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!

Now im sitting here thinking what i use and cook with.

2 months ago I put my foot down. Jed and i eat raw food and no flavourings ect...the kids eat fresh vegies and meet cooked and seasoned by me. I buy low GI bread. I did buy soy milk for the kids but found that Wilhelm noticed and had to go back to full cream. (the joys of autism) I have noticed a big difference especially in my eldest who wouldnt move of the couch and now actually plays basketball and does more physical things now

Im really liking this thread...

Colours, particularly 102 and 160b. Preservatives, if we can, particularly 202. I think strawberries aren't great for him, but still figuring that one out, haven't ruled them out completely yet. I had no idea about grapes, hadn't heard that one before, thanks!!!! Try to avoid giving him too many dried apricots.

And we have to avoid dairy, soy and nuts because of intolerances that lead to behavioural issues.

Loving this thread, thanks girls!!!

rayray it could be that they use a preservative in dried apricots to keep the colour but don't in sultanas as nobody cares if they are brown (well that's my theory). I can't eat them either as they make my asthma play up. Tomato sauce and white wine also makes me wheeze.

This list is really good, even some of the "naturally derived" additives come from disgusting sources.

GMPDoYouKnowWhatYouAreEating-p1?

We tend to avoid 621.
And we try to buy organic apples when we can, as I got very sick years ago from the spray they use on the non org ones.

i have been eating dried apricots recently and DS has had trouble going to sleep... do u think it could be affecting my bm?

621 and its friends - found it was in DH's favourite stock powder Vegeta, so we now get Massel (may have changed though, just have not checked)
160b (annatto) - as said before in yoghurts, icecreams etc, but also in some oven fries. So anything white or yellow I now double check. Sorry I now I can make my chips, but I don't want to get a deep frier, so once in a blue moon I get oven fries.
282 - amazing with all the hype about it that it is in so many things still.

I am pretty sure sugar does not cause the hyperactivity like many people think, pretty sure it is on the Fed Up website. It is a hard one to get people to understand, that it is normally what is with the sugary food that causes the problems, not the sugar itself.

What about colours 110 and 102? They are in the Fulcreem custard I make for DS, he would have it most days of the week, is that bad??? He hasn't reacted badly to it though.

202 is number one in this house as it flares up Asthma...number one thing that counts out for us is most dried fruits, esp dried apricots. Sultana's are the only ones DS is allowed.

I used to read all the ingredients etc & check my little bookmark but now I just avoid all that I know is bad or what I wouldn't want him eating anyway & I home make nearly everything in regards to cakes, biscuits etc & so on.

Although DS loves tomato sauce, hmmm doesn't seem to affect him but could be worth leaving out too.

Bread is a big one also. Not so much that he reacts but it's just plain nasty & has been so often talked about though I find it amazing how many people don't take any notice.

Ahhh that's about all for us, I'm boring hippy mum that gets talked about by my friends as DS isn't allowed lollies, choc etc except on the odd occasion....though Wed playgroup here is shared morning tea & that's a bit of an issue as it's always chips & cake. Sometimes he goes nuts, though it's amazing what doesn't take his interest as he doesn't have it often so its too sweet or what not. And in his short 2yrs juice, cordial or softdrink have not passed his lips.

Here is a list from Sue Dengate's website - I used to carry it around with me when i did the shopping:
avoid these additives:
COLOURS
102,104,107,110,122,123,124,127,128,129,132,133,14 2,151,155
natural colour 160b (annatto)

PRESERVATIVES
Sorbates 200-203
Benzoates 210-213
Sulphites 220-228
Nitrates,nitrites 249-252
Propionates 280-283

SYNTHETIC ANTIOXIDANTS
Gallates 310-312
TBHQ,BHA,BHT 319-321

FLAVOUR ENHANCERS
Glutamates incl MSG 620-625
Ribonucleotides 627,631,635
Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein (HVP)

ARTIFICIAL FLAVOURS
no numbers since they are trade secrets

eta - just had a look at the diet mineral soft drink that i drink daily - and the amount of nasties that i'm drinking !! Now I know why I've been the biatch from hell lately !

Ohhh - thanks for that list. I am printing it now

Pretty much everything on Jaz's list, plus

173 (Aluminium), 174(sliver), 175(Gold) - I don't need heavy metals in my meals - thanks.
535 (Sodium Ferrocyanide) and 536 (potassium ferrocyanide). What isnt wrong with these ones? Is it that they are only "Less toxic" than cyanide or that they are used to make blue printer inks. Hmmmm.

The one big thing to remember about the nitrates (249-252) is that their purpose is to kill micro-organisms. Bacteria. It doesn't discern the bad ones in meat from the good ones in your body. Its a noble additive, for sure - but that doesn't make it good.

And be SO careful with the "Natural colours" written on packaging. Sure, it needs to be derived from a natural source - but I would remind them that THC and Opium are derived from plants too.

Probably the artificial sweetener, mum2missm. Look for 951 or 954.

220 gives me and ds a cough, and flares up his exzcema. Pity cause we loove dried apricots!

The wosr thing I've found for hyperactivity is... children's Nurofen. It's beyond me as to why? I thought it had no artificial blah blah blah. But it sends ds off the planet. i use it only when he has a fever through the roof and it so lethargic I don't mind the hyper.

I have just noticed the relation between instant noodles and DS freaking out and being hysterical for 3/4hr, he doesn't have the flavour or "vegetable" sachet in them just eats them plain and I noticed they have 320 and 321 in them. Is this one additive enough to do this to his behaviour??? he had them for dinner last night and woke hysterical at 12.30am (the 2nd time this has happened)
He is being investigated for allergies atm as he has hives on an almost daily basis, the basic allergens came back negative but his IgE levels are very high, we are waiting to get into the allergy specialist now (1st appointment- September!)

[QUOTE=LoriRae

The wosr thing I've found for hyperactivity is... children's Nurofen. It's beyond me as to why? I thought it had no artificial blah blah blah. But it sends ds off the planet. i use it only when he has a fever through the roof and it so lethargic I don't mind the hyper.[/QUOTE]

YES, YES, same here though only the orange flavoured nurofen....we had DS up all night LOL...I now don't use it & avoid any panadol etc that is orange flavour.

Nurofen sends my DS loopy. Totally loopy.

Nurofen does strange things to my DD too. I have only just noticed it and put two and two together though...I am thinking I might need to be more vigilant with the foods I feed my kidlets, and myself! I don't do artificial sweeteners because I know how bad they are, and try to eat unpackaged foods, but not enough. Especially when it's so easy to just use a packaged pasta sauce or whatever after a looong day.

We need to beware many natural additives too, especially when companies marketed at childrens snacks and treats claim to be made with only natural colours and preservatives which people can assume makes them okay. For instance:

"natural colour 120"

120 COCHINEAL - Dye made from an extract taken from bodies of pregnant scale insects, reacted with aluminium to produce carmine.

We need to beware many natural additives too, especially when companies marketed at childrens snacks and treats claim to be made with only natural colours and preservatives which people can assume makes them okay. For instance:

"natural colour 120"

120 COCHINEAL - Dye made from an extract taken from bodies of pregnant scale insects, reacted with aluminium to produce carmine.

I just had another look at the Food Intolerance network, to find some info to post on what symptoms the different additives can bring on, but there is just WAY too much information on there. It's scary to think of all the nasties we eat.

It is scary, and the thing is not to think that your family will react to everything either. We are a chemical free house, and a 90% preservative free house.... We have multiple food allergies as well to milk, oats, bananas and oats.

DD1 also reacts to apple juice. She can eat an apple, but if I give her a glass of apple juice that I have freshly squeezed myself she goes bonkers. I've tried all forms of juice, but most of them have apple juice in them. However, if I give her a glass of limonaide... she's fine :dunno:

In saying that we've found that DD2 reacts severely to bananas and tomatoes.... mainly because her nappies are atrocious afterwards.

What else....well we limit our gluten intake in our house as well, because if DD1 has gluten in breakfast and lunch than by dinner time she is a mess.

Another one here who avoids Nurofen. Don't really like using it with kids anyway, but the hyperness on it seals the deal for me.