Red 40 is a relative of Azodicarbonamide.

More info on Azodicarbonamide ...
Azodicarbonamide (CICADS)
Another Reason to Avoid Most Breads

More info on Red 40
The Chemistry of Red 40


I am not trying to scare people, just to inform. Be careful of what you feed your children and yourself.