When Children go Crazy, What do you Blame?

[cathy79]

My eldest is 4.5 and (although I'm biased) is a great little girl.  She started sleeping through at 6 weeks and has done so ever since.  Many (okay most) parents are jealous of this.

But on two occasions, we've had terrible nights.  And I believe that both are linked to food.  The first was when she was about 2 and we went to a BBQ.  She ate about 3 Twisties, the first time she'd ever had anything like that before.  That night she woke up every hour screaming.  We'd settle her down in about 10 minutes, and the same thing continued all night.

Last week we went to a coffee shop and bought her a chocolate fudge cookie.  You know the ones in the glass jars that have been mass produced but somehow have a homemade price tag.  I had a little piece, and although edible, it tasted fake.  Well the same thing happened.  Up every hour screaming etc.

It's fascinating that an innocent biscuit could do this.  Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions, but if this has only happened twice in 4.5 years, what do you think?  What sends your kids (or yourself) crazy?  After all, this is why I (and probably most parents on this forum) are taking back control over what our family eats!

[cookie1]

I tend to agree with you. NOt all children seem to be affected by food but I have taught children who have been uncontrollable after lunch. When you ask what they have eaten it always has had specific food additives. One particluar little boy was affected so badly we would often have to send him home.
The friends I had round for lunch yesterday remarked how fresh the food from the TMX tasted compared to other food. They all commented on the naturalness (??) of the food I'd made.

[judydawn]

My GD went ballistic when given some fairy floss at the Royal Show when she was 3 - started belting her mother and throwing things at her. Never again has she been allowed to touch the stuff.

[Thermomixer]

Oh, this does not look good - how's that brat going JD?      Best cover my eyes when it gets to this thread 

[judydawn]

He's so full on Thermomixer but we are coping.  Plenty of walks - is quiet in the pusher Woke us at 6am and when DD phoned from Sydney she said I could have let him cry for a while as he would have gone back to sleep when he realised no-one was coming to get him up.  May try that tomorrow morning. Noisy little fella, not quiet like we are How young mums manage to find time to do anything amazes me although I must have done when I was a mum to my two a hundred years ago. Thank goodness for a full freezer of cooked food or we wouldn't be eating much ourselves. As it is, we have lunch when he goes down for his afternoon nap and tea after he goes to bed at 7pm - couldn't enjoy a meal with him around   My back is the only thing that is suffering at this stage and he seems quite happy here. Thanks for asking about the little 'brat' 

[cookie1]

TMXer you have all this to look forward to.

[Thermomixer]

MollyG - is there still room in Qld? 

Hang in there JD - you've done it once - it'll all come flooding back. 

[Very Happy Jan]

JD -Just when you are the tiredest you have ever felt and not sure how you will continue to cope he will give you the biggest hug and your strength  miraculously  return.

[gertbysea]

Keep that bottle in the bedside table Judy and have a nanna nap

Gretchen

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

You are doing a great job JD. It is hard on your back.  I know my Mum really feels it when she looks after our boys for us. Twisting to put them into carseats is the worst.

Cathy - A friend who is a dietician told me that the yellow food colouring is far worse than the red.  Things like twisties and cheezles can seriously affect children's behaviour. There may be a link in the food additives and your daughters unsettled nights or it could also be other unsettling things. Night terrors are reasonably common in young children and are often followed by upset/crying at the end of each sleep cycle that follows for the remainder of the night.  These can happen often, once or twice during childhood, or not at all.  Things like overheating (with bedding etc), stress or a slight rise in body temperature (with a mild virus) can also make for an extremely unsettled night.

P.S - I am so jealous.  My youngest son had a sleep disorder and we had months where he was not able to sleep beyond one sleep cycle day or night. He would be fully awake after 37 minutes sleep.  People wonder why we aren't having any more . . . . 

[judydawn]

Thanks for the encouraging words everyone - at least he goes down without any problems at all.  Peace, perfect peace

[MollyGrubbles]

Thermomixer - always plenty of room 

JD - I can sympathise.  My son was the worst sleeper.  He used to cry on & off (but lots) from 5pm to 10pm.  He woke usually at least every hour through the first night for many months & didn't start sleeping through consistently until after his 2nd birthday.  If he woke at 3am I could usually get him back to sleep.  If he woke at 4am we were in for exactly 1hour & 10 minutes of screaming & if he woke at 5 or later that meant he was up for the day. (sometimes he would do all three).

We found blue food colouring was the worst (lots of white lollies - particularly minties - have blue colouring to make them look more white - go figure).  Sunset Yellow was really bad too & red was not much better.  Green was OK, but only if it was made up of green food colouring & not a mixture of blue & yellow (because that was REALLY bad).

When he was quite little, he developed this bad cough.  I got a cough mixture from the pharmacy (might have been prescription) especially for little babies.  I think it was called Paedamin or something like that.  Anyway, his cough became chronic and at the advice of either the doctor or pharmacist (can't remember which) I kept him on the cough mixture.  Once he turned 6 months old, I swapped him over to colour free demazin.  Almost overnight his cough disappeared.  I read the label on the other stuff & it had pretty much every nasty colour known to man in it & it was this horrible disgusting greeny brown colour so why they bothered I don't know.  Also the taste was absolutely revolting.

From experience, I know that minties and twisties are two particularly bad foods for colour sensitive children.

[riv_mum]

Sue dengate says that recations to colours, flavours, salycilates, msg etc can take a couple of days to appear so it may be something that was eaten earlier than that day
I found that my kids react the worst to MSG, which we discovered via the elimination diet. Which is actually harder to eliminate than most of the colours and flavours.

[cathy79]

This is all very interesting, and it amazes me how many people still don't consider food as a possible problem.  I also know a couple of people who pass all the allergy tests no problems, but still react badly to things.  Sometimes we're our own best doctors because we know our "normal" better than any one else.

[brazen20au]

i know for sure that food affect my oldest, and myself, and ai suspect it also affects the youngest. not sure about middle dd, she is much less susceptible to anything and everything than the rest of us