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

daft whoo hoo!!!! Thats fantastic! Well done minidaft!!!

Am so pleased re: ds1's progress...was getting a bit worried last week as he has plateued.

Have a god jubilee everyone! x

School are very pleased with the progress the 10 kids have made - and I've now set them up with vision therapy. Will be interesting to see how that goes.

They're trying to decide which 10 to work with next year - but of course there are far more than 10 kids who need it.

Looking like we might have a great intervention that any school can do

DDs up to reading 60 words a minute, but she is really finding the eye tracking program hard. We're going away for a week, and will give her a week off. Hope she comes back and finds it a bit easier :)

School are very pleased with the progress the 10 kids have made - and I've now set them up with vision therapy. Will be interesting to see how that goes.

They're trying to decide which 10 to work with next year - but of course there are far more than 10 kids who need it.

Looking like we might have a great intervention that any school can do

DDs up to reading 60 words a minute, but she is really finding the eye tracking program hard. We're going away for a week, and will give her a week off. Hope she comes back and finds it a bit easier :)

Great news indigo

Ha ha, that's for that Badvoc!

Great news Indigo.

Ok, have read the book and am just beginning to work out how to implement the programme into our lives.

DS is undiagnosed but has many aspie traits and intrigued to see if this helps.

Currently has restricted carb heavy low protein diet and is exceptionally fussy about what he allows to pass his lips.

Current diet roughly as follows

Breakfast, pure fruit juice, wholemeal toast and marmite, dried cereal either bran flakes or cornflakes, weekends has plain pancakes.

Lunch, wholemeal marmite sandwich, apple, petit filous

Dinner, breaded chicken, potaotes in variety of formats, apple, or carrot.

Will also eat, strawbs, melon, pineapple, grapes, pitta bread, cookies, breadsticks, saugsages, rice, iced buns, plain crisps, fishcakes, fish fingers, roast chicken, yorkshire puddings, pork if we say its chicken.

Does not eat sweets, chocolate or fizzy drinks. Only drinks water

Anyone been able to implement the programme with a fussy eater?? and how did you approach it??

ps if anyone has a miracle cure for the eating thing, please let me know, any magic wands feel free to send them my way!

MaryMary - my children haven't been particularly fussy eaters - so I might be all wrong - but this is how I understand it:

The whole TH thing works together. So taking the supplements and doing the stairs exercise will help him be open to improving his diet.

The reason he has such a bad diet is because of his cerebellum problems. A mature cerebellum would desire a more balanced diet.

So by doing the stairs exercise and improving his cerebellum he should be much open to eating a wider variety of foods.

Also the supplements should help in the same way.

So I guess try all the normal things to improve his diet - and hope that this time they work.

Certainly it has for Becarooo / Badvoc.

You say he eats sausages. Could you start by giving him sausages for breakfast? Along with his normal breakfast to start with?

Do you think he'd have any protein in his bread roll at lunch?

I guess start by working on increasing protein.

Good luck.

ok, so the whole holistic approach of one thing working for another, intrigues me more and more!!

Sausages for breakfast will be fine and plan to push omlette as a thick pancake!!!

No protein at lunch at the moment, easier at home than at school so will give this a think.

Any idea how i find becarroo/badvoc posts to read??

Thanks for thoughts

Marymary we've just started tinsley house with ds who is a very fussy eater. He prefers to have the same breakfast and lunch if he can - less fussy at dinner. Today he had fish fingers for breakfast, banana cake made with whole meal flour and reduced sugar for a snack, cheese and ham sandwich and fruit purée for lunch and spaghetti with lots of hidden veg sauce and meatballs for dinner.
We have successfully cut out all sweeteners, sugary cereal, salami, chocolate which were all daily foods for ds. I've actually found it easier to cut out the bad stuff than to introduce new stuff. Getting nowhere with vegetables but I'm hoping as indigobell suggests he will be more open to new things soon.
The exercises are going really well, he thinks the toothbrush one is great fun.

Would he eat a chicken drumstick instead of the marmite sandwich in his lunch box?

I did vt this evening!!

Ds is now on 'manual' and he accidentally set off his base-in a second time instead of exiting. So I thought I would give it a go. It was really difficult! Ds thought it was very funny that I kept getting bloops "now you know what I have to go through mum!"

Marymary, just look through this thread to see Becaroo/Badvoc's posts.

Hello all

Sorry not been on for a while but its like a plague house here atm!

My ds1 had a VERY restricted diet prior to TH and VERY carb heavy (usual in those with developmental delay syndrome)

Luckily, like your ds he only drinks milk and water so no issues there. He does not and will not eat fruit (never has) and ate little protein and what he did eat was, to be honest, poor quality.

He doesnt (and never has) eaten chocolate or sweets so, again, no issues there.

Ds1 is 9 this week so in some ways its easy to talk to him about good diet/why his tummy hurts and his bottom bleeds when he doesnt eat well.

A typical day for ds1 would be:

Bfast: semi skimmed warm milk
Beans and toast/1 egg omlette
Fromage frais
water

Lunch: (takes packed lunch to school)
wholemeal bread and butter "sandwich"
fruit puree
homemade flapjack
rice cakes
water

Tea: jacket potato/roast pots/mashed pots/wedges
breaded whole chicken breast/fish fingers
peas/sweetcorn/beans

Got to go out now will post more when I get back

Our second visit to TH took place last week. DD is 13 and has dyslexia only. Robin thought that DD's vision had improved a bit and prescribed the Right Hemi exercise which using the Wheres Wally? books. She will start of the vision therapy next time if necessary.

DD is still not having enough protein in her diet (protein first thing makes her feel sick) and we are vegetarian so a fairly limited choice. She also refuses to swallow tablets, as she is 13 she is too old for Floradix but I found a chewable multivitamin from a US seller called Puritan's Pride and they do a zinc lozenge as well. Not the most delicious things, but not too bad. Currently trying a magnesium spray as there doesn't seem to be a chewable magnesium on the market apart from Osteocare (which are vile and I am a bit wary of the calcium content).

I found out that DD is still eating sweets and lying about it. She also seems to have become addicted to her laptop - watching it for up to 4 hours a day - I finally confiscated it last night. One of DD's precocious friends (who has her sights set on a medical career) apparently told her that TH was a load of crap and since then she has been very sceptical about it.

We basically force her to do the stair exercises 3 times a day which she finds easy - Robin also said to start using a Yoyo but with the left hand.

DD also said yesterday that she no longer wants to read anything for pleasure as she finds it too hard - despite reading all the Hunger Games books in the last month. She is quite nonchalant about school - she learnt that she will stay in the top set until her GCSEs are finished and seems to have stopped worrying about it. She had some tests recently and it will be interesting to see what the results are!

She had got quite "teenagery" in the last couple of weeks - answering back and talking to me in chavvy street slang! I hope this is a sign that the treatment is having an effect on her brain and she is not turning into a monster teenage zombie - influenced by her friends!

we have seen tiny (but exciting changes) already after 4 weeks on the diet and 10 days after visiting tinsley house. Ds seems calmer. He also tried voluntarily meatball and pasta in the same mouthful, and cheese and ham in the same sandwich. I know these seem so small but he has never been willing (or able?) to combine flavours or textures in his mouth. Meatballs were always on the side of the plate and eaten after all his spaghetti. He is also getting better at the toothbrush exercise after just 10 days which I see as evidence of his right brain getting stronger.
I can't wait to get going on the next part of the journey, am hoping for more obvious results. Robin said he felt we would see 'significant results quickly' with ds - really hope he is right.

just realised didn't answer the school dinner question. Ds has packed lunch 3 days a week (carefully controlled by me - used to be really bad but is now really healthy) and school dinners twice a week. They aren't good quality but he is getting protein at lunch so I look at it as not too bad. I make sure we don't have wedges on school dinner days as I know they have chips.

Hi Verity, ds has school lunches and they are very good. So for him, much better than packed lunch. What sort of food does your dc's school have?

Shopping, that sounds great. I should really read back through my posts here to remind myself of changes with ds. It's hard t remember when some issues are ongoing!

Fluffy, i have just found a packet of sweets under ds' bed! So they are being eaten by me confiscated . I have found that ds' (10) behaviour has worsened at times too. Still not sure whether this is because of changes of (TH) treatment or whether it is because he is going through various medical tests and his recent diagnosis of epilepsy. VT now going well, though it is only 5mins/day, so less intrusive now.

We are due our third TH meeting next week but I am going to postpone for a few weeks until after he breaks up - much to his disappointment as he is keen to miss school as much as possible!

Badvoc, am interested in your situation especially as seems very similiar to here. Ds also 9 and always had issues with food etc.

Went to Boots and a couple of health stores this morning and now have bleeding eyes from trying to read the labels on the vitamins, ended up taking photos of the products on my phone to read up on on the internet, quite frankly must have looked like a complete loon!!!

Didn't really realise how expensive they all were, so am keen to do a bit of research before I throw my pounds at it.

In a nutshell do people fancy sharing what they have tried, what worked and what tasted so disgusting their child wouldnt let it past their lips more than once.

Do you get an aftertaste from omega capsules??

Any feedback on efalex omega 3, eye q childrens chews, paradox omega 3 6 & 9, viridikid omega 3 oil, viridikid multivitamins, animal parade multi vitamins??

Many thanks in advance look forward to hearing from you.

So. Where was I

Ah, yes, diet.

Ds1 has suffered from intermittent recurring tummy pain/constipaton for at least 2 years. After the last bout which saw him miss 2 days of school I had had enough and took him to the GP who referred him. Was told he had an umbilical hernia (which no one had ever mentioned before!) and that the pain was from that and he needed surgery to repair it.

I was and that no hcp (hv, gp, paed etc) had ever mentioned it before.

Whilst all this was going on we started the TH programme and - ta da! - after 2 months his tummy pains were gone and his bowel movements are now normal.

His appetite is also better and he eats more.

He will now eat;
jacket potatoes
beans
egg omlette
roast potaotes with the skins on/wedges with the skins on
home made flapjack/cupcakes (with no icing!)
A bit of minced beef on his pasta
peas and sweetcorn
fruit puree (its not ideal, but one thing at a time!)
He is also back to eating fromage frais (which he stopped eating for some reason)

His reading (dx of severe dyslexia and as yet undx asd) is so much better, his confidence is growing all the time....he told me yesterday that he is now in the higher guided reading group

He is pretty fed up of the VT now tbh but he only has 14 more sessions to do so we are the "last leg", thank goodness. To be fair to him its only in the last 2 weeks or so he has begun to complain about it!

Wrt supplements, ds1 is having the vegepa chewable capsules and the floradix x 2 per day (well, most days!) I have no idea if its helping or not, but am continuing as ds1 is doing so well.

It takes money and time and effort and, frankly, there are days you just dont feel like it BUT its so worth it...the VT does end up onnly being 5 mins per day and the exercises do actually jusy become part of your daily routine (although ds1 also did a courtse of RRT so was used to daily exercises which may have helped)

Ds1 is about half way through the TH programme I reckon, which means that by the time he goes to middle school (sept 2013) he should have no issues/sens holding him back anymore.

Ds1 goes back in 2 weeks for his 3rd appt with Robin so will update you all then.

He had a joint b day party with his dad on saturday and got enough money (well, almost) for an ipad. He is thrilled about it (and so am I - I am going to download all the educational/handwriting apps!)

daft and BF Ds1 certainly back chats now where he didnt before, he also sticks up for himself now too and can be quite persuasive when he wants to be!

Good luck everyone x

marymary wrt supplements;

Ds1 was on the floradix kindervital and salydynam from the start...he is pretty good about taking them (20mls of each per day) They taste ok they are a bit fruity tasting.

Ds1 tried eye Q vanilla liquid (boots) and I also tried a strawberry chewable one (from Holland and Barratt) but he hated both (dh tried the eye Q and he said it was vile and dh will eat/drink ANYTHING so it must have been bad!)

We then decided to try the supplments Robin recommends - vegepa - the chewable one and he much prefers them! He sometimes eats the chewable capsule, sometimes sipts it out. One tip is that you can snip the capsule and add the contents to yoghurt etc It tastes a ^bit6 fishy but mostly of orange/citrus so it surprised me that ds1 prefered them as he haets even the smell of oranges/citrus fruit usually!

There is a code - I am sure indigo will post it again for you - for savings on the vegepa capsules. The cheapest place I have found for the floradix is amazon...£7-8 per bottle.

Its NOT cheap by any means and - a you have seen! - it can be quite a minefield.

Basically, whichever omega 3 you go for it needs to be high in EPA NOT DHA. I know some other posters have used osteocare but we never have so cant comment.

It honestly hasnt been as bad as I thought it would be implementing the diet/healthy eating...ds1 has even tried bacon and sausage (he didnt like them, but even trying them is a BIG step forward for him!)

Good luck

Mary Mary, will your dc swallow tablets? Ds does and it makes life so much easier (dd can't yet and is currently taking some foul tasting meds for scarlet fever that involves drinking loads of water afterwards!)

If you look on TH website there is a code on there for 25% (I think) off Vegepa. I can't cut and paste it very easily using my iPad but will have another go if you can't find it.

Our floridex and kindervital finally arrived today from amazon- bottles smashed to smithereens and liquid all over the books they had packed with it! So another week to wait before we can add the vitamins to ds' diet. Grr

Thats terrible shopping!!! I get mine from amazon from "Discount pharmacy" and have never had any issues!

Really annoying because I just want to get ds better and it feels like any delay wastes valuable time. Is silly as I know it will take 12-18 months.

BeingFluffy - tell your DD (or her precocious friend) to read this artcle which suggests that dyslexia is caused by cerebellum defecits. TH is improving her cerebellum and that is why it will cure her dyslexia.

Also tell her that The computer program she did at TH proved she had a vision problem - which can be easily corrected - and which will improve her reading.

I too think her getting more cheeky could be a sign TH is working. I'd say both of mine are now more cheeky. They question everything more. To me it just feels like their brain is working better.