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

Ds1 only drinks milk and water so thats not been an issue for us, thankfully. Well done on the no squash! You can dilute fresh juice btw. We did switch to semi skimmed on the advice in Brain Food Plan.

Ds1 used to have crisps every day in his packed lunch...hasnt had any since end of Dec and has never even mentioned it!

I now use Doves farm organic gluten free pasta and neither ds1 nor dh have noticed! Its very nice (and I am very fussy)

We have rice once a week usually and ds1 also likes unsalted rice cakes as a snack too which are very healthy.

For snacks/treats he has homemade flapjacks (I can give you the recipe if you want) and homemade oaty cookies. I like to make them myself as a) all ingredients are organic (or mostly anyway) and b) no additives, E numbers etc.

He also likes tomato soup and he has ketchup with meals too. I dont think it helps to be too prescriptive straight away and you can always buy the organic low salt and sugar version which we use (heinz).

Ds1's big treat/fave is pizza (cheese and tomato) and I do let him have 2 x per week which theoretically I shouldnt but hey, he is doing so well and life would be pretty boring without treats!

Wrt fruit we do struggle with ds1. Veg is ok...frozen peas and sweetcorn. Fruit has always been an issue tbh so he has a carton of organix fruit puree each day...is not ideal obv but better than nothing.

All in all its not been too hard diet wise for us...ds1 has never liked sweets or choc - his big issue was too many carbs - a common issue for kids with develeopmental delay syndrome.

Good luck

PS: Wrt supplements: we use Floradix kindervital, saludynam and chewable vegepa from amazon.

We started ds on omega 3 towards the end of march after a terrible couple of months at school where his teacher admitted he wouldn't sit to do work for more than 5 mins so she had been letting him spend most of each day in the book corner reading to himself! Behaviour at school was pretty grim too.
We have already seen a big improvement- he has been on the 'green traffic light' every day for 6 weeks ( previously he was on yellow most days with some red days). At swimming lessons he no longer stands on the pool side fidgeting or ducks under water when he is meant to be listening to instructions.
It's the loud emotional outbursts that are still frequent and upsetting. If something goes wrong (and for ds that could be as simple as dd getting in the car before him) we get floods of tears and shouting. I am really hoping to see some changes there.
Haven't got to the supplement section in the book yet but am happy to try more based on the success we have had so far.
Does vegepa have an aftertaste? Current syrup ( sugar but no aspartame) goes down with no complaints so am nervous about swapping.

Yes please to flapjack recipe. Am looking at low/ no sugar banana cake recipes too. He usually has homemade cake in his lunch box every day so need to swap to a healthier version.

I think loud emotional outbursts will be helped by B12.

You can either try a normal multivitamin which contains 100% RDA of B12 - or you can try behaviour balance.

Behaviour balance contains something like 30 Xs the RDA of B12. For some kids it really helps. For some kids it makes it worse. And for some kids it does both.

We put DS2 on it and at first we thought it made him better, then we thought it made him worse so we took him off it.

Also zinc and magnesium will probably help. I guess start with the TH vitamins and see how he goes......

How much EPA and DHA does your current supplement have?

By and large I think if it's helping and he's happy to take it then it makes sense to stick with it.

EPA 260 mg and dha 190 mg per 5 ml. We bought it because it had the same amount as eye chews but he wouldn't take them. Will try the zinc and magnesium and am considering looking for a Pre biotic after reading the section on them last night.

Ds' first protein breakfast today. He usually has frosties. 'egg on toast, eh?' he said, mulled it over, sat down, scoffed 1 1/2 scrambled eggs and asked for a salami sandwich. I explained I had found out salami was not so good for his brain but he could have some bread and butter. Disappointed face but no complaint at all! Really pleased, was expecting much more resistance to the diet changes than we have had so far,

Yes I am considering pro biotics too shopping

Flapjack recipe: (this makes 24 decent size portions so should last a week or more easily)
300g of organic butter
300g brown sugar
4 tbps of golden syrup
half a tin of condensed milk
500g organic rolled oats

Put sugar, butter and syrup in a large pan and heat whilst stirring. When all melted/combined take off heat and add the condensed milk. Stir and and blend.
Add oats. Mix together. Pour onto lined swiss roll tin (tin with an edge), smooth out/flatten and bake in the oven at 160 for 10-15 mins.
They are GORGEOUS.

Ds1 has 20 mls per day of the kindervital and floradix (fruity taste) and 2 vegepa chewables. Its does taste a bit fishy but mostly citrus.

We used eye q liquid before but ds1 actually prefers the vegepa chewables!

Stick with that omega till you see robin.

Great news about the new breakfast. He's really doing very well.

As you can tell from my recent posts I'm playing round with diet for DD a lot. Just got her on biokult (which is a probiotic not a prebiotic) and cut out milk and think its helping. I do think prebiotics and probiotics are important.

Thats a great breakfast! Ds1 will now have a 1 egg omlette which is great progress for us!

I realise the recipe above seems quite rich but I am a great believer that butter is better than spread and that brown sugar is better than refined white. I have also reduced the sugar in the recipe believe it ot not!!

Have you tried adding grated apple to your flapjacks Badvoc? It makes them even tastier (as long as you avoid the grated finger nails!). Ds has never been too keen on flapjacks which leaves dd and to eat them up and we, quite frankly, dont need the extra calories! Will try them with condensed milk and see if they are more acceptable.

That sounds like an excellent start Shopping. We have gradually finished off all sugary cereals and they have not been replaced. Only have Special K and porridge oats on the shelf now. I just need to stop my mum buying variety packs of cereal when we stay!

Ds has humous and carrot/pitta a lot for a snack after school. we tried rice cakes this week - they are sooo bland, even the slightly salted ones. Still it filled a gap.

A tricky morning. Ds woke up at 7.30 (he is a 6am boy, first time he has ever slept past 7 in his life) so breakfast was rushed. Apparently the brand of sausages he has eaten once a week for years is now yucky so he only ate one sausage and a slice of bread. Is very sad about salami so we have said he can have salami in his sandwich twice a week instead of every day. Have scoured tesco looking for sandwich fillings and they only had one type of cold meat that was just meat, no added water! So roast topside beef sandwich tomorrow. Shall start using leftover roast meat for sandwiches instead of curries and stir fries I think.
On the upside he enjoys the stair walking, finds it funny and is quite good at it. Am going to increase to 5 repetitions later.

have booked to see Robin on June 5th. Now need to work out the logistics of a 6 hour round trip and who will look after dd for the day, but am very excited.

Great news that you have booked to see Robin.

We are very lucky that my parents live down the road (literally!) which makes logistics so much easier.

Hi all, how much resistance did you get to the diet plan initially? I suspect we will take longer to make a full change and see results. Ds has accepted the removals from his former diet almost without comment: so no squash, no frosties, no chocolate or biscuits. He is unhappy about the additions though. Refused to eat the roast beef sandwich yesterday, refused the home cooked ham sandwich today, is cross at breakfast although has eaten the protein breakfast every day. He doesn't seem to have noticed the change to whole meal bread and pasta tho so I guess that's good. Did you find it took more than two weeks to be able to make Robin's changed?

Well, dynamic reader arrived (from Robin) yesterday. It's to improve DDs eye tracking, because at the moment she can't move her eyes smoothly across the page.

Last night she read a passage at 40 words per minute and this morning she managed 45!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so thrilled, she sounds like she can read now :)

We cut out dairy last week and that seems to have helped a lot as well.

Oh, and my problems at school have all blown over. HT was nice to me at govs meeting. :)

Amazing news for your dd! Brilliant

Guys, I have amazing news.

The SENCO has written to me to update me on the progress of the 10 kids doing the stairs exercise. They have been doing it 3 times a day, 5 days a week, for 6 weeks. The SENCO takes them for literacy every day.

She said:

Just wanted to let you know that I'm seeing significant changes in the boys levels of alertness and concentration.....

Only 1 child is not making progress with the stairs exercise and he is also not making progress in literacy. He remains passive and needs prodding to take part while the others are eager and engaged.

Amazing results. Especially since those boys haven't made any dietary changes and aren't taking supplements.

That really is amazing indigo

Makes you want to shout it from the rooftops doesnt it???.........

"DO THIS!!!! HELP YOUR CHILD!!!! IT WORKS!!!!!"

Fab news. My ds does sensory circuits every morning at school which has massively improved his balance and gross motor skills. Wonder if that's why he is quite good at the stairs already? Have only done it twice a day some days, must stick to 3 times

Indigo or anyone else who could help ...

I have been struggling to understand my son's eyes and finally think I am coming closer to realising what he needs help with.

DS has a convergent alternating squint. He definitely has real trouble with convergence. BUT he also only ever sees through one eye at a time. He has no depth perception as a result of this.

I have recently seen the evidence of this for myself during an exercise that I do with him. I hold a toy in front of his nose and take it out to the right, then the left, then up and then down. Both of his eyes can follow the toy up and down in unison. But when they follow the toy out to each side, the eye on the side of the toy follows and the other one gets stuck in the middle by his nose (hope this makes sense).

I was just wondering whether Robert's eye programme helps with getting the eyes to see together. Or is it just helping with convergence ...?

Thank you.

PS he reads really really well - which I find confusing, but obviously pleasing as well.

I think it would help. You can only do the therapy if you can see through both eyes at once. You wear red / blue glasses and the image is in red & blue....

However, you really need to ring Robin and ask him.

OK Thanks Indigo.

I think then we'll probably have to do behavioural optometry first to see if we can get DS seeing through both eyes at once.

I will ring Robin.

Ds1 has finally made progress wrt his VT (vergence base in)!!! Thank goodness!

He was a star at school today...he wore his "posh clothes" and he made a crown last night and wore that for the best crown comp (he was robbed btw! Even the TA behind me said so!! )

Having a meeting with his teacher next term to discuss his progress and plans for Y5.

Ds has completed his Jump Duction tonight You won't believe it, Badvoc but he did it all in 32 sessions too which he thinks is very funny and told me I had to come on here to tell you!

Good news that your ds has made a breakthrough with the vt too.