Mumsnet Talk

I've finally tracked down Epsom salts and am just starting to add it to the kids bath. I've done some searching here and found to use 1 - 2 cups in a hot bath and to have at least 12 mins in it. Also to use it at least 3 times a week.
I'm wondering how long it would take to see an affect on behaviour. Please don't say what behaviour changes may occur as I'd rather be finding out blind.
Thanks

hard to answer this without telling you what the effects are.

Epsom salts are a way of getting magnesium into you. So the effect of it will depend how defecient in magnesium you are.

When I first tried it in my bath i noticed an effect straight away.

Now, that I'm not defecient anymore if I have it I don't notice it.

So I would say you might notice an effect the first night.

ds's teacher asked us if we were medicating him the first week we used them.

we started in combination with high omegas and zinc though, so to identify specific causation isn't entirely possible.

That makes sense. I keep telling everyone you need omega, magnesium and zinc

i know. you told me.

Ok just checked his hair test results and he's not deficient in Mg. Not sure why I didn't do that before I bought a 4kg tub. It was the only tub I could find though and I have failed to find it before (not in UK) I didn't notice a difference after the first bath and I put in a whole cup as I didn't do my homework enough to find out you are supposed to build up to the full dose.
He is on omega already but just the Boots one nothing fancy. His zinc is low so I shall see how I can get more of that into him. I'll keep going with the baths and see what happens.

Ellie Am intrigued by your hair test results where did you get this done if you don't mind me asking?

is it worth continueing epsom salts long term? Is it safe? Or should you do it in monthly/seasonal intervals?

I stopped using it once I started giving the kids a better magnesium supplement.

I think it's perfectly safe, just probably not as effective way of taking magnesium as taking a supplement.

It's impossible to know exactly how much magnesium they've had......

Have you heard of 'behaviour balance' liquid? it comes in liquid form, is suitable from age 2 and it has magnesium, zinc, B6+12 Vitamins and folic acid. Someone on here recommended it to me so i use this with a seperate omega 3 oil aswell.

Yes I have heard of it, but was not sure about DMG and betain - what are these things for? Sound a bit frightening to me. My DS has mild CP, so I'm not familiar with all of these things.

Indigo - do you plan to carry on forever/ indefinitely with osteocare?

I'm using this now, but DS does not like it, and I never feel all that comfortable using supplements. Scared to stop though in case his chaotic behaviour returns. Is there a time when you might try stopping?

Floradix is the zinc & magnesium that TH recommends.

I'm using osteocare because my kids prefer taking it, and I'm happy with the amount of zinc and magnesium in it.

At the moment I have no plans on changing their vitamins. But then I feel fine about supplements. I don't think our modern diet contains everything we need - even if you just eat organic and cook from scratch etc (which I don't)

Behaviour balance contains a lot of B6. (And not much zinc or magnesium) Some people have had very good success with it.

I tried it with DS2, initially thought it was helping, and then thought it was making him worse (ie it made him a bit spiky)

I think he's doing much better on osteocare. Again noticed an improvement as soon as he started on it - so I assume he needed the zinc & magnesium, but BB was just not quite the right mix for him.

I think you just have to experiment. Find out what they don't mind taking, what you can afford, and what seems to help.

HolyCalamityJane we did the hair test with Foresight
www.foresight-preconception.org.uk/hair-analysis.aspx

It cost $30 and took about 3 weeks to get the results. They tested Calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium,sodium, Chromium, cobalt, copper, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, vanadium, zinc, aluminium, cadmium, lead, mercury and tin.

I was recommended it from this board.

indigobel did you mean the behaviour balance make ds2 spiky does spiky mean emotinally up and down crying one minute laughing next

Yes BB made DS2 calmer for a few hours, which was lovely, but then it would end in a meltdown.

And we thought we were having more meltdownd than normal so we stopped it.

Of course none of this is done as a scientific experiment. I can't prove anything. But i thoght BB made him calmer and gave him more meltdownd, and I think osteocare just makes him calmer.

thank you cause i thought i imagined it