Food Dyes and ADHD

{Artificial Dyes and Kids}

So recently I stumbled onto a blog post about the artificial food dye “Red 40” I can't remember what blog it was on, I wish I could! It got me thinking and she gave a lot of good information and then I went to Google for some more info but didn’t change anything in what we were eating.

Moose is our hyper, off the wall, crazy little boy and sometimes it seems like he doesn’t know how to control it but I had always just assumed it was normal behavior for him; although some days are worse than others. This weekend he was having a great day; he was being calm and sitting with his daddy on the couch… until I gave him a colored juice drink. About 30 minutes after he drank that juice he was jumping around, running all through the house, doing flips (literally) and just disobeying in general. It lasted for a few hours and during that time I was thinking about the blog post I had read earlier and wondering if the change in activity and this juice were tied together?

We are going on 48 hours of not having any Red 40 and so far I can see a big difference in his attitude and activity. I am not one to just say things are different if they aren’t, I truly believe that his behavior has been better. I had noticed before that certain days he was great and certain days he was bouncing off the walls, maybe this had something to do with it? Only time will tell, I will update in a week or two and let you know how it is going.

What do you think about artificial dyes? Do you keep them away from your kids? Do you believe that they could be linked to hyper activity in children? 

Click here for more information on Red 40