red#40 and yellow#5!!!!

so my daughter is 15 months old and i gave her s dose of infants tylenol the other day. after about a half our she was geeking out. i mean she was totally cranked up. she usuallly goes to bed at 7pm. she was up untill 11pm, running around, shaking her head, just being all around goofy. we had fun playing with her and she was being funny but when she wouldnt settle down we got worried.
i didnt think anything in the meds could have done it cause there is only 1 active ingredient.
i looked at the inactives and there were the food dyes. my wife said maybe that was doing it but i didnt think it was possible. i mean how could food dye crank her up?

i looked online and apparently red #40 and yellow #5 have been linked to hyperactivity in kids and even mis diagnosis of adhd. i couldnt believe it. i started scouting the parenting forums and there were threads with parents saying the same thing happened to their kids. they say now they give tylenol with no dye and avoid those dyes.

i am definately going to avoid those now but i was wondering if anyone here has any experience with the same thing.
any feedback would be appreciated.

thank you

reply to post by CardiffGiant


You should never give your kid Tylenol to begin with. (Personal opinion) Tylenol's effective dosage is just under the amount which causes liver damage. ***Also one of the leading causes of liver failure in the States. Giving a young child such things seems completely nuts to me, as an adult who will try to stay away from it as much as possible.

This has received attention from academics in the US, but are not advocating anything just yet.

In the UK, it seems there are warnings for hyperactivity in children with food dyes.

Safest best is to feed your kids as much natural stuff as you can. Hell, half the "fast" or pre made food people eat today is one or two chemical reactions away from being wood or plastic.


***

Acetaminophen overdose. Taking too much acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) is the most common cause of acute liver failure in the United States

***

Mind you, a young person can bounce back quite easily from large amounts of Tylenol, as it is more damaging to people with already taxed livers, or already have their fair share of damage. In any case, I recommend looking at it the same as arsenic.

reply to post by CardiffGiant


That medication comes in a syrup base. My guess she was wound up by the sugar rather than the dyes. Boncho's right, this stuff will nuke your liver...best avoided unless absolutely necessary (e.g fever, etc.)

reply to post by CardiffGiant


scary stuff. makes you think about what else is in our food and medications that we may not be as aware of.

My wife and daughter are allergic to yellow #5. The symptoms are mild so unless it is overconsumed there isn't a problem. I have a reaction to Annotto but if I eat it occasionally it doesn't bother me.

These colors are found in things you would never expect. I am getting disgusted because they put colors in things that people are allergic to just to attract them.

They have these colors listed under inert ingredients when they have psychotropic activities. They can even be used as medicines. One of the colors is turmeric, turmeric is a medicine One red die is a potent speed. speed is technically a medicine. My question is how can they call these dyes inert when they are not.

reply to post by CardiffGiant


Hi!

We have 5 kids, the oldest is almost 34, the youngest just turned 26.
We've known about this since our oldest was 2.
He started with allergies & ended up in the ER
with hives the size of nickels all over his body!

Our pediatrician used to give lollipops to kids after their visit!
He'd go to hand our kids one & then remember,
"Oh, yeah, your kids are the ones with weird allergies!"
No, ours were just the ones who had a Mom who figured it out before other people!
The dyes in medicines was a big problem.
Even the Benadryl had dye in it!!!

He asked if it was okay to give people my phone number,
when other kids developed weird allergies?
He'd have them call to ask me which products & foods I found that were safe to use,
because I had been through it & he had no clue!
The closest allergist to us was a 3 hour drive away!

The dyes made them very hyper along with corn syrup.
The studies saying sugar doesn't cause hyperactivity are a joke.
Mainly because it's not so much the sugar from what we saw,
but the corn syrup, which is so concentrated too!

Thank goodness after all these years it's finally being addressed!
It was very hard finding things back then
that didn't have corn syrup as an ingredient!
He used to get migraines just from the smell of popcorn cooking,
so you can imagine how something as concentrated as corn syrup affected him!

Easter was a nightmare! Easter Bunny started giving things besides candy!
Even the small amount that we allowed them to have,
left them bouncing off the walls by the end of the day!
One thing we noticed with our daughter which freaked us out,
was when she was in first or second grade.

They had only just started learning how to write in script.
She brought home a paper with her name written backwards perfectly!
When we held it up to a mirror, it was exact!
Figured it showed through from the back & she traced it.
Nope! Nothing on the back & the paper was too thick to see through either!

Then we found out the class she had when she did that paper
was after lunch, so she must have eaten something that did it!
Really scary, when food can affect the brain like that!
What are we doing to our kids, especially giving them all the ADD/ADHD drugs,
when just eliminating all the poisons in our food could be the answer!

The husband of one of my friends is a chemist.
I had read that arsenic & lead among other things, are used to make dyes.
I asked him about it. He said when they titrate it, most should be removed.
Maybe, but how much arsenic do you want,
especially if it accumulates in your body!!!


Some years ago, one of the frozen juice mixes that I bought,
had cochineal extract in it.
When I looked it up, it said it was made from ground beetle wings.
Hmmm...weird, but better than dyes!
I called the company & asked about it.
The lady said it's sterilized & has been used in Europe for a hundred years.

She asked if I was bothered by it? I told her no.
I would much rather they used that than dyes!
But it didn't last long. Other people must not have like the idea!
Because it was replaced soon after!

The grandkids were here yesterday & brought some of those 'fish' crackers.
I looked at the package & it said in holiday colors.
Had a picture of dark red & green fish on it!
I almost freaked out! My granddaughter stared laughing!
She said read it Grammy! It was made with beet juice & something else! Lol!!!

So they are staring to listen a little!
I just hope it isn't too little, too late!
How much irreversible harm has already been done?
WOQ

reply to post by CardiffGiant


Yellow # 5 food dye is also known as tartrazine. It is made from coal tar and is used to colour foods yellow more cheaply than natural ingredients. It is literally industrial waste.

I remember one article I read about a teacher who said she could always tell when they served the red and blue jello to the kids at lunch time as their behaviour was off the wall for the whole afternoon.

Tartrazine has been banned in Germany and several other European countries.

It is almost impossible to find yellow coloured foods here in Canada which DO NOT contain tartrazine.

I try to avoid anything with a label that states artificial colours and or flavours.

Here's a link

Tartrazine Info

Blue Wolf

reply to post by CardiffGiant


This explains a lot. Once last summer I gave my youngest son a twizzler, and he tweaked out. His sugar is very limited because he reacts immediately to it, but this was different. At first he was just being silly but then it just got strange. He even had a crazy look in his eyes. It also happened immediately, within 5 minutes he was dancing all over the living room. Needless to say he has never had one again.

so my daughter is 15 months old and i gave her s dose of infants tylenol the other day. after about a half our she was geeking out. i mean she was totally cranked up. she usuallly goes to bed at 7pm. she was up untill 11pm, running around, shaking her head, just being all around goofy. we had fun playing with her and she was being funny but when she wouldnt settle down we got worried.
i didnt think anything in the meds could have done it cause there is only 1 active ingredient.
i looked at the inactives and there were the food dyes. my wife said maybe that was doing it but i didnt think it was possible. i mean how could food dye crank her up?

i looked online and apparently red #40 and yellow #5 have been linked to hyperactivity in kids and even mis diagnosis of adhd. i couldnt believe it. i started scouting the parenting forums and there were threads with parents saying the same thing happened to their kids. they say now they give tylenol with no dye and avoid those dyes.

reply to post by CardiffGiant


Yeah, eh, I've actually found that myself but I don't think it's the dye. I don't want to dissuade anyone from pursuing the idea of an allergy. That should be brought up with the doc, especially if you've tried dyed and undyed with different results. I try to buy the dye-free when I can, and I've seen the result with both. For my kid, if I had to place a bet, I'd say it's either some secondary response to the acetaminophen, or it's what happens when you suddenly don't feel so lousy anymore and you're happy to be well, so you're bouncing off the walls.

It is worth noting that in the US they pull kid tylenol off the shelf entirely for four months out of every eight, trying to, I don't know, eliminate a bad batch or something worse. You shouldn't give medicine to your kids before they can talk if you can help it, basically, and then you should try to ride out a fever after that. Fevers have their uses. Saline spray can clear a stuffy nose, a damp cloth can soothe a fever for a few minutes, and so on.

But sometimes you do want to put the sick kid to bed.

I'd say the bounceback (this is also allegorical) happens more when the kid doesn't need the medicine.

And obviously, less fruity flavor or red coloring is better, as long as they'll take it when it tastes like floor polish and looks like tapioca pudding. Good luck, human parent. They get older, they'll probably be fine. But in all other cases, do PANIC and run around hysterically. That always works. (emoticon.)

thanks for all the replies. im going to reply to all in this one post.

i know about acetomenophin all too well. i dont give it to her much. gave it to her when she had roseola. the doc told us it would be fine in moderation. i am familiar with the liver thing. i got my finger amputated in an industrial accident and developed crps from it. i am in extreme pain all the time. i was taking pain pills with the acetomenophin in it but now i am on straight oxycodone. on a note to that, my doc said rules are changing and they are lowering the doses of that wen prescribed vicodin or percocet. by 2015 it will be gone. i know they are pushing norco now instead or percocet cause it has half the acetomenophin in it.
anyway, i only give it to her here and there.

i was blown away by the dye issue. i just never thought of it. i am not one to feed myself or my family total junk but i am not all natural/organic either. i would say i fall in the middle. from now on though i will be paying more attention to labels. we try to be careful about her sugar intake. no juice that has the artificials in it. like aspartame and the 5 others that are just like it. we are also real careful about her juice. you go to the store to get juice and its only like 10% juice. we always get the 100% stuff.

she has not been on baby food in months. we dont usually give pre packaged junk or frozen stuff unless its like a single serve mac and cheese. my little baby shows her irish. her favorite thing is mashed potatoes. my father in law brought us a box of instant potatoes and we dont go near it. my wife is always boiling potatoes and mashing them up for her,
she gets lots of broccoli. her and i eat grits or oatmeal a lot for breakfast. i love avocado. i get several a week. sometimes i get the slimcado and of course my daughter took a shine to them so she gets a lot of that.

actually having her wanting real food has caused my wife and i to change our eating habits a lot because our daughter wants to smash on whatever we are eating so we cleaned up our intake a lot.

funny you mentioned the multi colored gold fish crackers. i almost bought a bag today but i passed on them because of the colors.

as far as getting cranked cause she was feeling well again, i dont think it was that. about 10 minutes after the dose she was bouncing off the walls. far more hyper than normal.

reply to post by CardiffGiant


Red 40 is made from phetrolium (Sorry about the spelling). I knew exactly when coolaide and Jello started using it because I got very sick a few times until I figured it out. I get a bad stomach ache from red 40; seems like I don't digest it.

Red 40 is in all kinds of things. Spagetti sauce, Oreo chocolate cookies, yogurt, crackers, orange jello. Things that you don't consider red.