Dietary changes and kid funny

We decided to make some dietary changes as a family as we've begun the new year. Some synthetic food additives can have serious learning, behavior, and/or health effects for sensitive people. So, we are following the Feingold Program, which is a test to determine if certain foods or food additives are triggering particular symptoms. This program has two stages, the first of which is more restrictive to allow for a "detox" of sorts. The main things we are focusing on eliminating are artificial colors, flavors and preservatives.

Anyway, we pretty much eliminated artificial colors back in October -- and it hasn't always been easy, especially for our children, to understand why some of the foods we used to eat aren't okay anymore. We've been trying to keep our focus on what we CAN eat rather than what we CAN'T -- although over the holidays, that was a challenge! But I've found some places to order things like candy canes and lollipops online that are colored with natural food coloring -- spinach for green, beets for red, etc. We tell the kids that these are "God's colors" so they are okay to eat.

Jaden has struggled with the adjustment at times, but I think he's finally internalized the difference between "bad colors" and "God's colors". Yesterday he was telling me about a dream he had: We were at the grocery store and there was a drink stand that sold green drinks. He wanted to get a drink, but the stand had closed by the time he got to it, so he couldn't get a drink.

As he was telling me this story, I could tell that he was still so disappointed that he hadn't been able to get a drink in his dream. I joked that it was just as well because the drinks were green. He looked up at me and said, "But Mommy, these were green drinks with no artificials!" So even in his dreams he has found Feingold-approved alternatives! =)