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

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.

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?

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

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

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 :rolleyes:)
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 :dunno:
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.

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...

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!!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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....

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!