Food colours/preservatives and bad sleep

Hi everyone.
Just wondering if anyone else has noticed a drastic change in sleep after they changed the diet of their babies??

My boobie fed DD (10 months) was sleeping quite well. Then recently, for about two weeks, she began waking over 6 times a night, and screaming, and taking ages for us to settle. Even the boob didn't help get her back to sleep, it was awful. She was awake for hours at a time in the night, and no amount of rocking/walking/patting could convince her to go back to sleep :(

Anyway, I thought about it, and realised she had been eating a lot of custard made from regular custard powder (so yellow!). This was the only new thing in her otherwise super-healthy-home-made-nothing-artificial diet. So I stopped giving her custard, and wham! She slept sooooo well for the next three nights, last night she slept from 7pm til 4am, had a quick feed then back to sleep til 7am! Previous night she didn't feed til 6am!! This is such a breakthrough for us, we really were at a loss to explain why she turned in to such a night terror child! We hope it lasts.

Anyway - I thought I'd share that in case anyone else has a similar problem, and also see if anyone's baby reacted to other seemingly mild foods in such a way?

Yep, the yellow colours are deadly and they sneak into so much food. The red is easy to spot but the yellow is sneakier.

Yeah I have to agree, yellow is a known nasty so it could have just been that. Also milk can cause restlessness, if there is an intolerance or allergy.

What would yellow colouring be listed as under the ingredients?

Probably a number - it might also say artificial colour.

Name Quinoline yellow
Number 104
Linked to hyperactivity, skin rashes, asthmatics should avoid. Banned in USA and Norway - previously banned in Australia.


Name Sunset yellow FCF
Number 110
Suspected carcinogen, allergies, hyperactivity, upset stomach, skin rashes, kidney tumours, chromosomal damage. Banned in Norway

Name Beeswax white and yellow
Number 901
Occasionally causes allergic reactions in sensitive people

Name Tartrazine
Number 102
Linked to hyperactivity, skin rashes, migraines, behavioural probs, thyroid probs, chromosome damage. Banned in Norway and Austria.

tartrazine, e102 or e110 - is a coal tar extract which causes lots of problems

Have you tried making some fresh custard from scratch to do a comparison without the colouring?

Thanks everyone.

I just looked at the custard packet, its got 110 and 102 in it, both nasties. Urgh.

I had been making egg yolk custard, just had a momentary lapse of laziness... but will definitely go back to that now. I'm pretty sure she's OK with dairy as she has always had a lot of cheese sauce, yoghurt, & other stuff made with milk, and sleep never used to be so bad as this dreadful custard period.

This is such an eye opener!

The scary thing is when you research what does into some of these products....there is a red/orange colour that is made from ground up beetle shells!

In the custard I think you will find it is a natural colouring 160b also called annatto. It is listed by Sue Dengate as one to avoid. We have had major troubles with it and DD1. She can tolerate small amounts, but in some foods it sends her completely hyper.

Grapes and strawberries are bad too! DD started getting really silly at bedtime and would not sleep. Throwing herself around like a nutter..

A BB member mentioned how those 2 foods set her little one off and I looked back to summer and realised that was the cause.

Now to look at the custard packet....

Yep 160b is a nasty for my DS and its also in frozen yoghurts and homebrands of icecream and fish fingers :(