What's up with allergies: Food Dyes and Benadryl

This little cutie (who's opening that scooter she worked so hard for!) can't handle food dyes. Her little system is sooooo sensitive.

About a month ago, she had a slight head cold. The drainage was causing her to cough at night so the night before we were leaving on a trip we gave her some regular Benadryl. You know, the "safe" drug. I hadn't given it to her in ages, but thought it would help.

Within an hour or an hour-and-a-half, she was vomiting. It was her classic allergy response. Her response is waking up with an upset stomach and stomach pain, having a massive trucker burp, and then throwing everything up from her toes with massive burps. As soon as we hear the burp, we know to start running to the bathroom. 9 times out of 10 we make it!

We were scratching our heads about the vomit. We didn't think she'd been exposed to allergen, but couldn't swear to it. We were up late with her and had to get up at 4:30am for our flight so, honestly, we just went into auto-pilot. However, several days later when we were in Texas she was still coughing at night. We decided we all needed sleep, stopped by the store, and picked up some more Benadryl.

Within an 45 minutes, her stomach was hurting to the point we could see something was wrong. Within an hour, she was burping and puking. We know without a shadow of a doubt that on that day she'd not had any allergens. Since the two times she'd been given Benadryl she'd puked, we put two-and-two together and started researching the drug.

There are lots of ingredients in it that are questionable (to me) for children. First on my personal list (for my daughter) is food dye. Due to the type of diet she's on and the food changes we've made, my little girl hasn't consumed a food dye in over a year-and-a-half. Is she intolerant because she hasn't been exposed or has she not been exposed because she's intolerant. Don't know.

Second on my personal list is the artificial sweetener in it. I can't stand artificial sweeteners so I really have little patience for it in a child's drug. Again, my daughter hasn't had an artificial sweetener in over a year-and-a-half.

All the other inactive ingredients vary by brand, but I'd bet you'd be surprised what the ingredient is if you Google it.

Next week, I'll continue my discussion of food dyes. How many food dyes are in your house? Have you really looked? Before next week, try to take a peak and see what's really in your pantry!