Restless
Babies by Sue Dengate Reprinted with
permission from the Summer 2001 newsletter of Nursing Mothers Association (now
the Australian Breastfeeding Association).
See below this for text of More Restless Babies by Sue Dengate Reprinted with permission from the February
2008 Australian Breastfeeding Association’s magazine Essence.
During the first three
weeks of her life, baby Emily Ridden slept most of the time. She rarely cried,
sometimes having to be woken for feeds and her weight gain was good. Then Emily
started to have wakeful times during the night. Feeling tired, her mother Cindy
relied on up to five cans of carbonated lemon drinks a day to give her energy.
Emily's wakeful periods increased until soon she was sleeping only about eight
hours total in a day. 'I kept trying to feed her to sleep but even if I could
get her to sleep she would wake as soon as I tried to move her,' recalls her
mother.
Cindy's lemon drinks
contained an artificial yellow colour called tartrazine (code 102). Six years
ago, medical researchers discovered that tartrazine can cause irritability,
restlessness, inattention, difficulty settling to sleep and frequent night
waking (Rowe KS and Rowe KL 1994). The more you have, the more likely you are
to be affected. Young children, and especially babies, are the most vulnerable
to the effects of food additives because, dose for weight, they take in greater
amounts than adults. Food additives can be transmitted through breastmilk
(Clarke L et al 1996). Unknown to Cindy, the soft drinks were making her baby
restless and wakeful.
Cindy also noticed that
Emily's bowel motions had become dark and frothy, 'like cappuccino'. This can
also be an effect of food chemicals. Altogether, 50 additives (see box) and
some natural chemicals have been associated with problems including
stomach-aches, bloating, diarrhoea, reflux, itchy skin rashes, migraines,
headaches, asthma, depression, anxiety, unexplained tiredness, forgetfulness,
hyperactivity and recurrent mouth ulcers. No child reacts to food colouring
alone, and it was to take Cindy the next 15 months to find out exactly which
foods affected her daughter.
In the meantime, Cindy's
doctor suggested that sugar might be contributing to Emily's 'cappuccino poos',
so Cindy cut out the soft drinks. Emily improved, although she still woke
frequently at night and never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during
the day.
Introduction of solids at
nearly five months started a new round of problems. For the first time, Cindy heard
her baby really scream. Episodes, which lasted for hours, were accompanied by
back-arching. Cindy tried the usual foods, introduced one at a time - rice
cereal, potato, pumpkin, apple, pear, chicken, lamb and vanilla yoghurt. During
this time Emily was restless and woke often with occasional bouts of screaming.
The night after her first mouthful of broccoli, Emily slept only ten minutes at
a time, tossing and turning, screaming and arching her back all night.
Child health nurses,
doctors and paediatricians all agreed that Emily was a healthy baby. Settling
techniques learnt at a sleep management course helped but were not enough. If
Emily was feeding well she would sleep well. Sometimes she would arch back off
the breast and constantly wriggle and fidget while feeding. At these times she
would sleep badly. There was no problem with supply or let down. Medication for
reflux made Emily worse. Cindy wondered if her baby's behaviour might be caused
by stomach aches associated with certain foods.
During the next six
desperate months, Cindy gradually identified a number of seemingly unrelated
foods eaten either by herself or Emily that could cause problems. But it didn't
made sense. As well as medications containing artificial colours or flavours,
Emily seemed to be affected by a number of healthy foods eaten either by her or
her mother. Tomatoes and broccoli were the worst. Eventually Cindy found a
doctor who could interpret these reactions. Broccoli and tomatoes are very high
in a number of food chemicals including salicylates. Cindy Ridden's daughter is
one of an estimated ten per cent of the population who react to these natural
chemicals.
Salicylates
(sal-i-sill-ates) are one of many chemicals that all plants have developed to
protect themselves. Most people are able to detoxify many of these poisonous
chemicals. However, some common foods contain enough of these chemicals to
cause reactions in sensitive people. Intolerance to aspirin, which is a form of
salicylate, is well recognised. Yet most people are unaware that significant
amounts of salicylates occur naturally in foods such as fruits, fruit juices,
vegetables, herbs, spices, nuts, wines, tea and coffee. According to
researchers at
Reactions to food chemicals
are not true allergic reactions, so they cannot be confirmed by allergy
testing. The only way to be certain of which food chemicals affect you is to
try a strict elimination diet for three weeks, followed by careful reintroduction,
or challenges, of certain food chemicals. This is to make sure that healthy
foods are not avoided unnecessarily. Cindy was referred to a dietitian who
started them both on the Simplified Elimination Diet from
Three days later, Emily
worsened again. By now, Cindy had read my book Fed Up and, discouraged,
she phoned me from
I have talked to thousands
of parents who have struggled with the effects of food on their children's
health or behaviour. I have experienced myself, and seen in others, that
mothers who are using the elimination diet need support. They need information
and child-friendly recipes, and need to be able check on little details because
even one small mistake a day can ruin the effects of the diet. To help with
this, I wrote Fed Up as a guide and support manual for parents, and
established the Food Intolerance Network of Australia. We now have members from
12 countries. We publish regular newsletters, available free by email. These
are displayed on the website with reader feedback and new information. Readers
are welcome to ask questions by email and there is an email discussion group.
Several food intolerance support groups have been established around
If you suspect food
intolerance in your breastfeeding baby, you might like to first try avoiding
additives (see list of additives to avoid). Some people find that cutting down
is enough. If you still have problems, especially if there are any relatives
with food intolerance symptoms like migraine, then you might want to try the
elimination diet. It is essential to be supervised by a dietitian. Your
dietitian will give you two booklets from the
Everyone is different and
although some children improve within hours of starting the elimination diet,
others can take longer. If there is no improvement at all within a week it is
worth checking for mistakes with your dietitian. Sometime in the first two
weeks, often on days four and five, symptoms worsen. These are withdrawal
symptoms. These withdrawal symptoms are a good sign that the diet will work.
Eight weeks later, Cindy
reports that Emily is waking only once a night. Emily can tolerate a wide range
of additive-free foods including permitted fruit, vegetables, wheat, egg and
sugar, but not dairy foods or salicylates. She's more settled and content than
ever despite teething and as Cindy says, 'When she's happy, I'm happy'. Cindy's
only regret is that she didn't know right at the beginning about food chemicals
that could affect her baby.
References
Swain AR, Dutton SP and
Clarke L, McQueen J, Samild
A and Swain A, The dietary management of food allergy and food intolerance in
chidlren and adults. Aust J Nutr Diet 1996; 53(3):89-94.
Response from an Early Childhood Nurse to this article
Tartrazine and
breastfeeding
Thank you so much for the
"Restless Babies" article. I recommended it to a distraught mum via a
breastfeeding support bulletin board. She was shocked to discover that
tartrazine was hiding in many 'healthy' foods. Within just 2 days of changing
her diet, her baby had a normal sleeping pattern. Not only that, but her 2 year
old 'spirited kid' is much calmer, and has stopped throwing incessant tantrums.
Other board members have benefited
from the article, including one mum who recognised the frothy 'cappuccino'
poops mentioned. She had asked her pediatrician about it, but he had no idea
what caused it. Changing her diet to exclude tartrazine cured both the frothy
poops and the night waking.
Here are the foods that the
mother in the
Dani's diary
Birth - Chris is born nearly 2 months
early. We stay in hospital until Chris is a month old. Staff regularly comment
on the huge amount of crying he does and his restlessness. They put this down
to a consequence of being prem and assure me he will be more normal and settled
by the time he was due to be born.
2 mths - Chris doesn't settle - he gets
worse, screaming and crying all the time all day and night. Regularly passes
out from lack of oxygen. We try every colic remedy available - nothing helps. I
even try giving him a range of formulas on the doctor's advice - none of these
make any difference so after a few day on each I go back to breastfeeding.
2 1/2 mths - we notice Chris has a serious
hernia and needs an emergency operation - his stomach is split right across and
the muscles are trapping the arteries going to the testes - we hope no
permanent damage is done - staff and doctors tell me it was probably caused as
a result of the bad colic he has and him pushing in pain all the time. They
assure me he will be a lot better when his stomach heals and should settle down
- a bit of a contradiction but I go home and hope.
3 1/2 mths - I am totally exhausted and can
not cope at all anymore - sick of the lack of support and everybody telling me
that babies cry and I should just get over it. They all think I am a
hypochondriac. I start colouring behaviour charts showing his
screaming/crying/grizzling and sleep. I now know I am not exaggerating or
pulling things out of proportion - the charts show he is worse than I thought.
He is crying and screaming for about 18 hours out of 24. When he does sleep out
of exhaustion it will be for one or two hours only - generally throughout the
night. He rarely sleeps during daylight hours.
I ring my doctor in
desperation. I am afraid I might hurt Chris if I don't get some sleep soon and
get him sorted out. My doctor admits us to hospital. The staff take over Chris
and I get to sleep. Staff are amazed at the amount Chris screams - at first
they think it is just because he is away from me and home but I assure them he
is the same at home. His crying continues non stop even after being in hospital
over a week and in my arms a lot of the time. The doctor suggests we try the
elimination diet. We see our local dietitian. I start the diet. The dietitian
suggests we don't give Chris any solids for a while. I read somewhere that he
shouldn't get them until he is about 7 to 8 months old.
4 1/2 mths Chris is getting a lot better. He
isn't screaming near as much though is still crying a fair bit. We really
notice it when I eat anything on the no go list - we have to cope with his
screaming within 24 hours.
Chris's diarrhea is nowhere
near as constant. He is now sleeping for 4 to 5 hour blocks at night and
settling quickly after a feed and change. His body language now shows more
tiredness rather than pain symptoms when he is upset. His reflux has
disappeared.
5 1/2 mths My behaviour charts show that Chris
is improving a lot. He is now crying more than screaming. He is slowly getting
over all withdrawal symptoms of the many chemicals in the foods that I was eating
that were affecting him. I still can't get him to sleep during the day. (The
diet is not as effective as it should be because I am making salicylate
mistakes like drinking way too much lemonade and eating lots of carrots and
pumpkin - but I don't find that out for another 10 months.)
7 1/2 mths We start using management
strategies to try to get Chris to sleep during the day. Our doctor thinks he
can't sleep as he doesn't know how and is not in the habit. We succeed after a week
and now Chris is sleeping for 2 hours in the morning and afternoon. We also
introduce some solid foods. Chris's crying and grizzling improves hugely. He is
now actually appearing to be really happy sometimes.
12 mths Chris weans himself and has been on
Neocate ever since - other formulas such as soy cause instant unpleasant
reactions - back to no sleep and crying a lot.
14 mths Chris goes off all carrots and
pumpkin - makes it really hard for me to find foods to get him to eat as he
eats a huge amount of each of these. We notice a big change in Chris - he stops
grizzling altogether and is suddenly really easy to manage. He is a lot more
agreeable!! Have a look through my books and discover that pumpkin and carrot
are moderate in salicylates - I thought they were low!! No wonder he wasn't
100%. He was obviously getting too many salicylates!
19 mths Chris is now fantastic. We are
really enjoying him. He reacts to all the things avoided on the elimination
diet still so it is not much fun when we try challenges. We really pay for it -
he reacts differently with different chemicals. Salicylates, preservatives and
amines make him scream in pain and he gets diarrhea. Preservative 282 in bread
is by far the worst - within 3 hours Chris is screaming in agony and has
chronic diarrhea. When I was breastfeeding and ate 282 he would react within 12
hours. Colours make him really hyperactive, uncontrollable and he ends up
getting hurt. -
Rita's baby
We were doomed from the
start when you look back on it.
I grew up on the
I used to be a hairstylist,
but had to give it up due to reactions to colours, perms, allergy to latex
gloves and sensitivity to customers' perfumes. I also have hayfever. My husband
has asthma and seasonal allergies and his whole family has asthma.
From birth, our daughter
never slept more than 40 minutes at a time, day or night, and by the second
week she screamed most of the time. Nobody understood why she wouldn't
"just fall alseep" in her pram or her crib or the car. She was seen
by a quite a few doctors, midwives and early childcare nurses but no one did
much except to label it reflux and say it would correct itself. Tresillian
(mother and baby program) gave a different answer every time. A breastfeeding
counsellor put me on a high salicylate diet (peppermint tea, wine, licorice - for relaxation) and told me to feed her around the
clock. Needless to say she was totally out of sorts, crying all the time and
inconsolable!
Then an early childcare
nurse lent me a copy of Fed Up and sent me to a dietitian. I immediately
started on the elimination diet. My baby calmed down in the beginning, but it
wasn't a cure all. I was to the point of just eating rice, chicken and egg and
trying to keep my milk supply up to breastfeed. When my baby started losing
weight we went to RPAH and started on Neocate. It took a few weeks to wean her
but once she was feeling better she accepted it.
Once she was settled we
tried to slowly introduce foods from about 6 or 7 months. Except for a small
amount of potato and chicken she reacted terribly to everything. She would wake
all through the night screaming, refuse a nap and scream all day, refuse her
formula and food in general. She was irritable, had loose bowels several times
a day, and would be very aggressive.
I also try to stay away
from all chemicals in the house for cleaning. She has had terrible reactions to
paint fumes in the early days when I didn't realize how sensitive she was. We
were trying to renovate our house, that's on hold for a long while.
I had never heard of this
before. Allergies to nuts and things yes, but food intolerance and everything
that goes along with it, no.
- Rita Mallet, NSW
Daniel's story
From the minute Daniel was
born, he was a very unsettled baby. We went home on day three and I expected he
would improve when my milk came in. I work as a midwife, so I had some idea of
sleepless nights etc, but nothing had prepared me for a baby who screamed
constantly when awake and slept very little. My mum said I had been a very
colicky baby and my mother-in-law said my husband David had been an extremely
colicky baby - so we presumed Daniel was the same.
After three doses of
mastitis, I put Daniel on the bottle at five weeks of age. He was just as
unsettled on formula as on breast milk. He continued to have several loose
green bowel actions a day. The next day we left for the
We visited a doctor for
Daniel's immunisations and I told her of his constant screaming - she told me
it was colic and that it would improve by three months of age.
I started him on solids
early in case he was hungry (rice cereal and tinned pumpkin) and changed to a
formula for hungrier babies. He seemed better for a couple of days but then was
just as bad.
When we arrived back in
I tried making an
appointment with the paediatrician, but. being Christmas, there were none
available for another month. So we continued to battle on and tried Daniel on a
soy formula which seemed to help for a while, but then he just went back to
square one. He got worse with this feeds, arching his back. We would bang toys on
his bottle to distract him. At this stage most nights he was sleeping though
and I think that was the only way we survived. He continued to scream and
whinge all day and I'm sure he was exhausted at night and that is why he slept.
Despite all this he continued to gain weight and reach all his milestones. I
lost weight rapidly and was lighter than before falling pregnant. We
contemplated that he was just an attention-seeking baby because when we played
on the floor, or took him somewhere different, with different toys, he was
okay.
The feeding continued to
get worse so two and a half months after seeing the GP, when Daniel was six
months old I took him to a paediatrician He immediately diagnosed reflux and
oesophagitis (inflammation and ulceration of the oesophagus) and started Daniel
on Ranitidine (Zantac) which reduced the acid in the stomach, to stop the
'heartburn' type pain. I will never forget what a relief it was to get a
diagnosis; little did I know that this was only the start.
Daniel's feeds immediately
improved on the Zantac but he continued to be very irritable and whiny between
feeds. Three weeks later we started him on Prepulsid (Cisapride) which
increases the rate of the stomach emptying, but it didn't seem to make a great
deal of difference. We tried him on Nutramigen, in case he was cow's milk
intolerant. It seems to help for a couple of weeks, but then he just went back
to the old irritable Daniel.
I had become suspicious of
a few things in his diet. We went camping over Easter and I gave him a Heinz
tomato based baby food - it came out the other end looking nearly same as it
went in and Daniel was extremely unsettled all weekend. A booklet from a
support group for reflux babies mentioned avoiding acidic foods for reflux
babies so we presumed that was the reason it was upsetting him. Luckily, for
this reason, we didn't give him Kiwi fruit, oranges or fruit juice.
At eight months of age he
was still whingeing all day and throwing huge temper tantrums (head banging the
dishwasher) so our paediatrician organised a barium swallow. He also started
him on Mylanta four times a day. The first week on Mylanta he was wonderful and
that week he had the barium swallow, which was normal, much to my disgust. The
next week he was worse than ever. I stopped the Prepulsid at 12 months and
started Daniel on cow's milk, which made no difference.
At this time I went back to
work two days a weeks and left my mum to cope with Daniel - there was no way a
child care centre would have taken him. I think going back to work was the best
thing. I would come home after my two days and feel ready to cope with another
week of life with Daniel. My mum says she even dreaded him coming for the two
days sometimes.
Around this time I tried a
naturopath, masseur and chiropractor, but nothing really helped.
By fifteen months of age he
was no better. A normal day was leaving him scream to get him to have his
afternoon sleep and to settle at night. I would put him in his room several
times a day on a bad day and sit for ten minutes and try to calm myself down.
Normal daily tasks such as cooking meals and washing were all done while he
screamed.
I returned to his
paediatrician and he referred us to a gastroenterologist at the Royal
Children's Hospital in
The pH study showed 'mild'
episodes of reflux. His gastroscopy showed moderate to severe inflammation and ulceration
of his oesophagus and suggested that there may be an allergy involved. They
suggested we see the allergy department at the Royal Children's Hospital. They
put Daniel on the Neocate diet. He was only allowed Neocate formula, rice,
zucchini, apple, pear and potato. The doctor at the allergy department also
advised me that these children get into such bad behavioural problems that once
they're fed and changed you just have to leave them scream! The diet was a
disaster to say the least - to try to get an 18-month-old to drink this
formula, that you gag on yourself it's so foul tasting, was impossible. Daniel
screamed all week and was so bad by the end of the week I had to take time off
work. He was constipated from only drinking small amounts of water.
In desperation we were
referred to a surgeon about the possibility of surgical correction. He wasn't
convinced - so he sent us for a gastric emptying study, which was very
distressing for Daniel - they put a large dome over his fact and stomach. This
showed he only refluxed once. The surgeon suggested trying Losec (Omeprazol)
which stops acid production in the stomach and helps heal the oesophagus. We
started Losec - after about a month we noticed a big difference in his
behaviour - he was a much happier little boy and he actually sat and played
with toys for short periods of time - something he had never done before.
I was suspicious of food
colouring and artificial additives at this stage, as some evenings we described
Daniel as 'bouncing off the walls' he was so hyperactive. For this reason we
only let him drink plain milk and water and filled him full of 'healthy'
fruits, vegetables and cheese!
Like everything else the
effect of Losec was wearing off. Daniel was starting to complain of his 'tummy
burning' and pointing to his oesophagus. He required constant amusement and was
general a very unhappy little boy. I was finding him nearly impossible to live
with and constantly comparing myself to the other mums in playgroup and
wondering why they all got so much enjoyment out of their children.
When Daniel was around two
and a half years old I happened to got to a seminar through work on food
intolerance and allergy run the team at the
I started off by leaving
him on dairy and wheat products. After 1-2 weeks we noticed a difference in his
hyperactivity on the diet but he was still having many days of irritability and
complaining of his tummy burning. His loose bowel actions were persisting. We
stopped dairy products and put him on soy and we starting giving his Losec in
pear jam instead of yoghurt. He had watery diarrhoea for two weeks after
stopping dairy products as a withdrawal effect. Unfortunately what we didn't
know was the Losec is not absorbed properly unless given in something acidic
like yoghurt. After one month of giving the Losec in pear jam, Daniel's stomach
pain was severe.
After being unwell for
three days with a high temperature and complaining of shoulder tip pain, Daniel
was finally diagnosed at the Royal Children's Hospital with pneumonia from
aspirating on his vomit. (I had seen two other doctors who told me children
don't know where their pain is and that he had a viral infection.) The
pneumonia was in the back of his lung and was pressing on his diaphragm, which
was giving him shoulder tip pain. I have never seen Daniel so sick - we thought
he was going to die.
Again in desperation we
returned to his gastroenterologist who advise another pH study and returning to
the surgeon for fundoplication, which kinks the oesophagus to stop food
refluxing back from the stomach. He felt he might have a physical problems as
well as an intolerance, which caused hyperactivity. So when he was three,
Daniel had fundoplication. We stopped the Losec the night before surgery. The
surgery was major - four days in hospital and two days on a morphine infusion.
As soon as the morphine stopped Daniel started complaining of his stomach
burning but now he pointed to his stomach rather than his oesophagus - the
surgery had only moved the pain. We recommenced his Losec on leaving hospital.
Daniel's weight had dropped from above to below average, as we struggled to
maintain his nutrition on vitamised elimination diet.
I hit rock bottom. I was
waking at night in a sweat over what I had put him through. I rang the Royal
Prince Alfred Hospital Allergy Clinic in
At the clinic, his
behaviour chart revealed that Daniel was very high for hyperactivity and
learning problems and we were told we were dealing with severe food intolerance
and ADD. We were advised to try Daniel off pears as he is very salicylate
sensitive.
Daniel is now nearly four
and in the last month he has been consistently much better. He only tolerates
rice, potato, cabbage, beans, chicken, lamb, Nuttelex and restricted amounts of
sugar. He is still on Losec which we have increased in the last month to combat
his stomach pain. We have found he is no longer reacting as badly to perfumes
since stopping pears and maple syrup. Since stopping rice bubbles his
aggressive behaviour have ceased. He will actually sit and play with toys now,
although his concentration is poor at times. We have tried him on Ritalin but
if he's having a bad day food wise, Ritalin only makes him worse.
The last four years all
seem to blur into one big nightmare but I realise I was becoming very bitter
about the whole thing. I have resolved to look ahead only. Daniel is really a
beautiful little boy underneath all the problems he has had. I try to make the
most of the good days and not dwell on the bad days – Jenny.
More Restless Babies by
Sue Dengate Reprinted with permission from the February 2008 Australian
Breastfeeding Association’s magazine Essence.
Five years ago, when my article Restless
Babies was published in the Australian Breastfeeding Association’s magazine
Essence, I was surprised by the feedback.
Many mothers had been unaware that food additives can pass through
breastmilk to affect babies, and that food additives have been associated with
irritability, restlessness and sleep disturbance.
‘I recommended your article to a distraught mum via a breastfeeding
support bulletin board,’ wrote one breastfeeding counsellor. ‘She was shocked
to discover that tartrazine
The consumption of food additives in processed foods became widespread
in the 1960s and has increased every year since then. The more additives you
eat, the more likely you are to be affected, and the effects may be worse when
additives are consumed in combinations.
New mothers are particularly at risk. Cindy from Restless Babies knew she had to keep up her fluids while
breastfeeding so she drank up to five cans of carbonated lemon flavoured drinks
a day, each containing two additives associated with behavioural problems. Another
mother wrote, ‘my husband thought he was helping by bringing home takeaways every
night’.
The 30 minute rule
How will you know if your baby or child is affected by additives?
Research shows that if reactions don’t occur within 30 minutes, consumers don’t
make the connection. Yet reactions to additives generally occur hours or even
days later. With breastfeeding, the delay is much longer. It’s usually only by avoiding
these additives that you can see a difference.
When baby Chris Hewton from
‘I am afraid I might hurt Chris if I don’t get some sleep,’ Dani wrote
in her diary. ‘The staff take over Chris and I get to sleep. Staff are amazed
at the amount Chris screams.’ Referred by the hospital doctor to a dietitian,
Dani began an elimination diet, and Chris’ reflux and diarrhoea started to
improve. Due to mistakes, it took nearly 12 months to work out exactly which
food chemicals affected him. ‘Preservative 282 in bread is by far the worst,’
she wrote later. ‘Within 3 hours, Chris is screaming in agony and has chronic
diarrhoea. When I was breastfeeding and ate 282 he would react within 12 hours.
Colours make him really hyperactive’. As well, Chris was affected by some
natural chemicals called salicylates.
Like Dani, most mothers have never heard of salicylates, yet doctors
have reported since the 1960s and 70s that some children’s behaviour can be
affected while ‘under the influence’ of these natural pesticides in some
medications, most fruit and some vegetables. Food processing has led to an
increase not only in additives but also in our daily intake of salicylates
because, for example, there are many more salicylates in a serve of juice that
contains the equivalent of ten oranges plus peel than in one orange.
Allergy
or intolerance?
Food sensitivity runs in families.
Babies can be born with a susceptibility to food allergy, reacting to proteins
in foods such as peanuts, milk or eggs, or with an intolerance to food
chemicals such as additives and salicylates. A family history of hayfever,
eczema and asthma suggests an allergic family. Although rare, food allergy is
increasing. Mothers in allergic families are urged to delay introduction of
peanuts and other known allergens and to avoid them during late pregnancy and
breastfeeding.
‘My husband has eczema, but I had no idea this meant we were an allergic
family’, commented a mother from
Ruth’s baby also had sleeping problems. ‘We could never get her to
sleep,’ Ruth said. A family history of sleeping difficulties, migraines,
irritable bowel symptoms or ADHD suggests food intolerance. As it turned out,
Ruth’s daughter had both food allergy and food intolerance. Although laboratory
tests can confirm allergy, there are no scientifically proven tests for food
intolerance, so like Dani, Ruth was put on an elimination diet to find out what
was affecting her daughter.
How many children are
affected?
When food additives first became common, studies suggested that
only a few children were affected. However, as reactions are related to dose and doses are
increasing every year, you would expect more children to be affected and that
appears to be happening.
Last year I was invited
to take part in an additive-free trial at
‘I didn’t think I’d see a
lot of changes because they eat pretty well anyway’ said one mother who was
surprised to find her boys played much more cooperatively when she
switched from artificially colours
lollies to Werthers toffees, and from BBQ flavoured biscuits to plain crackers.
Altogether, out of the
hundreds of additives permitted in our foods, more than 50 (see box) have been
linked to a range of problems with sleeping, toilet training, bedwetting, fussy
eating, speech delay, behaviour and many other seemingly trivial childrearing issues
that can erode family quality of life. As well, there can be reflux, colic,
nappy rash and other itchy skin rashes, asthma and headaches.
All children are affected
differently and any food additive can be related to any symptom. Adults can be
affected as well, so mothers often discover a food sensitivity themselves.
A ‘50s diet
What children ate in the 1950s was low in additives – porridge,
preservative free bread, pure butter, fresh fruit and vegetables, home cooked ‘meat
and three veg’, plain biscuits such as butter shortbread, water or milk to
drink. There’s an additive free recipe booklet on our website with this kind of
food and many families can see an improvement by cutting down on additives.
‘Since getting your DVD and booklet, we have been amazed at the level of
additives and preservatives in nearly everything we fed to the kids’, wrote one
father. ‘After we started to remove the nasties from our 4 year old son’s we
saw an immediate difference in his behaviour.’
A smaller number of families are sensitive to salicylates. For best
results with the most sensitive babies, mothers can do a trial of an
elimination diet supervised by a dietitian, although it is important to check
with your doctor first in case there is medical cause of your baby’s problems. Ruth’s
baby was five months old when she started on her elimination diet. ‘Within a
couple of days there was a total change’, said Ruth. ‘It was quite miraculous.
Her eczema cleared up, she was settled and she was sleeping well’.
More information
Food allergy: www.allergyfacts.org.au
Food intolerance: www.fedup.com.au.
A list of supportive dietitians is available from confoodnet@ozemail.com.au.
Sue’s new
DVD, Fed Up with Children’s Behaviour,
is available through www.fedup.com.au,
from Angus and Robertson bookstores and selected outlets. The Failsafe recipe booklet is freely downloadable from the
Fed Up website.
About the author
Sue
Dengate is a psychology graduate and former high school teacher who became
interested in the effects of foods on children’s behaviour as a result of her
own children’s experiences. She is author of the Fed Up series of books and
runs the Food Intolerance Network with her husband Dr Howard Dengate, a food
scientist.
|
NASTY ADDITIVES ARTIFICIAL COLOURS 102 tartrazine, 104 quinoline yellow, 107 yellow 2G, 110 sunset
yellow, 122 azorubine, 123 amaranth, 124 ponceau red, 127 erythrosine, 128 red 2G, 129 allura
red, 132 indigotine, 133 brilliant blue, 142 green S, 151 brilliant black, 155 chocolate
brown NATURAL COLOUR 160b annatto PRESERVATIVES - sulphite preservatives are most associated
with asthma 200-203 sorbates (in
margarine, dips, cakes, fruit products) 210-213 benzoates (in
juices, soft drinks, cordials, syrups) 220-228 sulphites (in dried
fruit, fruit drinks, sausages, and others) 280-283 propionates (in bread,
crumpets, bakery products) 249-252 nitrates, nitrites (in
processed meats like ham) ANTIOXIDANTS - synthetic antioxidants in vegetable oils
and margarines 310-312 Gallates 319-320 TBHQ, BHA, BHT FLAVOUR ENHANCERS 621 MSG (in tasty foods, fast foods, snack
foods) 627, 631, 635 disodium
inosinate, disodium guanylate, ribonucleotides (can be associated with itchy skin
rashes) HVP hydrolysed
vegetable protein, vegetable protein, yeast extract ADDED FLAVOURS There are thousands of artificial flavours which
don’t have to be identified by number because they are considered to be trade
secrets. Flavours may contain unlisted artificial colours and preservatives. |
References
1. Bateman B, Warner JO, Hutchinson
E, Dean T, Rowlandson P, Gant C, et al. The effects of a double blind, placebo
controlled, artificial food colourings and benzoate preservative challenge on
hyperactivity in a general population sample of preschool children. Arch Dis
Child 2004;89(6):506-11.
2. Clarke L, McQueen J, Samild A,
Swain A. The dietary management of food allergy and food intolerance in
children and adults. Australian Journal of Nutrition and Dietetics
1996;53(3):89-94.
3. Dengate S, Ruben A. Controlled
trial of cumulative behavioural effects of a common bread preservative. J
Paediatr Child Health 2002;38(4):373-6.
4. Lau K, McLean WG, Williams DP,
Howard CV. Synergistic interactions between commonly used food additives in a
developmental neurotoxicity test. Toxicol Sci 2006;90(1):178-87.
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