Our AhHa Moment

I remember the day we figured out Red Dye #40 was causing our toddler son to throw up. My husband Greg looked at the two children's motrin bottles sitting on our counter and said, "what if one of them is spoiled?" We began to go over the events of the last few weeks and did in fact link his getting sick to one bottle of the medicine and not the other. How strange! The scientist in me began to examine the two bottles of medicine we were instructed to give our son for teething pain. I checked the date and it was not due to expire for many more years, thanks to a heavy dose of sugar and preservatives. One bottle was an orange color the other white, so I compared the ingredients. Two ingredients were found in the bottle making him sick that were not in the other. Red Dye #40 and casein...the research began. I found information relating to both and at first his symptoms seemed to mimic those of a casein intolerance. Then I got thinking about how many things have casein in them that he consumes and does not get sick. Red Dye #40 on the other hand was a relatively rare item in our home...or so I thought. Now I know it is in so many processed foods, even white ones like frosting! Thankfully Carter was only 2 at the time, so had not experienced many of the foods containing the dye. Sure enough our suspicions were confirmed when Carter got sick after consuming a food with Red Dye #40.