How do vitamins improve behaviour?

[skewiff]

DS has been taking multivitamins, zinc and magnesium and eskimo oil since beginning of December. His behaviour has changed drastically.

It is so clear to our family, and school (who don't know he's taking anything new) say he is significantly maturer - so much so that they have no behaviour issues with him now.

Today I took DS to his cranial osteopath and instantly he said that there was something very different in DS and his behaviour.

I know the vitamins are completely what made the change - it happened almost instantly.

The thing is that DS has CP and I don't know much at all about supplements. I wasn't really sure that his behaviour was affected by his condition before taking them. I just thought he was hard work. But now looking back I realise why he was so much trouble.

DS used to be hyperactive, chaotic, impulsive and very difficult to engage with/talk to - he wouldn't stay still enough in his body or mind to have a proper conversation. Now he is intelligent, calm, considered, reasonable ... I can explain why I don't want him to do things now and he understands, modifies his behaviour and apologises!!

But giving him these vitamins does feel a bit like I'm drugging him and I wonder whether he'll have to take them all for the rest of his life?

I don't know the science behind zinc and magnesium ( remind myself to look it up :) )

But omega is really simple. 20% of your brain is made up of EPA. Your brain works by millions of synapses firing. Without enough EPA not enough synapses fire. So you are literally thinking at half speed, literally not able to use your brain very well.

And the brain controls the whole body....

they wont harm anyway and i have taken vitamins for most of my life...plan to keep taking them for the rest :) oh, kids too since birth.

Alright - but still I wonder how they actually do change behaviour so drastically.

I just am interested in the science of it.

Maybe it says it in the robert Pauc book - I'll have another look ...

Hi, you might want to look at the book "Children with starving Brains" by Jacqueline McCandles if you haven't seen it already. My ds1 also improved a lot with vitamins...

I've got the magnesium/zinc and EPA underway now...which multivitamin is best?

Do you think it will be relevant to my DS? The children with Starving Brains, book.

My DS has cerebral palsy. I do wonder whether there are any crossovers with autism. But even when his behaviour was at its worst no one ever suggested that he might be on the spectrum at all.

CP is purely due to brain damage. AFAIK the gut is not involved. In writing that though, I realise that DS's gut must be involved if the vitamins have made such a difference.

Cornskit: I am using Floradix at the moment for multivitamins.

Science has proven an apple grown before WW11 had double the vitamin content of a standard supermarket one today. The situation is even more grave when you compare wild vension with modern farmed beef (even organic). The depletion of micronutrients in our food due to changes in the soil structure of intensive farmng methods (petro ferilsers rather than cow manure lol!) food miles etc means food is less nutrative per calorie than that our grandparents ate.

The UK is a country where rickets is making a comeback - this should be impossible when you look at how rich the UK is, but it's clear evidence that lots of kids aren't getting what they need from a standard UK diet.

An "experiment" involving my own son, homegrown spinach grown on enriched soil + blood tests before and after feeding him a portion every other day showed that my lad's iron and calcium levels rose significantly. 12 weeks of mg supplementation helped his sleep issues too.

With that in mind, do you still think you are "drugging" your child, or just giving him the nutrients that if you lived on a 1920's devonshire farm - he'd be eating as a matter of course?

I'm firmly of the opinion that nurition affects brain development & that although only the eyeq studies on concentration have been done widely enough to have hit the mainstream, there's enough truth in it all to try to do what you can with access to the ingredients/supplements etc you can afford.

Where possible I do think the body absorbs nutrients better from whole foods rather than tablets so I try and feed a diet as rich in the micronutrients I've found help my son most as far as I can. I also think different children need/absorb different nutrients at different levels. If the vits are helping your kid - keep going! (just double check you aren't exceeding max saftey limits on things like vit A). The CP probably means your child needs more of these vits than average.

Thank you bochead - yes that does make a lot of sense.

Do you take supplements as well? Do you think adults need to/should?

I think the thing I most dislike about supplements is the extra stuff added, like sweetners.

I take cod liver oil (cheap) and malt extract in the winter. It seems to stop me getting "winter blues" and coughs/colds as much when I'm stressed for some reason. I need to stay "lively" to keep up with DS as a lone parent.

I do look on here a lot for good brands of supplements for DS, and read labels carefully as I agree with you about additives (a minefield).

The Floradix stuff has now sweeteners in it, which is one of the reasons TH recommends it.

I use floradix kindervital and floradix saludynam (get mine from amazon) and eye q omega oil (3 for 2 from boots)....cant say I have noticed a massive change in ds1's behaviour, but then we never had any behavioural issues really...but he has gone up 3 reading levels since starting at the end of Dec!!!

skewiff

Thank-you so much for posting this. I have just been talking about exactly the same thing (to anyone and everyone who will listen ) My DD is 5 and has ADHD and dyspraxia and the supplements we have been giving her since December have changed her beyond recognition. She is more coherent, doesn't talk nonsense is brighter, clearer she is more alert, focused her motor skills have improved not to mention her hair is shinier!! We are always giving a really healthy diet and have cut out sweets etc but what an amazing difference. And I have this board to thank for everything.

I had also wondered whether it would be a life long thing with the vitamins I think what is vital is to start when they are young when brain is still developing I think I am a bit long in the tooth to start now

10 ways zinc can combat ADHD

Magnesium Deficiency and Childhood ADHD

OK, I want to cry now.

It turns out mouth ulcers are a symptom of magnesium deficiency

So WTF did no one tell me that! DS2 suffered from ulcers heaps.

And he has responded very well to zinc & magnesium.

Why do doctors know so little!

ds1 gets loads of mouth ulcers as well. Really hope the magnesium helps him with that.

Just a theory (not a neuroscientist) but perhaps a damaged brain (whether damaged by CP or ASD) needs more of some nutrients to function optimally than an average brain perhaps?

Indigobell I share your upset. I wish the NHS could be be more holistic!!

Would taking vitamins improve my DS's behaviour at all? He has asd and ADHD, also has hypermobility and hypotonia. If so, what vitamins do you think would help?

that's very interesting re: magnesium and mouth ulcers, Indigo. I didn't know that.

my dss suffered horribly from mouth ulcers when he was younger, and not much was done about it other than recommend bonjela

the whole vitamins/nutrients/health field is really interesting, and agree that doctors on the whole do not know what to recommend in a natural sense - things that our grandparents/greatgrandparents might have known much better, as everyday information.

Just to throw a spanner in the works(sorry) I tried my dd on eskimo oil and her behaviour actually got worse Obviously the results differ from child to child and i've overall i've heard really good results with this brand. I still wonder why my dd reacted so badly though.

I'm yet to try zinc and magnesium. Does omega work better when taken alongside zinc and magnesium?

Sorry, ignore my last post. I just had a look at your link indigo and it answers my question. Yes, basically. I might give the Eskimo kids a go again afterall.

Detox - please update us if Eskimo works with Z & M, but doesn't work ( for your DC) without.....

That would be very intersting.

Will do Fingers crossed ey!

Just spoken to dd's nanna about it(my mum) and she's so against the idea! I don't know if it's a generational thing or what. I always get the same reaction. "there's nothing wrong with her. She's a good kid, she just needs to have more friends round" oh and another classic " all I know is that in my day kids ate normal food, didn't have any supplements and we didn't have any behavioural issues" >

Boc, that was a really interesting point you made about food in the 1920's . Really made me think about how maybe dd isn't getting the nutrients I assumed she was getting from her veg. I don't usually buy locally, I will usually buy from the supermarket. I'm going to make a concerted effort now to go to our local farmshop.

Actually my last message was really contradictive. Obviously I get where my mums' coming from regarding diet and overall of course i'd rather she'd get her vitamins naturally rather than popping a pill, but it's not always doable. I think that's what frustrated me so much. My mum accepts that dd is very fussy with her food and if she doesn't want to eat it, she isn't going to. However, she will still say things like that!

I do see supplements as a second to last resort, but if they work, why on earth wouldn't I give them a try.