Food Dye Affecting Kids Behavior

Teacher Pam asked me yesterday if we could have a parent teacher conference. Apparently Mason is acting out, not listening and is falling behind. She briefly suggested trying some dietary changes. She said sugar is not the first thing to eliminate but rather red dye. So I did a little looking online and there was an article in yesterday's LA Times about this exact topic http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/health/la-he-foodcolor13-2008oct13,0,7679313.story. Very interesting. No more strawberry milk and Fruit Loops. Joe and I have also tried to go over the alphabet with Mason and he does not know his letters. Talan knows more letters than Mason does. Mason knows the ABC song but he can't correlate the letters to the letters in the song. Disturbing. Teacher Pam says Mason is very smart but he chooses not to focus and pay attention. I know this to be true. So we have some work cut out for ourselves. Diet changes, more of an educational focus at home and the like. We are going to take it one step at a time and one day at a time. Wish us luck. :)