The Red Dye 40 Effect

There has been a lot of debate lately about dyes in foods and rather or not they adversely affect children's behavior.
When Sammy was roughly 3 1/2 years old I started studying the effects of red dye 40. 
At that time Sammy was having major meltdowns and was still mostly non-verbal.  I decided to look through our cabinets to see just how much of what we had contained red dye 40.  I was absolutely blown away by the amount of food that contained it. 
Everything from his juice to Pillsbury dinner rolls contained red dye 40.  I told my husband that we were going to experiment and cut out the red dye 40,  I mean it couldn't hurt right.  The only thing we kept that contained the dye was Sammy's Fruity Pebbles because that is the only cereal he eats.  
Well my husband thought I was nuts and thought the whole red dye 40 thing was hokey,  but he hadn't done the research that I had.
We tried it and within 2 weeks I had a completely different child.  We went from multiple hour long tantrums a day to maybe 3 10 minute tantrums a week.  Not only did his behavior improve tremendously but he started becoming verbal.  I'm not saying red dye is the reason he wasn't verbal and maybe it was coincidence but the changes in Sammy were absolutely amazing.   I know many people who have seen tremendous changes in their children once they removed the red dye 40 from their diets.


I really think some children are more sensitive to dyes than others.  So much of what we consume now days have so many dyes, and additives added to them.  
We really watch labels and avoid anything that has red dye 40 in it.  You can't tell just by the color of the product either,  you HAVE to read labels.
Who would have thought that Pillsbury rolls would have dye in them?  I certainly had no clue and again that's where reading the labels comes in handy.
Not only can red dye be ingested, but it is also absorbed through the pours in your skin. We try to avoid shampoos, lotions and colored bath fizzes for the kids if they contain red dye 40. 


Even most of the children's cold and fever medicines have red dye in them.  On the rare occasion that we do manage to find dye free medicine for the kids the price is usually a dollar or more higher.  
It's cooperate greed that keeps these big companies from looking at the bigger picture and realizing that maybe just maybe they're wrong and that there IS something in red dye 40 (and other dyes) that are adversely affecting our children.
Kellogg, Pillsbury, Kraft, General Mills, Proctor and Gamble, Johnson and Johnson's and countless other companies are to worried about generating revenue that they could care less how the additives in their products are affecting our children.  It's about the all mighty dollar and not about our children.


Those of you interested in learning more about some of the products containing red dye 40 should check out this website: PRODUCTS CONTAINING RED DYE 40