My son often has a rash on the side of his face. We notice it to be there most commonly when we give him his decongestant (sudefed liquid or pill). He has a lot of allergy problems and takes them often. This week this rash has spread to around his mouth and is more prevelant. He has been eating christmas oreo cookies a lot lately. I'm beginning to wonder if he has a food allergy to red dyes. Maybe if we cut out the red dyes as much as possible then he wouldn't need the decongestant?
He is a rather healthy eater, prefering fresh fruits and veggies over other things. He doesn't drink pop, but likes gatorade. Typically he drinks organe juice, milk or water. We have also been packing him more lunchables lately verses other foods but just out of convience. I can easily go back the other way and am out of lunchables so just might with the next shopping trip.
Anyways, anyone else out there with red food dye allergy? Any suggestions you can give to me on food I can feed him to see if this can go away? I will call the doc. monday for an appointment/request to see the allergist but I'm sure it will be weeks before we can get in to see him. I have already discussed with my son about watching what he eats that is red. I know red dye is in more than just red things, but educating him helps sooooo much.
On a side note, ketchup does not bother him at all that we have noticed. He eats it almost daily and taking that away from him will prevent him from eating all meats on this planet.
Elemenating red dye #40 this weekend and the rash is gone entirely for the first time in a long time. Educated him on paying attention to foods that are obviously red and not veggie based (as tomatoes don't seem to cause an issue, he did have those this weekend). He was with other people all weekend and he stuck to it all by himself! :) I called the allergist this morning and got an appointment for the beginning of Januarary. Unfortunately he has to go 7 days without his zyrtec and benadrly and sudefed :( :( :( Boo on 7 days without sleep! Thank you all for the advice and suggestions. I hope he does grow out of this!
K.,
I was going to say that this same thing happened to me as a kid. It was tomatoes.
You could try the offender in the inside of his elbow and see if you get a reaction, but even if you do, you should see an allergist.
M.
I have a red dye allergy, which caused me to be very hyperactive as a child, get rashes and hives. Actually my mother avoided all dyes with me.
Dyes in medication can be the worse - still as an adult, I can't tolerate dyes in medicine.
Ketchup is ok- it shouldn't contain dye.
In addition to dyes, you should also try to avoid as many perservatives as possible.
My son unfortunately appears to have my allergies. He has suffered from eczema, and it has been irritated by foods. For example, when I gave her Gerber Puffs, he developed a horrible rash.
Luckily my mother found a wonderful allergist when I was little, that discovered this, however most doctors I have encountered throughout life, look at me like I'm crazy when I explain that I have a dye allergy and ask what color the pill is that they are prescribing!
The best thing to do is to cut out anything with dyes and/or perservatives from his diet, and sees if the rash clears up. You can then try adding items back, one at a time and see if he reacts, so you know for sure what is causing the problem.
Hi K.,
I had the same thing as Martha. I eventually outgrew it.
If the rash is just on one side of his face, try to figure out what is happening on that side as opposed to the other.
Good luck!
K. Z.
there are mnany different reasons for a rash there.you really should get him to a dr.in the meantime he could have a couple of different types of rashes and a little oatmeal soap will help.if he has allergies already it could be eczema and may not go away
I have suspected that my older son has issues with dyes. I get dye-free Tylonal and Benedryl (Waldryl from Walgrees is cheaper and they have a dye-free one as well).
You can easily get natural ketchup if you need to (check Whole Foods) or even make your own!
There's also a lot of dye in yogurts, so start getting plain or vanilla yogurt and adding fruit. I get a large tub of plain so there's no added sugar. I dump it in a larger container, add vanilla extract, and then a thawed bag of frozen mixed fruit. If he doesn't eat yogurt often, you can then freeze it in smaller portions and get it out the night before you will feed it to him to thaw in the fridge.
Good Luck:)
My daughter had this problem and even foods like pizza and spaghetti would make her face break out. She's almost 7 now and we no longer have a problem but I did my best when she was younger to eliminate the red dyes wherever I could and it really helped a lot. it's easy enough to do and can't hurt so it's certainly worth a try.
Hi K.,
My son has an intolerance to Red Dye #40. Don't be surprised if the allergist isn't so gung ho on this idea. Many allergist will only go by what they can see on a scratch test. It made my son very hyper-active and unfocused. He had brain fog basically. And if he had red dye combined with artificial sweetner the results were off of the charts. My advise is to eliminate and see. Any food containing red dye is not needed for healthy eating. Follow your instincts as his mother.
I have two children with red dye issues. I also have one with hydrogenated oil issues. Like yours, they were great most of the time, but when they got the offending additive, it was like someone had flipped a switch on their behavior. They didn't have any self control and they got very mean. Removing the dye and hydrogenated oils made a huge difference.
