Sunday, 11 November 2012

Could food additives really cause this?

Hang in there Harry...

Harry had an exceptionally bad week. To start off with, he was mucking around with his older brother and copped a foot to the face, which resulted in a chipped front tooth and subsequently a trip to the dentist. Then he had a head-on collision with his younger brother and ended up with a black eye.

But to top it off, he experienced a severe asthma attack in the middle of the night which meant a rushed trip to the hospital via ambulance (and of course Mark just happened to be on the other side of the country) which made it all the more stressful.

Now Harry does not normally suffer from asthma, but I think I may have found out the cause. Earlier that same day, he was at Kindy and the kids were all given icy poles after completing a short walk-a-thon. Now most people wouldn't have given this a second thought, but I cringed as I know these "treats" include questionable food additives amongst their list of ingredients.

Cola flavoured icy poles include the additive 150d (or Caramel IV) which gives them their dark brown appearance. This particular additive may be GM, prepared from carbohydrates, sulphites and ammonium compounds. It's potential effects, amongst others, is Asthma and is actually prohibited in foods for infants. I am making an educated guess that Harry may be sensitive to sulphites.

If you have a child who is prone to getting Asthma-like symptoms, you might also want to try avoiding foods that contain sulphites and sulphite derivatives by avoiding foods that contain listed ingredients in the range 220-228 as well as all artificial colours and flavours. You can find out more info about food additives and Asthma here.

Now on a more positive note, all those delicious stone fruits are slowly coming into season, so the other day a grabbed some nectarines and made this delicious Nectarine and Raspberry Tart. Just what I needed to sweeten up my week!


  1. Oh dear!
    I hope that Harry is doing well.
    I can say from experience than there is nothing scarier and more heart wrenchingly sad than seeing your child in hospital hooked up to IVs and monitors.

    This story only reconfirms my feeling that food additives should be avoided at all costs.
    Really who wants to eat ammonium?

    And you must do a recipe post with the recipes for all the tasty treats you have been posting about lately!

    I hope that you and Harry have a better week this week!

  2. Oh no! Hope he's ok! Thinking of you! X

  3. Poor Harry! Hope is on the mend. Poor you too! What on earth do you do with the other 3 when you are in the ambulance with one? I hope you have lots of family help. Good on you too for being so onto the diet with the asthma, much better to exclude the crap than to add more drugs. My kids are highly sensitive to additives, both to benzoates-makes them FERAL and certain things make them wet the bed. It is so noticable as they are on a pretty careful diet as they are both salicylate intolerant so I cook most food at home. mel x

  4. Oh Caroline - what a dreadful week, at least there have been three incidents so they should stop now. Your poor little puss looks so sad in the photos, I hope some of your yummy cake cheered him up. Fingers crossed this week is gentle on you.

    1. Thank you for your kind words - he is all better now. xx

  5. Poor Harry. If you are on Facebook and interested, I started a group called food for thought which is for sharing ideas in regards to additives,it's sn open group, we would love your input if you are interested. (no offense at all if not! )

    1. Hi, Can you give me more details of your FB group? I don't really use it, but I'll have a quick look. xx