A Red Dye 40 Free Halloween

A little over a year ago, our oldest daughter, who was then three, was exhibiting some behavior that was very atypical for her, she was angry and downright aggressive. I'm not talking about typical toddler meltdowns, it went beyond that and was shocking to us. My husband and I spent hours talking about behavioral strategies and tried several without much success. One night he told me about an article he read about children exhibiting these behaviors when they have eaten foods with Red Dye #40. After doing my own research I learned that Red Dye #40 is derived from petroleum or coal tar and research shows it can cause hyperactivity in children. We decided then to give it a try and cut it out of her diet for two weeks and see if there was any difference. After about three weeks (the first week or so we accidentally fed her lots of things with red dye) we noticed a huge difference in her behavior. She was still a three year old, she'd still throw fits from time to time and had tons of energy, but nothing like her behavior before. We decided it was worth it to cut Red Dye #40 out of her diet and out of our house. I'm not saying your family needs to raid the pantry tonight and purge all your "toxic" food, but it's the decision that was best for our family and I share our story in hopes that someone else may find it helpful.

It isn't easy. A common misconception is that if a food isn't red, it must not contain red dye. There are lots of foods that contain the dye that one wouldn't expect, that is problematic, we have to become vigilant label readers. The hardest part of this transition is carrying on with this diet when we are not at home. Parties and events are especially challenging because our daughter is often surrounded by peers eating things she cannot (and we aren't always there to police it, which also makes it tricky). Because she has an intolerance to Red #40 (it is not a true "allergy" by definition), it is also often not understood by others. We are navigating our way through it, most days we manage to steer clear of Red 40, but it does take some vigilance and planning.  
On Halloween Eve, Trick or Treating is the latest challenge I am prepping for.  Tomorrow we will accompany her, and her friends, around the neighborhood where she will continually be given the sweets she loves, at least half of which she will not be able to eat. We have done as much eduction as you can with a (now) four year old, she knows a few main candies to steer clear of when given the option, but I won't have the rude kid Trick-or-Treating so she will smile and politely say, "Thank you," and I will sort through it all when we get home. As soon as we walk in the door she will ask that I check her candy while she stands there in anticipation. "Can I eat this? How about this? Does this have red dye?" 
I started going through her loot from school today and there was only one thing she could eat in the very large treat bag. Going through the bag I realized I needed to streamline the process, I also realized that I am not the only parent with a child intolerant to Red 40, so below you will find a list of popular Halloween candies, those listed in red contain Red #40. Feel free to use this to choose what candies you will purchase for your trick or treaters, or use it to give your kid's candy a quick sort. 

Halloween 2015 Treats Red Dye Round-Up

1. 5th Avenue
2. 100 Grand
3. Air Heads (Xtremes and Regular)
4. Almond Joy (and Mounds)
5. Altoids
6. Andes Mints
7. Angry Birds Gummies
8. Atomic Fireballs
9. Baby Ruth
10. Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks/Fruit Roll-ups*
11. Bit-O-Honeys
12. Blow Pops
13. Boston Baked Beans Candy
14. Bottlecaps
15. Brach's Classic Candy Corn
16. Bubble Yum Gum
17. Butterfinger
18. Butterfinger PB Cups
19. Butterscoth Candies
20. Caramel Apple Pops
21. Charleston Chews
22. Cheetos
23. Chupa Chup Lollipops
24. Chick-O-Sticks
25. Cinnamon Candies
26. Clark Bar
27. Cookies & Creme (Hershey's)
28. Cow Tales
29. Cracker Jacks
30. Crunch Bar
31. Disney Star Wars Galactic Candy Mix
32. DOTS Gumdrops
33. Dove Milk Chocolate
34. Dubble Bubble Gum
35. Dum Dums*
36. Fun Dip*
37. Gobstoppers
38. Goldfish (Cheddar, Pretzel, S'More, or Rainbow Varieties)
39. Goobers
40. Good & Plenty
41. Haribo Gold Gummy Bears
42. Heath
43. Hershey’s Chocolate Bar
44. Hot Tamales
45. Jawbreakers
46. Jelly Belly Jelly Beans
47. Jolly Rancher (Original, Crunch ’n’ Chew, & Lollipops)
48. Junior Mints
49. Krackel
50. Kraft Caramels
51. Kit Kat
52. Laffy Taffy*
53. Lemonheads
54. Lemonheads (Chewy, Fruit, & Tropical Varieties)
55. Life Savers
56. Life Savers Gummies (Sour & Regular Varieties)
57. M&Ms (any variety) Note: this one is interesting to me, apparently the red dye is in the actual chocolate of the candy according to an associate at M&M World, so even a white M&M contains red dye- Bummer.
58. Mallo Cups
59. Mary Janes
60. Mike & Ikes
61. Milk Duds
62. Milky Way
63. Mr. Goodbar
64. Necco Wafers
65. Nik L Nips
66. Now & Laters
67. Oreos
68. Pay Day 
69. Peanut Butter Bars
70. Peanut Butter Kisses
71. Peeps*
72. Pez
73. Pixy Sticks
74. Pop Rocks*
75. Pretzels (Snyder's & Utz)
76. Raisinets
77. Razzles
78. Red Hots
79. Red Vines
80. Reese's
81. Reese’s Pieces
82. Rice Krispie Treats
83. Ring Pops*
84. Rolos
85. Rootbeer Barrels
86. Runts
87. Saf-t-pops*
88. Sixlets
89. Skittles
90. Smarties
91. Snickers (& PB Squared Variety)
92. Sour Patch Kids
93. Sour Punch Straws/Twists
94. Sprees
95. Starbursts
96. Starlight Mints
97. Swedish Fish
98. Sweetarts
99. Sugar Babies
100. Sugar Daddy
101. Tootsie Pops
102. Tootsie Rolls
103. Tootsie Roll Fruit Flavors
104. Trolli Gummies
105. Twix
106. Vanilla Cupcake Goldfish
107. Warheads Sour Candy
108. Wax Fangs/Lips/Mustaches
109. Werther's Originals
110. Whatchamacallit
111. Whoppers
112. Wonka Nerds
113. York Peppermint Patty
114. Zero bar

*= There are numerous varieties, some have Red #40, some do not. It is in your best interest to look up particular varieties of interest. 

This list is accurate to the best of my knowledge and was compiled with the help of Amazon, my husband, and several bulk candy websites. Feel free to comment below with any changes or candies you'd like to see added to the list. It's also worth noting that several major companies in the U.S. are working on removing red dye from their products, so I have high hopes that the "red #40" list will be much shorter in 2016! 

I hope this list is helpful!