Did you deal with a Halloween Hangover?

I have returned to share something I have learned and what is on my heart I feel compelled to share with you. The few days fallowing Halloween I saw so many posts on Facebook of my friends who's children were having hard days (meltdowns ect.) I call it Halloween Hangover. I am just giving my opinion here... I have found that we need to stay away from foods with Red 40 or Yellow 5 dyes. I had heard that once or twice before but never paid much attention to it (as with most things about health and food) but once we decided to make a change in our life, first to lose weight, then it became to get  healthy, and now it has progressed to getting healthy from the inside out. All of these changes our boys have gone through with us. Nick however has always been busy, and sometimes hyperactive. If I had him tested for ADD or ADHD he would probably be lumped in with the growing number of children who carry that label. I did not want that for him nor did I want to drug him to reign the busy in... I did not want to change his happy spirit. So I have been looking to help him naturally. I have a wonderful friend and church member who introduced me to essential oils and the combinations that could help Nick. They did help but he still found it hard to focus in school and sometimes it's like is brain is going so much faster than his mouth or his body. He would tend to be very emotional, he could have highs, lows. Also meltdowns, how can any of us (parents) forget meltdowns as we wonder what thing has possessed our sweet and loving children?  Part of the problem I believe (very strongly I might add) that these dyes that they are putting in our food are a big part of the culprit for some of the issues with our kids today. Please take a few minutes to read this article. What the mom observed from her daughter sound just like Nick and what he has gone through. I breaks my heart that they have to go through that and most of the time no-one knows why. They just want to label them and give them RX with bad side effects. It is like putting a band aid on the issue and not really get down and dirty and try to find out why it is happening. Okay enough of my soap box for now, please read.

http://www.allergykids.com/blog/seeing-red/

I would be doing you a dis-service if I didn't tell you this also. I was in the shower just the other day and thought to myself I wonder if it is in shampoo? Guess what?! Sure enough there it was RED 40. Just what I didn't want to see. It's in everything friends, read your labels. It is an easy enough fix with the shampoo. (I had some that had no dyes in it that he could use) The Halloween candy is another matter all together...I threw away about 75% of Nick's and Jared's candy. I know it seems harsh, but I did replace it with some other candy that is dye free! So it can be done. It might be harder with littler ones, there might be meltdowns as you fade those dyes out. But if you stay strong and don't give in it will get better, much better. I have noticed such a BIG change in Nick, that I could not in good conscience share with my friends to help them and their precious ones. Till next time.