Food-Dye Allergies: How I Discovered My Daughter’s Allergy by Chance

I came across a friend’s blog talking about her child’s allergy to food dyes. Hmmm, interesting. As I was reading her description of her child’s reaction to food dye, I was shocked; what she was describing was very similar to my daughter’s behavior.

A good-old Google search on food dye allergies kept me busy for the next few days. I was surprised at all the information I found. This is a very real problem for a lot of kids and their parents. Even more surprising is what these dyes are made of, things like beetles and coal tar!

There are many food dyes that after years of use were found to be dangerous and banned. It is truly frightening. I wondered if an allergy to food dye could be contributing to my daughter’s behavior problems. Turns out dyes were not contributing, they were causing them!

I took my daughter to our pediatrician for a full psychical. They checked everything, even doing a full blood work up. Everything was normal; she was considered a perfectly healthy four year old. I explained the behavioral issues we had been having; they referred us to a behavioral health clinic.

I asked the doctor about the possibility of food dyes causing allergies. She said everyone has something they are over sensitive to, and if removing food dyes from her diet helps her, then it’s real for us. We decided to try it.

We saw results very quickly. A week after we removed all food dyes from her diet, tantrums started becoming shorter and less frequent. She was less angry, more cooperative and in general just more pleasant to be around. She was also sleeping better. I was amazed! The longer she’s off the dyes the better it gets.

The dye Red #40 really seems to affect her. If she has something red, she is out of control for two or three days. Yellow dyes make it hard for her to sleep. Yellow #5 has also been shown to cause hives and itching in some people.

I expected food dye to be in a lot of things, juice, candy, flavored yogurts, that kind of stuff, but some things really surprised me. We’re still finding it in things that we use every day, and having to look for other alternatives. Toothpaste, cheese, crackers, are some things that I didn’t associate with having dye in them, but they do.

Food dye is even put into some meat and produce to achieve a more desirable color. Medication’s like Tylenol, Motrin and cold medicine contain dyes. Why can’t something be flavored without being colored? We have been trained to expect things to look appealing and attractive, the food industry’s answer is to use artificial colors instead of making better products.

It infuriated me that there are no warnings on these products. Food dyes causing behavioral problems in children is really more common than the FDA would like us to believe. If dyes have the potential to do this to kids, should anyone really be putting this stuff in food? I believe that these dyes are poisoning people. I hope that more people start demanding dye free foods, causing the food industry to rethink their decision to poison people, wishful thinking.