Friday, October 7, 2011

red light.

so i figured since i babbled all over my facebook about it, i should explain our new added "crunch".

first, let me start with what happened a week ago at sawyer's school. that sort of kick started this whole thing.

so sawyer is overall.... apathetic to punishment. like, you could tell her "get upstairs or ill throw your lovey in the trash" and she'd tell you to toss it. in school, they have colors on how theyre doing that day and she doesn't give 2 shits. like "cool. i got a yellow". or the threat of it doesnt phase her. sawyer had a bad week last week at school - but i mainly attributed it to A and S moving into the same bedroom that wkend before (pics on my TYLWL blog). and, well, they are re-learning how to fall asleep on their own LOL so i gave the teacher some ideas on what *i* would do with sawyer in those situations (hey, she asked!). and waited for the change.

now, is this 3 year old behavior? sure. but at the same time, i read about red dye in foods, on another board. hmmmm. so i looked up some more info.

http://www.red40.com/

http://blogs.psychcentral.com/adhd/2010/09/the-red-dye-diet-the-concept/

http://reddyefree.blogspot.com/

the last blog was interesting, mainly bc of the comments on some of the entries. so many people had behavioral changes as well as other changes in their children.

so i figured, well, sometimes sawyer's a nut case ;) sometimes aidan is. lol more like "over-reactive flip outs for no reason" which usually are from overtired kids, but sometimes.... i wonder... ;)

anyway. so sunday of this week. my mom and i went grocery shopping.

if you eat pretty "clean", most of your food, likely, doesnt have red dye. but its the "treat" foods that are bad - the crap cereal, fruit snacks, etc. and sneaky things.

for instance:
*eggo cinnamon waffles do not have dye. but the blueberry does (didnt check others).
*regular chocolate syrup has red dye. sugar free does not. that works for us already lol
*lots of fun cereals do not have red dye (like kix! or chex!) but some "good" ones do - like special k with red berries.
*most of the fruit snacks have red dye, but there was one we found that didnt.
*some things that are meant to look "golden" have red and yellow dye - like pillsbury croissants. (which sucks. bc i can sneak anything into a croissant and get them to eat it - veggies, meat... gah. and i am uncertain to how easy that is to just whip up lol)

etc etc.

so you just have to be careful. keep an eye out.

as for behavior changes, i dunno. ill watch. she did have a fabulous week at school. which makes me smile. but the biggest change has been HER SKIN.

sawyer's entire mid-section was rough, scaly, patchy.. the dr always said eczema. so we'd put creams, oils, we put on some food oil that she told us to do lol sigh.

but less than 1 week without red dye and POOF! her skin is glorious. is it as soft has her sweet little face? not yet. but the eczema is barely there. its amazing. really.

and fyi, this stuff is normally "not me". but since sawyer is already sensitive to so many things, and we've rotated so many level 2s and 3s back (with good results! as she has gained so much weight in the past year!)

so anyway. check into it, maybe? if you have any questions, i may not be able to answer them but ill try :)

5 comments:

  1. Seriously, this is something that I am going to try. My daughter is the same age as Sawyer and we are dealing with similar behavior. It seems to get worse as the day wears on but now I'm thinking it's just the food. Interesting. Thanks for bringing this up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good job giving up the red dye and happy to hear you are seeing results! She sounds a lot like my son and I have figured out he is what they call "spirited." he has typical three year old behavior but it is more intense in all directions. When he is mad he is reallly mad but when heis happy he is the smiliest and most outgoing kid you'll ever see. Raising your spirited child is a book I've been reading and so far it's defined him to a t. Just another thought of what could be going on!

    ReplyDelete
  3. you know whats funny, anon - its not even ME who should be reading a book like that - its her teachers lol

    i have zero problems with sawyer, really. she just is the type of kid that doesnt need a crowd if you want her to listen. she wants to be funny, outgoing, make people laugh -- so a teacher saying from across the room "hey, sawyer! can you ____" is just calling for her to say "nope!!" lol

    after emailing her teacher a few ideas of how we are at home - i think she got the point bc sawyer has been having stellar days at school. she is spirited - but she always has been. and the LAST thing i want is to kill that spirit ;) but i told her teachers the same thing - that i want to foster it correctly instead of making her just... stop, kwim?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm glad I heard about this from you. I am trying it with Charlotte since there have been so many days that I've pulled out my hair and sat down and cried saying 'I don't know why she has so many bad days. I don't know what else to do.' It's been 2 days without red dye 40 (and yellow 5 & 6) and she's had more moderate days. I'm hoping to see an improvement over the next few weeks. Let us know how it goes with Sawyer!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi, I found your blog through my stat site for reddyefree. I am happy that you found reddyefree to be helpful. I just added an awesome app that I have nothing personally to do with, but I thought that it could help people new to avoiding artificial colors (Like yourself). The app is fooducate and you can download it to any Iphone, or Android phone that is capable and have a handy tool to shop with. Just scan the barcode and it gives you a list of harmful additives (if any) and a food grade.
    If you are finding results now, just wait until you get really good at eliminating artificial colors and the result of your child's behavior will amaze you! I used to have those nights of crying too - wondering what the heck was wrong with my child and what went wrong. I wish you the best!
    Cayla

    ReplyDelete