Everything is going great...until somebody gives her Cheetos :(

[allhaileris]

We went out of town this weekend to an annual event where we know lots of people because we're performers. The first two days she was being a great helper, doing what she was told, not running off and getting eaten by a bear, etc. People were noticing it too.

So then Saturday night daughter was hanging out with a couple of kids that we know the mom of, and they were eating cheetos (we had no idea). Of course they didn't know she can't eat them, but daughter does! She comes back to our camper kicking things, not communicating correctly, being generally aggressive. My friend and I were playing a board game and she started shoving it off the table and doing that word repeating thing over and over and getting more and more annoying, my friend tried to hold her back and when daughter pushed, I grabbed her and did a bear hug until my friend put the game away. I had to hold her until she broke the episode, it was horrible. It took her a full day to get it out of her system enough that she was manageable again.

This was one of the first times she had a food dye rage and we could actually talk about it afterwards. It's been about a year and a half since this happened. At least this time I had a friend around, and a camper to confine her to so she could stay safe. At least she remembered it this time.

 

[keista]

WOW! That kind of reaction from dyes? WOW!

((((HUGS)))) to both of you.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Maybe this time, she can start to put 2 & 2 together, and understand that it is in her own best interests to say "no thanks"?

Had a family friend's son who was very sensitive to food dye. They gave all of us on-going heads-ups on this... and the kid knew that he always had to ask... unless it was a handful of really obvious things. (white peppermints were fine... so I always made sure I had an extra bag of those stashed away, along with pure-butter short-bread cookies without sprinkles...) He was taught, when in doubt, to only eat white. So... ice cream? vanilla was safe - nothing else was guaranteed to be dye free (some were - he had those at home). But it took about 10 years of training to get him to that point.

 

[allhaileris]

Actually, a lot of processed white has blue in it (like marshmallows, ice cream isn't so processed). So pure white isn't always safe, kind of off white even fools you when they add yellow to make it look "natural" (as found on vanilla wafer cookies).

The ones that get her the most are the reds, cheetos are apparently dripped in yellow (there is a website that states they start as gray, ew). husband gave her some gatorade when she was sick and I came home and her eyes were kind of jiggling. It's like meth to her! All of her worst freakouts have been caused by dye. She knows she can't have it, but has been kind of pushing it lately, taking snow cones at school or stealing gum from me, but will usually check herself if she knows she sneaked it. I don't think she thought about the cheetos because we never get them, but she does get natural cheetos like pirate booty or the stuff they sell in Whole Foods.

Anybody dealing with behavior issues should really try to cut out the food dye first. It's really easy! A lot easier than the gluten-free, casein-free diets (I would starve). More and more companies are using natural things to dye the food, I'll be happy when they finally ban them.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Do the natural colorings bother her? For example, the health food store here had candy canes... and the red was beet syrup, a very deep red but definitely RED.

At 9... it will probably take at least another 4 or 5 years before she learns to recognize which foods are likely to contain dye... and a couple more after that to learn to read the packages.

 

[TerryJ2]

Whew! I'm glad she remembered it and could talk to you afterward. Small blessings.

 

[keista]

Oh, beets! Son's favorite Koolaid flavor was Very Berry Cherry (pre 2002). It had a very deep red color to it. I only found out it was naturally colored AND flavored when they discontinued it and switched it to chemicals! We were so sad. I was racing around supermarkets buying up all the old stuff.

 

[Ktllc]

She is still young and mistakes are bound to happen. Hopefully she can learn from it though. Partner has some major food reaction but although he knows it will make him sick he still asks and cheat. The best you can do is teach her repeatedly, explain why and maybe give her some guidelines on what to do if she eats something with dye. How fast does the reaction happen? Would she have sometime to seek the help of a trusted adult? Is there some emergency medications she could take to control the rage?

 

[allhaileris]

I'd put the reaction in the "allergy" category on reaction times and whatnot. Maybe 30 min or however long it takes to actually get into her system.

She knows what she can have and can't, but when a new food that we haven't talked about or eaten is offered, she doesn't know what to do, especially if her peers are eating it. She knew before she could read to look for the numbers in the ingredients.

And no, natural food colorings don't bother her because they're just food. We have a lot of options in our area to get dye free food, and since I've known about this forever with her, since she was a toddler, it's not the biggest deal in the world. It's just times like this that it sneaks in there that it's a problem.

Seeking the help of an adult isn't part of her rationale when this happens. No, I don't think there are any medications that can help. Maybe there is that I don't know about, but it just needs time to get out of her system.

 

[Lothlorien]

I can tell you that food dye has caused many rages and irratic behavior for my daughter. There's no medications for it...just time. It usually does take a full day to day and a half (depending on the amount). Now, her face breaks out with zits when she has food coloring and/or corn syrup. She sneaks it at school, tho she denies it. When she's home for a week or so, her face clears right up. I totally feel your pain.

 

[buddy]

Wow ....just amazing. Glad you had a friend and she remembered!