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thread: Your top additives/foods to avoid with children

  1. #1
    Lucy in the sky with diamonds.

    Jan 2005
    Funky Town, Vic
    7,070

    Your top additives/foods to avoid with children

    Bread is an issue here, I buy the no-additives stuff from Bakers Delight.

    I stay away from highly coloured stuff - icy poles can cause a dry irritable cough in me, so I don't let the kids near them I make my own.

    Strawberries and grapes are an issue here too, it's not an instantaneous reaction but if DD2 has them a couple of days running she gets this 'mentalness' about her.

    I know about the Sue Dengate stuff (excellent info), I was just wondering what foods YOU avoid in your house and why.

    sanks

  2. #2
    Registered User

    Aug 2006
    Our house, in the middle of our street
    1,996

    I try to avoid anything with too much colouring. I iced some bikkies for Easter, and for a treat put pink colouring in, and they were as high as kites lol. Bread is the same here, and i'm thinking the Veal German (i know horrid stuff, but the kids like it) I give them has an effect too.

  3. #3
    Registered User

    Jan 2004
    Melbourne, Australia
    1,002

    Hi Lulu, That is interesting about the grapes and strawberries. My DD gets so hyped up at bedtime lately and we have been eating heaps of grapes in the past few weeks. Have you done any reading about what it is in them? Is it the sugar?

  4. #4
    Registered User

    Mar 2008
    In my own twisted little universe
    1,046

    I try to stay away from preservative 202 ....nasty stuff

  5. #5
    Registered User

    Nov 2004
    WA
    414

    MSG - 621 is a big one with DD as well as 202 in drinks. I follow a list from Additive alert.

  6. #6
    Registered User
    Add ~clover~ on Facebook

    Sep 2007
    travelling
    9,557

    MSG is one here. Only found out after giving DD2 theatre pop corn, rather than mocrowave stuff.
    Yellow is the worst colouring for my kids. Purple also sets DD2 off (the gp office gave her 2 lollipops & I paid for it for hours!)
    I pretty much avoid anything sugary that might have colours. Cordial, juice (I occasionally buy apple, but I have to watch the brand )
    I can't give DD2 'chemists own' iburofen coz its orange. It literally gets her bouncing off the walls!
    I don't buy grapes often & rarely buy strawberries, so I have no idea how they'd go. The few times we've had them we've been ok, but then, DD2 doesn't eat them
    Oh, & chocolate! Also depends how its eaten. Easter eggs seemed ok, but cocolate muffins yesterday had them going. So it may have been something else in the muffin, but other flavours are fine.
    We are pretty much trial & error still.

  7. #7
    Lucy in the sky with diamonds.

    Jan 2005
    Funky Town, Vic
    7,070

    Anney - I can't find the info! I got it here, one of the other ladies pointed out the grapes/strawberries issue, she was eating heaps of both at the time I had bad sleep issues with DD.

    I think there is more about in on the Sue Dengate site. Fruit still has lotsa sugar and the way it is picked unripened has alot to do with it.

    Yeah, 202 621 baaaad...

  8. #8
    Registered User

    May 2008
    ...where jumping on the bed is mandatory!
    2,225

    interesting. i guess i hadnt really thought about fruit being that bad, i dont give dd any added sugar...choc etc. although she is only 9 months. but she eats quite alot of fruit, although i dont give her really sugary stuff just before bed. she is pretty mad most the time ( in a good way) wonder if its anything to do with the ton of grapes and strawberries she eats! and mandarins!
    when she starts eating more stuff i will know to avoid 202 and 621, msg.
    i have a bad reaction to fruit dryed with sulphur, so avoid that with dd and her prunes!!

  9. #9
    Registered User

    Jul 2004
    5,756

    Anything that has added food colour. They can't have anything red either even if its natural. Sends them bonkers. No soft drinks, no biscuits and no lollies/chocolate. Ever since cutting those out, DD's behaviour has made a huge turn around, she's like a different child.

  10. #10
    Registered User

    Oct 2007
    305

    Grapes contain natural msg and strawberries are high in salycilates.

    There are a whole list of foods that contain natural msg but the main ones we avoid for DS1 (10) are tomatoes, grapes, brocolli, sultanas, soy sauce, vegemite and tomato sauce.

    We avoid all artficial colours, flavours and additives as well as all preservatives. We also avoid the natural food colouring annato 160B which is used in a lot of yoghurts and icecreams.
    Last edited by razzle; May 9th, 2009 at 10:59 AM.

  11. #11
    Registered User

    Nov 2006
    brisbane
    3,975

    Tiny teddies are the devil! Ds had them once and was so uncontrollable and hyper! Never again!
    We try to aviod anything artificial, its hard but we try.

    Will lok up the Sue Dengate site sounds interesting! Thanks!

  12. #12
    Registered User

    Feb 2006
    Newcastle, NSW
    4,219

    We avoid 211 which is a perservative in liquids (like soft drink & cordials)
    It is very nasty and can alter your DNA. We now buy organic, home made cordial for our kids, and the occasional store bought one without 211.

  13. #13
    Lucy in the sky with diamonds.

    Jan 2005
    Funky Town, Vic
    7,070

    There is a shocking one in custard powder too....

    Thanks Razzle, thats the info I was trying badly to get across!

  14. #14
    Registered User

    May 2007
    3,220

    DS once had a hotdog and went nuts! I think it must be the red

  15. #15
    Registered User

    Jan 2005
    Down by the ocean
    6,110

    I've stopped buying:
    all snack foods like museli bars, le snacks, chips, shapes etc.
    those continental side dish things.
    meat that is already flavoured ie satay sticks as they are a chemical ****tail.

    As yet I haven't gone as far as eliminating with fruit and vegies but will look into it soon.

    I bake a lot more for lunchbox snacks. Muffins, cookies or cakes. I've been making my own bread too. I love it straight out of the oven for lunch so that keeps me motivated lol

    Am nak atm so don't have book with numbers sorry. Fed Up is Sue Dengates book. I've found it to be very informative.

  16. #16
    Registered User
    Follow Pandora On Twitter

    Jan 2005
    cowtown
    8,276

    strawberries - 1-2 max a day and only once a week.
    dried fruit, especially aprocots. sultanas seem ok not sure why.
    icy poles - DS thinks the hydrolyte icypoles are great so I keep those in the freezer instead of the normal sort.

    fruit juice, especially citrus is limited in this house as well.

    custard powder depends on the brand. There is on called birds i think that comes in a tin, which doesnt have as many colours as the others. I cant have 123 or 124 so we dont get a lot of anything that has those in them, and I reckon we dont have custard more than 1 or 2 times a year anyway.

    DS mostly likes to eat fruit and with most of it he is fine.

  17. #17
    BellyBelly Life Subscriber

    Feb 2006
    South Eastern Suburbs, Vic
    6,054

    Ohhh man. So all the lazy food is bad? Please tell me apples are fine...Riv is in love with apples and mandarins, I will cry if they are bad..

    ETA: What if I make my bread in the bread maker using bread mix? How many times can I say bread in this ETA? I wonder if bread mix has bad stuff....

  18. #18
    Registered User

    Jan 2006
    The Hawkesbury
    4,505

    Ive been pretty lucky when it comes to DS. Nothing really sends him hyper. Though in saying that he is one fussy kid. He doesnt like chocolate or lollies and mostly sticks to the same diet of healthy foods. Even a few chips here and there dont seem to bother him or change his moods.

    Though i bet when DD is up to speed ill have the opposite on my hands with her.. she already has a sweet tooth! So will keep an eye on this thread!

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