My son is all boy. From the moment he wakes up until his head hits the pillow at bedtime, he is running. Or jumping. Or climbing. He’s on the go and has more energy than my husband and I combined.
He’s always been like this. Throughout my pregnancy, he was one wiggly, kicky little baby. And he was a squirmy newborn, an early crawler and was walking before he turned 1. While it may be a little tiring to try to keep up with him, I’m used to his high energy levels by now.
Sometimes, though, all of his energy seems to take an excessive, aggressive turn. It’s been happening since he was 18 months old, and at first Prince Charming and I thought it had to do with his age. We watched Big Brother’s cheerful, energetic disposition turn aggressive – including violently and repeatedly banging his head against anything. Even concrete. We suspected something was wrong, and as his forehead began to turn deeper shades of purple with every head banging episode, we longed to help him.
I stumbled across online testimonies about other children with the same problems, but they improved when the natural food color annatto was removed from their diets. I ran to our pantry and refrigerator to search for annatto in our foods – and sure enough, the cheesy crackers we had given Big Brother for occasional snacks contained annatto, as well as the orange cheese he regularly ate and some ice pops. In an attempt to curb his extreme behavior, I threw out everything containing annatto or Red No. 40.
From that night on, the only major changes we made as a family were reading labels on food before buying, eating white cheese instead of orange cheese, sticking to fresh foods, and watching what kind of vitamins we give him. (While many vitamins include artificial colors, most naturally colored vitamins include annatto.) Surprisingly enough, those small changes have helped Big Brother change back to his normal self.
When I’ve mentioned the topic to our pediatricians throughout the years, they’ve dismissed my concern like it’s highly unlikely. I know my son, though. And I know how he acts when he does eat artificially colored foods – he’s crazed. Throw just a little bit of annatto in, and within a day or two he’s back to spazzing out and repeatedly banging his head.
For me, I don’t care what the FDA decided last week, or even what my pediatricians say about the issue. I know my son has major behavior issues when he consumes artificial colors and annatto. When they’re removed from his diet, he’s a pleasant little boy filled with energy. Does he have occasional temper tantrums? Of course. He’s 3. But they’re manageable – not alarming.
Is your child sensitive to food coloring? What steps have you taken to help him or her?
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My 9 yr old son is allergic to red dye too. All of it, which means no purple, pink or orange either. He becomes a walking hive. I noticed back when he was 3 or so he would develop a rash on his face then it clicked “red”. I am vigilant with reading labels on everything. I think Mom’s like you and I NEED to come up with a petition or something to get the dye out of items! What do you say? My Son is not only allergic to the dye internally but external as well. I learned that when in Kindergarten he colored his fist in red marker. Hives for 4 days on steroids. The stuff is nasty and unnecessary. Thanks for sharing!!
It’s frustrating that the pediatrician says it’s fine… just goes to show that we have to be our child’s number one advocate!
Great post!
WOW! My daughter has had chronic hives for 4 years. They are now under control with daily medicine. However, when I was on my consuming drive to determine the cause of the hives (which all doctors just say is overactive immune system and MIGHT go away someday) I suspected annatto. I dismissed them because annatto is “natural”. Maybe I’ll start down this road again – hearing that others have had trouble with annatto.
In case readers don’t know what annatto is (I didn’t) they can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annatto. I had a head banger also with sporadic behavioral problems at about the same age as your son and finally it was determined to be food allergies, in his case corn, soy, egg white, beet sugar. We also eliminated Red dye #2 (which is no longer used but at that time was in medicines!) The first peditrician we took him to said allergies don’t manifest themselves in children under 6. Imagine the frustration and feeling of failure as a parent when these outburst happened. I partially figured it out myself one day after giving him popcorn and within 20 minutes a beautifully behaved and happy child started headbanging and screaming. This time I had 3 witnesses. That started my quest to identify food allergies. Looking back, perhaps annatto was involved as well because we always ate yellow cheeses…so many things are added to foods that it is very difficult to single out the culprit. As moms we must trust our instincts and we DO know our own children! One warning about annatto: because it is considered a “natural” food colorant, labels may say just that, without specifically naming annatto.
It’s really surprising to me that so many other families are dealing with these same issues! (If not behavioral problems, then physical ones like hives.) I’m encouraged that other mothers are facing similar situations, but only so I don’t feel like I’m alone. :) But really, my heart breaks for our poor little children who just can’t help it that their bodies are reacting to such awful ingredients.
I am an adult who has been dealing with hives and angioedema for the past 4 months. I went through allergy testing and eliminated the offending foods and was clear for two days. Then I ate some macaroni and cheese and had a full blown case of hives the next morning. I always suspected that yellow cheese was one of my triggers but the tests for milk never showed a response. I am not aware of a test for annatto sensitivity but it’s obvious to me it’s the annatto in the cheese since the label only listed a couple of ingredients and I am not allergic to milk (thank God). Annatto is dangerous and should be banned.
Thanks for posting! We removed artificial dyes from our 6 year old’s diet about a year ago after realizing he had a reaction to them and saw some huge improvements, we do still have occasional flare ups that we haven’t been able to pinpoint the cause of. I’ve never heard that annatto can have the same effect! I knew it was a natural dye so I thought it was fine. I can’t wait to remove that as well and see if it’s the culprit!
I’ve also had 2 pediatricians and 2 psychiatrists tell me the food dye reactions are nonsense, but, like you, I know my son and what I’ve seen with my own eyes means more to me than their opinions. My son has actually told me that he doesn’t like the “wild” way he feels when he eats processed foods, so even he knows. That’s enough for me!
YES, YES, YES!!!
One of our sons (our oldest), would have such anger & frustration at the smallest things… break down into tears… because he COULD NOT CONTROL himself…
“Son, WHY are you behaving this way?”
“I DON’T KNOW!!!!!!!”
:(
Fast forward… no food colors allowed in our diet. No artificial flavors or preservatives either. We now have our sweet boy back… and yes, he has his moments… He’s still a kid! :D
But what a difference a diet change has made in our life!!!
I JUST was having this conversation with my mom about 15 minutes ago! She was wondering why my son was acting so unlike himself … but she had given him some artificially colored food he’s never allowed to have and he flipped in a matter of minutes. He’s 6 now, and the colors STILL affect him so much.