Well I think it's time to give you a little update.
When I got salad's very insightful information about 160b I immediately cut it out of DD's diet. Monday was the last day she had anything with 160b in it, so it's now the 5th day off the additive.
So what have I noticed during this time....
within 36-48 hours I noticed a significant decrease in the head hitting / head banging.
Thursday morning was the last reported head hitting incident which was relatively mild and short lived. To be honest it was almost as though she started doing it out of habit then realised how silly and unneccessary it was so she stopped! Previously she had been totally unable to stop herself - the more she hit herself the harder it was for her to stop so she would just do it over and over and over again
The last 2 days have seen not even a hint of head hitting!!!
It is still early days but I am very confident that annatto or 160b has been the cultrip for this very distressing behaviour in my DD. This has been a challenging week for DD (return to day care/change of routine), interrupted sleep etc. At times she has been very upset and frustrated and yet she has managed to control her behaviour and not resorted to banging her head. Go back a few weeks and this situation would result in frequent outbursts of head banging.
I am still amazed that such a tiny thing can have such a big impact. But after reading the research and discovering that 160b frequently causes head banging, then removing it from DD diet and seeing her head banging stop, I have proven to myself that the additive is very harmful and not something I will ever give to DD again.
I hope those of you reading look into this and consider removing the additive from the diets of your little ones.
That is amazing. So glad you found what was causing it and you've seen such a radical change in your DD. It's really alarming to think that something in common foods can cause such behaviour and (although we don't have head-banging here we certainly have our moments!), I will be very vigilant about avoiding this additive. Thanks for sharing your story Fi, I think the world needs to know about this stuff. Thought of taking it to a current affair program?!
That is so amazing. I'm so glad you found the answer for your daughter. How terrible it was in a product specifically made for children too!
I wish we had some 160b to cut out here but my son doesn't eat it. Interestingly though I was researching foods we'll be eating when we move to the states and almost ALL cheese has annatto in it! Poor american kids!
woohoo I am so glad this has worked for you, its like a different child isnt it.
Nasty stuff. I actually have video footage of my DD having an episode after too much 160B, she has even bitten herself and drawn blood, I have her doing this on video.
Thanks for letting us know I have been wondering how you were going xo
Hey Salald thanks for asking! Things have been going great!!!!! DD has been absolutely delightful - a different baby almost. It's amazing, I just can't believe how good she is! And I don't necessarily mean that she is an angel all the time and never gets upset or cranky or anything because of course she does - she gets frustrated when she can't do things or sooky and cranky when she is over tired etc. BUT these things don't result in hardcore head banging tantrums anymore.... yay! Once or twice she has actually hit herself in the head but it's been very mild and controlled and she stops almost as soon as she starts - I think it's because she was doing it so much it became a learned behaviour for her or something? But I think she realises it's a pretty stupid thing to do and like I said it's really nothing at all compared to the things she used to do. We even got positive comments from day care recently and how well behaved she was and how happily she was playing with other kids - rewind a few weeks agao and we were getting spoken to about her aggressive behaviour and biting! And they don't even know about the 160b thing so it's not like they are just saying positive things to confirm something we have told them - they have simply observed a really positive change in her behaviour which is wonderful!
Update!
Reply With Quote
woohoo I am so glad this has worked for you, its like a different child isnt it. 
Bookmarks