Tinsley House Support Thread

[IndigoBell]

An awful lot of us are now doing Tinsley House, either by going there, or by following the recommendations in The Brain Food Plan

So this is just a general support (and hopefully good news) thread.

Stage 1 of the TH therapy consists of:

1. Multivitamins

• Omega
• Zinc & Magnesium
• Multivitamin

1. Healthy eating diet

• High protein, low sugar, no artificial sweeteners, additives etc.

1. Specific exercises done 3 times a day

DD aged 13 has been on TH regime for a few weeks. No difference until yesterday when she suddenly said she understood what the rather inept newly qualified maths teacher was going on about. He still seems to baffle the rest of the class though!

Indigo, I have pissed off so many teachers with my ascerbic emails and sharp tongue that my husband calls me a sabre toothed tiger and my children claim I am a mythical creature that all teachers have heard of but don't believe to be real. I really don't care anymore. If you think you were OTT, apologise and say you were upset because you are a loving and caring parent. If not, stick to your guns. No one could care more than you about your own kids and the others affected by the issues discussed on this thread; your personal conviction and the information you have discovered are an inspiration to all of us.

All you can do is apologise indigo

They cant ask for more than that.

daft Its 30 stars I'm afraid daft Took ds1 32 goes to get 30 stars. Tell your ds he is doing incredibly well from me and ds1!

BeingFluffy / BadVoc Thanks.

The HT hauled me into a meeting where she read me the riot act. I wasn't given a chance to apologise.

Some of the things the HT said to me were absolutely unbelievable, Including that she believes DD can read - she just gets stressed when asked to!

Plus some really horrible things. :(

Anyway, DDs reading has improved heaps in the last few days, since we cut out dairy!

I got the idea for that from here

As well as saying that eye problems are the cause of lots of reading problems it also says that allergies (especially to milk) cause most of the stuff that we see.

The most extreme example of the effects of allergies on a child can be found in Fighting For Tony by Mary Callahan. Tony's constant screaming was very stressful for his parents, one of whom was a nurse. Tony's team of experts examining his case consisted of a child development specialist, a speech and language therapist, a physical therapist, and a pediatrician. These experts diagnosed him for three years in a row as autistic and severely mentally retarded and reported it was doubtful Tony would ever talk. They asked the parents to consider placing Tony in an institution because someone would always have to take care of him. Tony turned out to have an IQ of 150. Allergies had lowered Tony's IQ 100 points. An undetected, severe allergy to milk had so affected his brain that he had been totally unable to progress through normal early-childhood development. Tony's problems were solved when his mother took him off all dairy products.

Our experience has been that antihistamines improve children?s academic performance about 60% of the time in a couple of weeks. Students stop reversing letters; their spelling improves; they know their math facts; their handwriting and coordination improve; they often go from the special education classroom to the gifted class in weeks; they are a lot easier to live with and stop fighting with their siblings.

You might want to try your DC on an antihistamine for a few weeks and see if it helps.......

indigo I have 2 words for you....

OPT OUT

I can well believe the HT said some "unbelievable things" but then again, she would think the same about your e mail

I dont think anything surprises me anymore wrt attitude by HTs/ teachers/sencos on sen provision. They havent got a clue. They get zilch training and then sit in meetings with people like you and I and trot out the same old platitudes....its VERY upsetting and frustrating BUT you and I (and lots of others on this thread) have choosen not to trust schools to help our children because they cant til their issues are fixed.

"Opting out" of the whole sorry mess of meeting with HTs/teachers/sencos is one of the best things I have ever done.

I am sorry you feel so bad atm x

I can't opt out - it's not part of my personality :( I'd love to.......

hahahaha! x'd posts and Pms! I have just said the same thing in my PM!!!

It'll blow over eventually :)

Have to decide whether to go to governors meeting this week, or lie low for a bit

Yes, it will.

Dont let it stop you doing your job as a governor. The 2 are not related.

Badvoc, I think my ds will be pushing it to beat your ds1's 32 sessions! He is very chuffed to have been given an England t-shirt I promised him when he completed the 15 stars.

Indigo, I agree with Badvoc about your role as Governor. They are completely separate and it will be a good opportunity to rise above it all. It would be interesting to hear what the HT's definition of 'reading' is.

Ds' school have very few children with special needs and those handful that do have statements tend to be very bright and talented. Their IEPs are crap and completely useless as a working document. Their heart is in the right place but they have very little experience of integrating extra things into the classroom (eg laptops) unless there is a designated helper/assistant to do it.

Interesting what you said about antihistamines, Indigo. Ds takes Clarityn daily, mostly during the spring, summer and autumn but his allergy consultant is happy for him to have it all year round when necessary (for his dustmite allergy). I'm not sure whether I have seen any difference in him when he takes the ah compared to when he does not. Fingers crossed it helps your dd though.

Fluffy, maybe your dc could teach Maths to the other class members if the teacher is struggling

Dont get me started on IEPs daft......[anger]

Ds1's go straight in the bin after the meeting. Completely pointless waste of the teachers and my time, frankly.

I guess teachers hate them too tbh.

Hello everyone. New to this thread but I've read it all with interest and great excitement that we could possibly 'cure' ds' aspergers. Am reading the book ready to start the food plan next week. Have already thrown out the fruit squash and haribo sweets and swapped pasta to wholemeal.
Ds ( 6) started the stairs exercise today and was surprisingly good at it. I stood behind him in case he missed a step on the way back down but only slight wobbles. Then I worried he was cheating and peeping but couldn't check because I needed to stand behind. Do you all stand behind your dcs?
Dd joined in too - she is NT 4 yr old but was rubbish at it so maybe all this will benefit her too.

Hi Shopping and welcome :)

If he's doing OK at the stairs maybe you can stand where you can see his eyes once or twice to check he isn't cheating.

Or DH can help so one can stand behind and one can watch.....

It is possible he's OK at the stairs. Most of the kids on here weren't to start with, but BeingFluffies daughter was absolutely fine.......

And as BF just wrote, it does now seem to be helping.

Either way, you still need to do the stairs exercise 3 times a day for 2 months. Then you need to visit a clinic to get the next exercises.

Fingers crossed for you and everyone else :)

Oh, and I'm sure it will also help your DD. Who wouldn't benefit from a tip top cerebellum

Thanks so much. We are about to do the stairs again and he has just eaten half a strawberry! A big deal to us so I'm delighted. The book doesn't say if the 3 times a day needs to be fairly spread out. I was thinking of doing it when he wakes, again just before school and the third time when he gets home from school. As the day goes on he becomes less cooperative.

Oh and I am going to ring Robin on Monday to get an appointment booked.

We did the exercises before school, after school, and bed time.

Guess you can ask Robin if twice fairly close together is fine. I'm sure it would be.....

And on the weekends you can spread them out a bit more....

Great news he's eating a strawberry.

sopping welcome!

One thing I would say is that the closer it gets to bedtime the less well ds1 (8) can do the exercises. Stands to reason I guess as he is tired and fed up.

Great news re: the strawberry!

He has just done his second set of stairs and is definitely more wobbly this time. Has had his swimming lesson in between so is tired. I checked and he does have his eyes properly shut. Struggled to keep his chin up this afternoon, was sort of looking at his feet, but not looking as his eyes were shut.

Just done 2nd set of steps. He does have his eyes shut! Struggled to keep his head in a neutral position, kept dropping his chin.

Sorry thought my phone had lost the post so repeated myself

A quick diet question: does there need to be variety? Ds would much rather have the same thing every day for breakfast and for his packed lunch on school days. Could I do scrambled egg on wholemeal toast or sausages on wholemeal every other day and do a wholemeal roll with meat in it for lunch every day? In the evenings we will have fish, chicken etc with potatoes (hopefully vegetables but I don't think we will achieve that for a while). I'm guessing that processed sandwich stuff like salami is out - is ham any better or do I need slices of beef/turkey/chicken? He likes cheese but I'm not sure if I should reduce his dairy too?
He loves yogurt for breakfast so maybe he could have greek yogurt with fruit puree before his egg??

His diet sounds excellent!

You can have the same thing every day if it suits him.

Robin doesn't advice against dairy. But I do. I recommend trying gluten free and dairy free at some point - But doesn't have to be right now.

(my current theory is that the neuro development problems our kids have were originally caused by leaky gut or candida or allergies.)

Can't remember about ham. It depends what additives are in it. I know with bacon we switched to dry cured.

Remember TH takes at least a year. Plenty of time to improve his diet :)

Ideally you should go for variety but thats easier said than done!

As long has he has a protein breakfast, no junk, no additives, colourings etc then its fine.

Dairy is ok as long as there isnt an allergy/intolerance.

Dinner should ideally be meat/poulty/fowl and potatoes with their skins on and veg.

I use frozen veg as its cheaper and easier to cook and is often more nutritious than fresh veg!

thanks - where do you fit in pasta or rice then? He loves pasta and we do spaghetti with hidden veg pasta sauce a couple of times a week. I was planning to change to wholemeal pasta. Today we have had no blackcurrant squash all day - neither child has even noticed - no junk whatsoever and he has done his 3 lots of stair climbing.
Diet difficulties I foresee are - ketchup, cereal and pudding ( at the moment they have an ice lolly or a frube or some ice cream most nights). think we may be able to try the hidden veg sauce as an alternative to ketchup as it only has 1 tsp of sugar per litre of sauce. Hope he will accept the sausage or egg breakfast but not sure what they will both think about no 'pudding', dd will eat fruit, may have to offer him yogurt and fruit puree then instead of at breakfast.
I am so excited as I'm sure you've all noticed from my many posts today. I know it takes 12-18 months but I'm thrilled to have something positive to DO rather than spending my time worrying and trying to think of strategies to deal with his difficulties.

Rice or pasta are fine for dinner.

Good idea to have fruit or yoghurt for desert.

Very quickly your new rules become routine and the kids stop complaining.

I think Robin suggests you can have treats twice a week? So you could have I've cream or whatever twice a week.

The diet does have to be something you can live with.

Great news you've managed to cut out squash so easily. That is very impressive.

Hi Shopping.

Have you managed to start the supplements too?

ds goes through phases with his breakfast. On school days he isn't that interested in eating but at weekends, when he can eat later, it is easier. He will have sausage and beans, just sausage, sushi(!), baguette with sausage 'hotdog' style, ham and cheese in a pitta. This morning he had a chicken thigh. I usually cook a packet of sausages and keep them in the fridge and then just zap them in the microwave, it saves loads of time before school. He often has ketchup but I figure if it gets him to eat the protein, it is ok!

Rice and pasta are absolutely fine but should be with meat.

We have pretty much cut out sweets but he still does have icecream and homemade cake when I have it. He has got much better at snacking on fruit which is great but means more trips to m and s to stock up on things he likes - it seems frui from elsewhere just doesn't cut it!