Last night something happened that hasn't in a very long time. We left a restaurant.
Now mind you, every time we go to a restaurant it is an adventure. I am envious when I glance around the room seeing other families where their kids are sitting quietly and everyone is enjoying their dinner, as my son is usually either laying on the floor, bothering the people around us, or bolting for the restroom. Obviously we have to eat out occasionally for my own sanity. My husband and I have just gotten used to our restaurant escapades.
It has to be pretty bad for us to actually leave.
So the plan for last night was this...
- Pick up Jacob from school
- Do 1/2 hour of study time and homework
- Dad gets home from work
- Leave for baby sister's first dance class
- Watch baby sister dance
- Enjoy a nice relaxing meal at a family chain restaurant that happened to be offering kids eat free
- Come home and get ready for bed
All was going great. Sure, Jacob was a little excited about the dance class, which means he was asking a million questions while I was trying to bring up my confirmation email on my phone to prove that we had indeed signed the baby girl up and paid ahead of time, because they did not have any information on us. So yes, things were slightly crazy as Jacob was interrupting me during my conversation with the gal at the desk all the while little girls in tutus fluttered around us in the much too hot room.
We figured out where we were to be, and headed to the dance studio, searching out the "Butterfly Room". After descending the stairs, we located the Butterfly Room for three year olds. As we opened the door, we were greeted by about twenty adults and the same number of littles smooshed into a room the size of a closet.
Ahh...the plan was beginning to unravel.
This teeny tiny closet was the waiting or viewing room. All the little girls shuffled into the dance studio room while the adults remained in the itty bitty space. I knew this room would be too much for Jacob, and I suggested to my husband that they go run a few errands.
He obliged, and for the next forty minutes I took turns with the other parents in the un-airconditioned closet, trying to spy through the small mirrored window to get a peek of the baby girl. If you looked sideways you could almost see her twirling in her pink tutu skirt.
Just on time, Jacob returned, and in typical Jacob fanfare, he somehow made his way politely yet in a manner no one would question, to the little window. After taking a peek, he announced, "They are done!" and opened the door despite my objection.
But all was ok, as the instructor was at the door dismissing the little girls and handing each a dum dum sucker from an overflowing basket. As the instructor paraded around the room with her basket of goodies, she made her way over to the baby girl who quietly accepted the sucker from her hand.
And then there came Jacob, "I want a sucker!" and instead of waiting grabbed one from the basket.
Before I could protest his rudeness, it was already in his mouth and the instructor had moved on. I decided to let it go, not wanting to start a scene and instead moved on to engaging the baby girl trying to get every detail about her first dance class.
We made our way to the van, where my husband was waiting, and began the short probably half mile ride to the restaurant. It was 7:30 and we were all starving at this point.
Once parked, Jacob bounded out of the van, and began dancing on the sidewalk showing us the new moves he had learned at school that day during a movement break. He was talking fast and very excited, and it should have all been a sign or a clue, but I didn't catch it.
At the door I told Jacob before entering that he needed to stop dancing and he assured me he would.
Once in the restaurant, it was as if everyone else was standing still. Instantly Jacob was everywhere! Pacing, talking, moving, running...and we hadn't even been seated yet. The hostess brought us to our table and while we sat, I noticed Jacob was over trying to talk to an employee and pointing to the TV. Yes, that's my son. He won't hesitate to take it upon himself to solve a problem. He wanted to watch the baseball game and it wasn't on. Who cares if we just got there and the TVs had on the football game, Jacob wanted baseball!
He made his way back over to us, and instead of sitting he is standing and talking in the aisle, pacing and moving.
"Jacob, calm down." "Jacob, relax." "Jacob, sit down please."
Over and over my husband and I repeated these words trying to get him to sit. When he did finally sit beside me, I placed my hand on his back. His heart was racing! I began to rub his back in circles in an attempt to relax him. But no luck.
I gave up, and instead tried to focus on the menu, but it was impossible. Jacob was bouncing. I mean bouncing so high that his bottom was coming about a foot off the seat cushion of our booth. As much as I tried to distract him with his Nintendo DS, or the baseball game now playing above us, he continued to bounce, only stopping to stand and loudly cheer on his team clapping his hands and yelling "Woooo Hoooo!"
I looked to my husband, "What is going on?"
Jacob kept right on bouncing, and in between would stand, pace, sit, bounce, all the while being in all the servers ways. Somehow we ordered drinks, but I couldn't even read the menu.
"Should we just go?" I asked my husband.
"NOOOOOOOoooooo...." came a wail from Jacob.
"YES!"
We hunted down our server, asked what we owed for the drinks we had ordered yet barely even touched, and left.
I admit I was frustrated, hungry, and tired. It was close to 8:00 and we hadn't eaten yet, and my kids should have been heading to bed shortly. My patience was thin, as I responded to Jacob's repeated question of "Why did we have to leave?" My husband was the patient one with Jacob as he reminded me to calm down myself.
Instead we rolled into a sandwich shop, and while my husband and Jacob went inside, I went over everything that Jacob had eaten trying to figure out what caused this spike in hyper behavior. It's always something, yet I came up with nothing.
It wasn't until this morning that it hit me.
Duh!
I quickly got my smartphone, and googled "Dum Dum suckers that have red dye."
Sure enough. There are only 5 dum dum suckers out of the 400 potential flavors that do not have red dye. FIVE! That means even lemon has red dye!
Flavors that do not contain red coloring: Blu Raspberr (blue), Sour Apple (green), Cream Soda (no color), Cotton Candy (light blue), and Blueberry (blue).Holy cow! It was the Root Beer Sucker! How dumb could I be.
For those of you that don't believe that Red Dye #40 can cause such a drastic chance in behavior, I really wish you could have been there to witness it last night. It was undeniable.
Yep, the Red Dye bandit strikes again.
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Want more information about Red Dye #40? Here are some excellent links.
Side Effects (They go way beyond hyperactivity)
A Little History
In The News
Still not convinced? Just Google "Red Dye #40 Side Effects" and the over 20,000 pages may convince you.
The first thing our doctor said to do when Jacob was diagnosed was to eliminate Red Dye #40. Thankfully we were already doing that, and have now been Red Dye free for close to three years. But it isn't easy, as you can see because it is in everything, and every once in a while it slips in without notice.
So I challenge you to read the labels and notice the difference.
