The Dye Debacle

We experienced a Christmas miracle.  For the last three weeks, Asher has not experienced a single allergy symptom.  No sneezing, no sniffling, no snorting.  No red eyes, no weird rashes, no low grade fevers.  Of course we couldn't pin down exactly what the solution had been, because we left our normal environment at the same time that we cut back on his food exposures (no bananas, rice cereal, foods with preservatives or dyes).  But honestly, my thought was, "Who cares? He's better!".

But last night Asher broke out in a rash.  Because we were putting him down to bed soon and wouldn't be able to keep an eye on the reaction, we gave him a dose of benadryl.  This morning when Asher woke up, he was snorting and sneezing, just like he had been for the two months before we left town for the holidays.

Now it's possible that the return of the sniffles is related to whatever caused the rash, but something else crossed my mind for the first time.  What was the one other thing that we had reintroduced?  Benadryl.  Hear me out.  When Asher first got sick around Halloween, the doctors suspected for a long time that it was seasonal allergies and were having us give him benadryl during the day.  Then they thought he had a sinus infection and had us give him benadryl at night to 'dry him out'.  Bottom line, up until the beginning of December, this kid was getting benadryl fairly regularly, and his symptoms didn't get better; in fact they got worse.  Do I think Asher is allergic to benadryl?  No.  What I'm kicking myself about is that we bought the brand name, regular ol' bottle.  When we buy motrin and tylenol, we only buy dye-free, but for some reason we didn't take that same precaution with the benadryl...

What's the big deal?  If it's something you're giving to a baby, it has to be safe right?  Maybe.  Here's my beef with benadryl: under inactive ingredients we've got gems like D&C red no. 33, FD&C red no. 40, and "flavors".

I'm going to focus on my biggest concern here:  D&C Red 33.   The FDA has approved this dye for use in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics (it is not approved for cosmetic use around the eyes), but not food. This is a synthetic dye produced from petroleum or coal tar. Coal tar colors can contain heavy metal impurities such as arsenic and lead, and  impurities found in commercial batches of D&C Red 33 have been shown to cause cancer when ingested.

Does it make sense to you that this toxic substance, that is not safe enough to be approved for consumption by adults, can go into medicine that babies will drink?  Because it doesn't make sense to me.

So the benadryl is in the trash. We will see what happens with our little Snortosaurus Rex over the next few days. We have an appointment with a pediatric allergist at the University on the 21st, fingers crossed they have all the answers.


Information on Dyes
http://www.fda.gov/forindustry/coloradditives/coloradditiveinventories/ucm106626.htm
http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/ingredient/701803/D%26C_RED_33/
http://www.preventcancer.com/consumers/cosmetics/cosmetics_personal_care.htm
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelhennessey/2012/08/27/living-in-color-the-potential-dangers-of-artificial-dyes/