Food Additives Can Affect Children's Behavior

This is old news to many of us. My youngest child is now 35, her brother and sister 30 & 40 respectively. I fought the battles of food additives when they were children. Half of our friends thought we were nuts, but the other half were around the kids often enough to see the vast difference in their behavior based on what they ate. After getting our son off the prepared foods and sugar that made his behavior next to impossible to control, at age 10 he described the difference to me as "mommy, I feel calmer in my head".
Back then it was trial and error as to what was giving him migraines. Our GP said he'd not seen migraines in a 7 year old before. It wasn't migraines, it was junk foods with additives.
Today, our daughter has the same battles with her 2 sons. They are quite allergic to red dye. Do you know they put that junk in childrens medications? The yellow dye also bothers them, but not to the degree of the red dye.The boys are very savey about the whole thing and will ask me occasionally if something has red dye in it. She has battled with the doctors, and with the schools about the meals they serve. And of course with kids trading parts of their lunches with each other, she can often see the problem the minute they walk in the door.
It is a shame the food industry doesn't care about anything but the bottom line. And we all know about the drug industry's greed, but for the life of me I can't understand why liquid antibiotics need red dye.

one Massachusetts pediatric expert recommends against changing diet - claiming the child will be ostracized by peers: "It is very socially impacting if children can't eat the things that their friends do."

What a view for an expert to take! Every kid is different in some way, and every kid will have to deal with teasing sooner or later. Giving in to that kind of social pressure just sends the kid the message that it's important to be like everyone else. I'd rather my kids were individuals who can cope constructively with teasing. It's not as if adults don't face similar social pressures, so we may as well teach them how to deal with such things early, no? And keep them healthy in the process!

I can remember that pizza and ice cream was the food I was addicted to. It was not till I got active again that I lost the weight when I was young but being an overweight kid is very difficult.

I think this can go to the other extreme, we all need healthy diets but that does not mean that we can not have some foods because they are evil. a balanced diet is what we need. There is no 100% pure food anymore and even if there was it would be an arm and a leg for each meal. you dont need to give into pear pressure but you do not need to be a healthy food hitler to your children either. I think thats where we lose ourselves sometimes.

Priscila said:
you dont need to give into pear pressure but you do not need to be a[...]

I think we need a little more "pear pressure" out there. ;)
Seriously, consistent nutritional education to our kids is going to be their greatest tool, ideally before they start running up against peer pressure to eat junk. We eat VERY well at home and allow the kids a little slack when we are out or at social events (they are quite young, so they just don't get much choice yet--if I'm going to serve them, then I am still going to be pretty controlling of their choices :) ).

Although one Massachusetts pediatric expert recommends against changing diet - claiming the child will be ostracized by peers: "It is very socially impacting if children can't eat the things that their friends do."

And if he had made that argument in a discussion of whether or not one should become involved with drugs, he would be accused of contributing to the delinquincy of a minor. That's just unbelievable! Some things are a little more important than looking and acting exactly like all of your friends.

I agree with Katie here. Kids get over not being allowed to eat the same things their friends do - I know I did. They adjust more readily than adults. Plus lots of nutritious snacks are packaged in such fun ways, it's easy to find something kids will find appealing and "cool" to eat.

My siblings and I had allergy/sensitivity tests done by a naturopath when we were young. She told my parents to avoid feeding us red dye, MSG, and a few other weird ingredients. Needless to say, we never got "cool food" to eat at lunchtime. We always got plain ol' sandwiches on wheat bread, a piece of fruit, some baby carrots or a handful of pretzels in a baggie, and a quarter to buy a milk. And I think even though we used to beg for those brightly colored fruit roll ups and fruit snacks and whatnot, we pretty much got over it because my dad convinced us that we would be happy one day that we weren't allowed to eat that stuff as kids. And he was right!

Caffeine and similar compounds cause hyperactivity. Beyond that I'm skeptical. The idea of doing a test on a "mix" of additives is a pretty unusual scientific protocol and smacks of an agenda by the FSA against all additives whether or not each has been shown to cause problems.

I wonder if this was really wall-to-wall double blind, and how big the sample size was.

Remember also that sugar caused hyperactivity "for sure" -- until it was proven not to.

Anecdotal, but wimpy parents seem to be the problem in my opinion. We'd get whacked upside the head for stuff kids get away with today.

We had a similar problem with my son who is now 5.. about a year ago when we went out for lunch or he went to a party he used to drink lemonade and about an hour later he would be rather hyperactive (which normally he is not). He has a balanced diet etc. At first we didn't put 2+2 together but once we had and stopped the lemonade he was back to his old self again.. I think it is more how the person themself reacts to the additives, sometimes fine but other times no so..

every parent experiences these things. my 2 year old is like jekyl and hyde after eating certain things. while we try to make sure she eats healthy, we definitely dont deprive her of anything.

"FD and C Red No. 40 - according to my dictionary of food additives - has a permanent saftey rating, but many American Scientist feel that it's safety is far from established... All the tests were conducted by the manufacturer. .. The National Cancer Institute reported that p-credine is a chemical used to prepare Red no. 40, and was found to be carcinogenic in animals." (I have the dictionary's 5th edition. It is by Ruth Winter)

I know - they say that not everything that causes cancer in animals, causes cancer in humans, (or does it?) but I am disturbed by this information. Red no. 40 is in ridiculous things. Yellow cake mix? Why does children's medicine have to be pretty? Ridiculous!

I think as parents, we need to take the information we are given (just because someone sells it in a store, does not mean it is safe. Haven't we all learned that?) but then, be diligent with our children and ourselves as to how and what we injest.

There is always someone who is going to say .. but the studies prove it doesn't harm you. ( dare I bring up the artificial sugars example). Well let's use some common sense and if we see a harm or a difference, than be proactive for our kids. If we don't do it .. no one else will.

Children are impressionable. Those who are taught that something is not healthy and it will harm them, can understand this. My husband gets horrible headaches anytime he injests food with MSG. We had a pot luck dinner at church last night with ice cream and many brownie treats for dessert. The children who walked in calmly with mom and dad were running and going nuts after the meal.

I don't need a study to tell me if my child is having side effects that occur after eating certain foods - we just don't eat those foods. You know your body. Parents, who are diligent, know what is normal behavior for their children. If everytime they have pure maple syrup on their homemade waffles they get totally out of control, is it that difficult to decided what is causing it?

Synthetic chemicals... Huh! Good God, y'all, what are they good for? Absolutely nothing! Say it again...

It's bad enough when some laboratory creationg leeches its way into the food supply. We've got to deal with these assholes adding it directly!

Ban all synthetics. Life has done just fine without it for billions of years, and the human species for over two million.

200 years of synthetics is killing us, animal life and the planet for future habitation. Ban it all.

I agree with Dawn. It is obvious what foods have negative effects on our children. My mother and I have both worked with children for most of our lives, and the difference in behavior after having sugar is just amazing. You can see it in sugery drink mixes like koolaid too. My mom has always said to stay away from the red dye #40 because it causes behavior problems in some children. Bottom line? Parents have to stay aware and do what they need to do in order to keep their children healthy! :)

why arnt diet food good for kids?most kids go on diet an d some of them get fatter that before

so do chemical sprays such a rat poisen (codeen, cocodemol) and cianide(insect killer)

all effect the bodys pain receptors when they pass through the food chain and into humans

i tested it with my own body.(this is conclusive proofe)

I could definitely see that being true. The most processed a food is, the greater potential impact it can have on your body.

Not only do additives affect kids' behaviour but it can really affect their ability to learn in later years.
Apparently children who eat junk food around the age of three are slower learners in later years.
There's an article about it at the following site if anyone's interested...
http://www.foodeu.com/articles/Poor+Diet+Damages+Kids.aspx

Thanks! Carla

Cheers, Carla