Food Dyes

My second book is so, so different than my first and one of the things that is a big part of the book is what we’ve gone through, and are still going through, with Maddie and artificial dyes. This issue popped up again yesterday and I felt it was really important to put it on another stage because people need to be aware.

My middle beauty has an issue with artificial food dyes; meaning she becomes a highly skilled (in the art of pissing me off) little terror when she gets any; and I do mean ANY amount.

We talked to the multiple doctors at the Naval Hospital, teachers, friends, co-workers, etc. and finally realized that to keep her as the awesome little bit that she is, we needed to give her the foods and drinks her system could handle.

We went through our entire kitchen and pantry and got rid of every single thing that had artificial coloring in it and replaced it with products that used natural ingredients to color their stuff. The change in her was almost immediate; her nightly tantrums stopped, her fighting us at every corner stopped and her mean streak stopped.

She’s one of the most beautiful and loving little girls I’ve ever had the pleasure of being around and, when she ate or drank something with artificial dyes, she became the exact opposite of the girl we know. It was heartbreaking to watch because you could see in her eyes that she hated how she was behaving but she was powerless to stop it.

My baby girl is only 4, so the fact that she lived her life this way hurt; I feel like we should have realized sooner what was going on. But, Emma didn’t have these problems so it was all so new to us.

Our family and friends have been amazing and don’t send the kids anything she can’t eat. But, yesterday, she got her hands on a box of Valentine’s Day conversation hearts and started eating them before I realized what they were. She was so angry at me when I took them, but I could already see the change in her.

Last night was miserable. She made herself into a statue, stopped talking and refused to do anything she was told. Chris and I, already knowing this was coming, calmed ourselves and took turns talking quietly to her. It took about 30 minutes but I finally saw it leave while I was hugging her in her room. She has this “tell” and it’s how we always know she’s reached the point where she can let go of what she’s feeling and get back to being Maddie. She’ll all of a sudden start telling us about everything that made her mad during the day, even if it has nothing to do with what we are talking about, she wants us to know.

After she gets it all out, she’s exhausted and ready to sleep; Chris and I are usually ready to sleep at that point, too. It’s emotionally and mentally draining on everyone involved.

We don’t let any of the kids have dyes anymore; we don’t even have medicine in the house that uses them. I’ve spoken to a number of parents who have discovered the same reaction in their kids due to dyes and I wish more would look into it.

I’m not one of those parents that is all about natural/organic everything, I’m just not. But I believe in this because I’ve SEEN what it did to my girl and I believe that artificial dyes need to come out of foods as a whole.

I really hope this post reaches someone that’s in the same situation we were in and finds their answers.