6th February 2006
Hello! My son is eleven and suffers from artificial food dye allergies. The allergist we went to says that it is not an allergy, but a chemical sensitivity. We are not getting any help with it and we are having a lot of problems finding information on the issue.
The problem is that it is not a behavior issue, but a full out hives and swelling. Last time he had something with food dye in it, we had to go in to his primary care and he had to get a Kenalog shot. Next time may be worse. While I fully respect the people that observe behavior issues with red food dye, it seems that I can not get people to believe that my son's allergy is medically threatening for him. I did find information that the Azo dyes, of which Red 40 and Yellow 6 are members of, can cause severe allergic reaction in aspirin sensitive people and about 1 in 100 children. http://www.cas.astate.edu/draganjac/RedFC.html and http://www.aafp.org/afp/990115ap/990115f.html
With that rate of reaction, you would think there would be more info on it. Does any one out there suffer this kind of reaction to food dye? Our primary care has been discussing with me getting him an epi-pen. The good news is that food labeling is slowly improving and there are a lot of good alternatives out there. Very little food of good nutritional value has food dye in it. The bad news is that food dye seems to be harder to avoid than peanuts. It shows up in unexpected places and we won't talk about the medication issues.
I would like to say it was just one or two dyes, but his last reaction was so severe, that I won't challenge in order to find out which dyes he is allergic to.
The problem is that it is not a behavior issue, but a full out hives and swelling. Last time he had something with food dye in it, we had to go in to his primary care and he had to get a Kenalog shot. Next time may be worse. While I fully respect the people that observe behavior issues with red food dye, it seems that I can not get people to believe that my son's allergy is medically threatening for him. I did find information that the Azo dyes, of which Red 40 and Yellow 6 are members of, can cause severe allergic reaction in aspirin sensitive people and about 1 in 100 children. http://www.cas.astate.edu/draganjac/RedFC.html and http://www.aafp.org/afp/990115ap/990115f.html
With that rate of reaction, you would think there would be more info on it. Does any one out there suffer this kind of reaction to food dye? Our primary care has been discussing with me getting him an epi-pen. The good news is that food labeling is slowly improving and there are a lot of good alternatives out there. Very little food of good nutritional value has food dye in it. The bad news is that food dye seems to be harder to avoid than peanuts. It shows up in unexpected places and we won't talk about the medication issues.
I would like to say it was just one or two dyes, but his last reaction was so severe, that I won't challenge in order to find out which dyes he is allergic to.