My Battle With Red Dye #40

Shortly after Thanksgiving, I became extraordinarily lazy.  Elijah had been out of school for 5 days straight.  So I gave the kids a Nutragrain bar and some healthy juice for breakfast a couple of mornings in a row.  Go on, call DSS and pretend that you feed your child completely fantastic breakfasts every morning and never have a morning of “sure here are some goldfish and raisins” and go back to bed.  Here’s you mother of the year award.  Go shove it…   NOW, back to me (it is, after all, my blog.)  For the three days I did this, it was a huge struggle to get Elijah to get ready for school.  There was massive breakdown after massive breakdown.  I thought maybe he was getting sick.  I thought maybe the time off and the readjustment was bothering him.  Something.  It didn’t occur to me to think it was something I fed my kid.
Then the case of the Christmas cookie happened.  I made sugar cookies.  I iced them.  I used red icing.  I also used mini cookie cutters.  Elijah picked one with red icing.  After consuming the cookie, after running around the house like a mad man, he stopped.  His eyes looked wild.  Gracie was walking by him and he.punched.her.in.the.chest.  Elijah is 45 pounds of bones, water, blood, and muscle.  He punched her in the chest.  I thought my head was going to explode.  He just looked at me like nothing had happened.  I about lost my mind.  He was (obviously) sent to time out until I could talk to him in complete calm sentences.  The whole time he thrashed in his room.  He kicked the wall.  He threw fits.  And then he calmed down.  And I calmed down.  And I started to do some research.
Red Dye #40.  Sure it could be sugar.  But we aren’t a sugar free house by any means.  He has sugar in juice, he has sugar in cookies, in candy… you get the point.  BUT Red Dye #40.  Now there is something we don’t have THAT often.  And his behavior seems to be linked to this.  Of course, there are definitely days when his behavior is simply because he is 4.  I’m not trying to make excuses for his behavior.  The next time he was exposed to the dye was at his Christmas party at school.  They (amazingly) only had 1 cookie at the entire party. A cookie, they got to decorate…with red icing.  He got in the car and his eyes were wild.  He talked super fast and non stop all the way to pick up Jerry.  It was a little crazy. 
Now here’s the thing.  APPARENTLY, Red Dye #40 in solid candies (like M&Ms or vitamins) tend to not have the same effect on the body as it does when found in softer chewier candies or icing.  The vitamins the kids take have Red Dye #40.  It seems to have no effect on them. 
I feel like next Monday will be a big trail as to whether or not it is indeed Red Dye #40 that has caused the incidents.  It is the day of red and pink… and, of course, candy.  I am going to splurge and buy the Wilton’s red food dye as it doesn’t have the #40 in it.  If he comes home perfect and not looking like he may need electroshock treatment, then the aforementioned incidents are simply those of a 4 (almost 5) year old and so be it.  But if he does… it’s like a big confirmation that Elijah just can’t handle this dye…
It really doesn’t matter.   Either it does, or it doesn’t.  But there is a lot of information out there about this dye and I think it’s worth looking into for anyone whose child shows even a hint of a sign of hyperactivity or behavior that’s out of the ordinary.  We try not to give our kids too much crap. We are by no means an “organic” family, but I do think this thing does have some merit.