ADVICE NEEDED think my little boy has a bad reaction to some food colourings

jopsey

As explained in title , DP and I have noticed for a while on the odd occasion little un (3) has sweet's he goes a bit hyper or naughty I first thought it was just a sugar rush/excited about having swets, but not so sure now .

To cut a long story short ,been away to Spain this week and promised that on his last night (wednesday night )he could have a slush type drink ,I really don't let him have anything like that so thought one wont do any harm ,how wrong was i ?

When it came it was all mixed colours inc blue and red and within the hour he was a different child and has now got like a nervous twitch in his eyes ,he never sat still all the way home on plane,not slept a full night and just generally naughty and crying .

It does seem to be passing, but does this sound what has happened and would the doc be able to test which colours trigger it off ?

any advice welome,I have no idea what to do for best

morg_monster

I'm sure the drink was the cause; lots of kids have reactions to the colours and flavourings in those kind of drinks. You'll probably be bashing your head against a brick wall trying to get a doctor to test for it, especially on the NHS. If you really want to find what exactly is causing it, the cheapest way to do it is to get him to eat different things, note the E numbers, and see his reaction to each, so you can eliminate which ones AREN'T causing it.
It is getting easier to avoid E numbers though, most sweets and fizzy drinks/squash made by reputable big companies have got rid of artificial flavourings, colours and preservatives now.
Of course it could possibly be the sugar, find some sweets without anything artificial and try those, if he doesn't get any more than a bit bright eyed it's probably not that...

AnnieH

Just cut out artificial colurs/flavours of his diet. i have to with my kids, they go loopy on them. it really is shocking the change in them when they have had something they shouldnt have

Violetta_2

Poor thing not a nice end to you're holiday especially with a 3yr old on a plane, hope he settles now. My friends wee boy practically ran up the wall's when he had skittles. Bit more info on the Action on additives website & The Food Commision . Don't know if the dr would be any help especially with it being a foreign brand type thing so can't really check the ingredients, but might be worth asking.

jopsey

Violetta wrote: »

Poor thing not a nice end to you're holiday especially with a 3yr old on a plane, hope he settles now. My friends wee boy practically ran up the wall's when he had skittles. Bit more info on the Action on additives website & The Food Commision . Don't know if the dr would be any help especially with it being a foreign brand type thing so can't really check the ingredients, but might be worth asking.

Thankyou so much found the websites very helpfull

Felicity

Hi, I hope the little chap is ok now.

My advice is just dont give him anything with food colourings in it, but that seems obvious! I think you answered your own question in your OP.

ailuro2

He might seem a little 'hungover' that's the way my DD got after an episode. Hope he's alright now. Keep a note of everything you can remember he ate in the few hours before it happened. Any time it happens again, keep note too. I'd keep away from the highly coloured sweets and drinks though, and hopefully it won't happen again.

I agree- my DD was like this twice after we'd been to Pizza hut and she'd had the ice cream with sweets on top - she turned into someone else's child!! The first time it happened we were utterly dismayed by her behaviour, the second time it happened we put two and two together and stopped her having the smartie type sweets, and it didn't happen again. This was about 4 years ago, and I don't know if the additives have been changed, because she simply doesn't have brightly coloured food now, unless it's naturally bright.



If she is having something sweet, we tend to steer her in the direction of chocolate,milk or white, or something less brightly coloured. We've not tried her with the new e-free Smarties yet. Anyone comment on whether they're different?

Lillibet_2

Much like you, our son has mostly home made or organic food & very little sugar or addatives A friend once gave my now near 3YO some value jaffa cakes. He literally bounced off the walls for 14 hours:eek: & was "hungover", much as you've described, for about 2 days afterwards. He hasn't had jaffa cakes since, and we are very wary of letting him have anything orang/red coloured ; i.e we don't!

Hopefully once he's a bit bigger & there's room inside his body for all the addatives to get diluted more he will be able to deal with them better as I know it's unrealistic to keep him on a home made/organic, sugar/addative free diet for much longer.

HTH;)

eyelinerprincess

I'm slightly older, but I get that way with light ribena. The normal stuff's fine, but when I drink the light stuff I bounce off the walls. Doesn't happen with anything else, which I find really strange...

cally1978

Both my kids are allergic to sodium benzoate which is in loads of fizzy drinks and in lots of cordials, I literally have to peel them off the ceiling!!! Also allergic to caffeine and strong food colouring such as blue and sunshine yellow x

kr15snw

I remember when I was little (about 15 years ago) I wasnt allowed the red smarties as they turned me into a terror with a hangover etc.

It was annoying but now I understand why my mum did it.