Who Knew?

I am blogging right now while my girlies sleep. We have a fun church activity later this evening, so I am hoping they both get the rest that they need.

About three weeks ago, I noticed some weird behavior from Ava. She was having a hard time getting to sleep for her nap and was waking fairly regularly during the night with night terrors. In the past, we have not had any problems with sleep. My kids are very good sleepers and nappers. We just don't have problems in that area. 

Jeremy suggested that she might be ready to outgrow her nap. I pulled out several of my sleeps books and read up on the subject. Statistically, most children do not outgrow naps until age 3.5-4. I had a really hard time believing that my 2 year old, who has always been right on target as far as the norm, would all of a sudden be ready to give up her nap that she so desperately needs. I just didn't buy it.

I started to think that it was her 2 year molars breaking through the gums. I started medicating her at night with Tylenol for pain relief and Orajel for numbness. That still did not do the trick.

So then I asked myself the one question that I knew Ava's pediatrician would ask if I was to take her in: "Have you done anything differently with her diet?" (Diet always makes a big difference) I started thinking about it and realized that, yes, I had done several things different. Ava's favorite flavor of anything is strawberry, so I had bought some strawberry flavored pop tarts, strawberry flavored nutri grain bars, strawberry flavored water drops, and sugar free strawberry jam. Yes, I know. Strawberry overload. The Nutri-Grain bars were for breakfast, the pop tarts were for snacks, the water drops were to add flavoring to her water because we don't drink juice, and the jam was for her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. (And yes, I throw meat, veggies, and fruit into the mix)

I remembered a friend from church say that her son was allergic to blue food dye. His allergy was not one that caused breathing problems, it was one that caused hyperactivity and restlessness (the same symptoms that I was seeing in Ava) I decided to take a look at all of Ava's new foods and see what they all had in common. Do you want to know what I found? Red 40. In every last one of the foods that she was eating. I am not certain, but I believe that the number indicates the saturation of the dye. I will google it and find out. 

So, I decided to put all those foods away and try a little home experiment. I took her off of all the foods with the red 40 dye and replaced it with more natural foods (foods that she should have been eating all along, I just slacked off) I could tell a MAJOR improvement on day 1 of my little experiment. She took her nap with no problem whatsoever. It was the same with day 2 and day 3.

Then last night, we took our family out to eat at the Shrimp Basket. It is absolutely Ava's favorite place to go. She pretends to go to the Shrimp Basket when we are at home. And she asks for it whenever we leave the house for anything. I think it is so funny that she has a favorite :) Back to my story, though! I ordered her the child's shrimp basket (also her favorite) with cocktail sauce and ketchup (also faves) I wasn't even thinking about the red dye in either of those two things! She ate and we had a great evening. Fast forward to 3:00 a.m. Ava woke up screaming with another night terror. She laid in our bed this morning for an hour and a half bouncing off the walls. I think I have found my answer!

I am not ready to call this a food allergy. I will just call it a sensitivity. Either way, I am not going to give red 40 to her. Jeremy wants to have her tested, but I am a little resistant to spend money on proving something that I have already seen evidence of at home. But, since he is the leader and guider of our home, I will defer to him. This is something that will change the rest of her life and how she eats, so I guess I can understand why he wants a definite answer.

With all that being said, let me list a sample menu of what Ava's diet has looked like for the past few day:

Breakfast: Eggs and bacon or Peanut butter and honey toast (on low carb bread) and milk

Snack: Pretzels or baked pita crisps and ice water (it has to have the ice in it for Ava to drink it)

Lunch: Grilled chicken nuggets or Fish sticks with green beans, peas, or corn and ice water

Snack: Pretzels or baked pita crisps and ice water

Dinner: Fried chicken strips with Ranch dip (she has to have her ranch) with a vegetable and milk

I can tell that this diet has really made a difference. I am going to start adding more fresh fruit to her diet and see if that also helps.

I know from my education, that one of the first things a (good) doctor would do before prescribing ADHD medicine to a child is ask the parent to change the diet. I am very hesitant to give a child ADHD medicine just to make the hyperactivity go away. Since I am planning on homeschooling, I wouldn't give it to my kids anyway. There are too many side effects. So, hopefully, this will work for us.

To the Ava of the future who will one day be reading this: don't eat foods with red food dye in them! Don't even try it! :)