Pumpkin has been fighting a cold for eleven days. We made an appointment for urgent care (yes, they do that at Kaiser) and headed to Fontana. The fact that we weren’t seen for almost two hours after that appointment is bad enough, but we were another full hour in the pharmacy. Dye free is difficult — especially for kids. For Pumpkin, it is essential. FD&C red #40 has actually made him suicidal. The blues, #1 and #2, make him incredibly aggressive. The yellows, #5 and #6, make him paranoid. Removing them from his diet has helped a great deal.
The doctor reacted to this information the way all doctors do. While she acknowledged that she’s read the studies — plenty of scientists have found reason to worry about the stuff — she seemed shocked that a kid could have such terrible reactions to so many of the dyes, and was absolutely stumped when it came to prescribing something that doesn’t have dye. In fact, the first medication she prescribed was a bust. She thought that since the powder is white, it stayed that way. It actually doesn’t. Once they add water and mix it up, it turns red. If I have to live with the consequences of a dye for a while, red #40 is the one I want the least. That’s the one it had.
The doctor had also told me that there is a dye-free dimetap for kids. She said it’s made for diabetic kids, so it’s usually behind the counter. It’s dye free and sugar free. I don’t care about the sugar, though I will not give my children aspartame. As an epileptic, I refuse to give my kids something that is known to cause seizures in small children. All of this is beside the point as I never found it. They didn’t have any at Kaiser (the pharmacist wasn’t even familiar with it). They also didn’t have any at Walgreens or Riteaid.
Several countries have actually banned the FD&C dyes. Those countries have dye-free alternatives for everything including M&Ms. We can’t get them here, and it is very frustrating. Truth is I’m kind of surprised there aren’t more allergies to the dyes. I predict there will be in the future. If you really think about it kid food are overrun with dyes. Just look at breakfasts: most kids eat cereal (most of which have dye), but even if they don’t there are pop tarts, breakfast bars, colored syrups, dye-enhanced jams, sunny delight and tang. That’s only one meal! Kid foods are so full of dyes that even if small amounts aren’t a big deal, they’re literally eating dye from morning until night. It seems benign, but nothing — absolutely nothing — is benign when taken in excess. Even drinking too much water can be harmful (must be a real excess though). Americans seem almost addicted to dyes. Even pickles have dye. I guess the green of pickles isn’t quite green enough.
After spending a full three hours at Kaiser, I spent the day scrambling around for dye free OTCs. Ricola cough drops, Zarbees Nighttime Cough Relief, and a Walgreens generic antihistimine that is dye free were what I chose. His prescription ended up being a white ampicillin suspension. He’s resting now. Gosh I hope he’s better soon.
Asynchronicities-shmicities 
Ugh. My ds has a slew of food allergies, including corn, which makes medicines a real challenge. If we want chlor-trimeton or tylenol, we have to have it compounded allergen-free. We have a compounding pharmacy in our town, but they don’t make everything, and had to go to one in a town a half-hour drive away this spring to get a medicine he needed. And even then, the stupid pharmacist didn’t believe me that alcohol is derived from corn, and therefore *not* corn-free. *sigh*
I have to admit, I’m with your doctor re: the reactions. My ds gets violent/belligerent from dairy and gluten, and before discovering that, I would have laughed at someone making that claim. It boggles my mind that emotional imbalance can be an allergic reaction. It’s bizarre. It took us 4.5 years to figure out what was wrong with him, and no doctor did–I did, by accident. I can certainly empathize with being skeptical–it doesn’t sound reasonable or logical. But we know, don’t we?
I used to run into the same problem. Sometimes we resorted to crushing adult antibiotics and taking the percent of the powder that the doctor calculated would be right for their weight. Benadryl comes dye free now and also infant tylenol and advil (because of stains, LOL) You have to ask the doctor for the right dose of the infant for your child. It is a completely different concentration. A compounding pharmacy might be able to help you with dye free prescriptions. Cutting and crushing adult pills and adding the powder to pudding or applesauce worked for us for years.
Pumpkin can swallow pills. We briefly had a prescription for adderal and it comes in a half blue/half clear capsule. We tried it, hoping the blue might be okay. That is how I narrowed down what the blue dyes do to him. I ended up going to a natural foods store and buying plain gelatin capsules and carefully transferring the content to those. The psychiatrist couldn’t believe I would go to all that trouble. But this is my kid. Seems like my motivation is pretty straight-forward, doesn’t it?
Our child who has severe dye intolerance has been having classic dye reactions to Ricola cough drops. Did you see this in your Pumpkin? I bought these drops specifically because they did not have dye listed in their inactive ingredients. I’m left wondering if one of the herbs is having the same effect on her, or if Ricola is now mislabeled?
Mike, you might try highlands cough drops or one of those other organics. I haven’t seen the same reaction from Ricola. However, you can’t trust that something dye free once is dye free the next time. Recipes change all the time without warning, so you have to read the labels every time. If you’re desperate for cough relief now, you might try 2 tbsp honey, 1 tblsp lemon juice and 1/4 tsp ginger. There’s very little that won’t stop. If you have a dehydrator, you can also make a honey drop that way.
When they are ill is one of the worst times. Sometimes you have to feed them the dye-filled meds because you don’t get a choice. When that happens you have to be extra vigilant and extra patient.
It is possible that an herb could be an allergen that reacts like these dyes. It is possible for it to affect your child and not mine. You can be allergic to absolutely anything and sometimes allergies don’t react the way we usually think of an allergy.