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

Got ds1s scores from school yesterday.
Since starting TH he has gone from a
1a in reading to a 3c
1b in writing to a 2c and
2c in Maths to a 3b
:)
So he is where he should be in Maths and only slightly behind in reading. He is working at level 3 for writing - just hasn't got there yet....
So pleased.
I think by this time next year he will be level 4s all the way! :)

(so in 6 months)

Badvoc that is amazing! And well done badvoc's ds

Yay for Badvoc's ds!

Fab news :)

So lovely to hear such positive news.

I'm two thirds of the way through the brain food book and am committed to changing ds's (and the rest of us!) diet. Last week I focused on cutting out all the crap. Squash has been banished and not touched by either ds for 6 days now and amazingly they haven't even noticed!

Just been to do the weekly shop for next week having devised my menu and was in telco for an hour and a half reading labels, can't believe how careful you have to be I thought it would just be obvious, processed stuff that would be an issue but turns out even ready to eat apricots are necessarily without preservatives!

Anyway I feel quite confident about cutting out crappy food my main concern is that ds has such a limited range of food he will eat that I'm worried it won't be effective for him. I hope you don't mind but I'm going to write down ds's food plan for next week and maybe you lovely people can show me if there is anything I should cut out. (I know that there is a lot of things I should be trying to add to his diet but this is a child that will retch if he puts a piece of sweet corn in his mouth!)

So here goes.

SUNDAY
Breakfast: eggy bread with whole meal bread, watered down apple juice
Lunch: oatcakes with low fat cream cheese, slice of ham, grapes
Dinner: sausages and beans (low salt and sugar ones)

MONDAY
Breakfast: porridge, banana
Lunch: ham sandwich on whole meal bread, fromage frais (little stars ones that have no shite in them), raisins
Dinner: tuna pasta (wholemeal pasta)

TUESDAY
Breakfast: beans on toast,
Lunch: oatcakes with peanut butter (bought some whole earth stuff that's got less sugar in) apples and from age frais
Dinner: fish fingers and sweet potato chip (don't think he'll touch the sweet potato but going to try)

WEDNESDAY
Breakfast: bacon and beans
Lunch: ham sandwich, fruit, fromage frais
Dinner: spaghetti bog with whole meal spag and hidden carrots and celery

THURSDAY
Breakfast: scrambled egg on toast
Lunch: oatcakes with low fat cream cheese, slice of ham, fruit
Dinner: homemade beef burgers and sweet potato (gonna keep forcing the sweet pots!)

FRIDAY
Breakfast: sausage and bean on toast
Lunch: ham sandwich, fruit, from frais
Dinner: tomato soup

Obviously there will be snacks between meals which wil include, apples, raisins, grapes, bananas and I'm going to make flapjack and the recipe for apricot and sultana slice from the book. Drink wise I will give watered down fruit juice and semi skimmed milk.

Basically within that menu is all the things ds WILL eat (except the sweet pot) I can see there is a massive gap where vegetables should be and not a lot of variety at all but I really hope that over time I can introduce more foods but one thing at a time I guess!

How does it look and bearing in mind those are the only foods ds currently eats is ok for now or am I not even close yet?!! Is there anything there I should give less of or cut out all together?

Sorry for such a long post but I really want to get this right

Can I come? :)
Sounds great to me!
Good luck.
Tbh the diet has been the easiest part for us....ds1 has stuck to it pretty well.
If he really hates sweet pot I wouldn't bother...just use normal pots and keep the skin on..that's what I do.

The more the merrier!

Tried normal potoes yesterday cue retching! Seriously the kid will eat nothing vegetable like at all! I wonder if his palate will change otherwise the above is his set menu til he leaves home!

Haven't even entertained hiding the supplements in his food yet honestly the boy can smell fish oil from miles away!

Mash?
You could mash the sweet pot too I think?
Or mix of the two?

Yes I may try mashing it. Thought about mashing butternut squash and apples together like when he was a baby!

Food plan sounds really good.

I think once you somehow get the supplements into him and start the exercises he will be open to more foods.

I think the vegepa chewables (omega supplement) can be mixed with yoghurt...

How old is he? Are you going to do the stairs exercise with him?

Robin recommends What's really in your basket to say which additives and preservatives are harmful and which aren't.

Using this I found out what was causing DSs heart palpitations - and once we cut out pepperamis they stopped

(Of course DS hadn't bothered to tell me he had heart palpitations because apparently he told me once, when he was 5, 6 years ago, and I told him not to worry - so he hadn't mentioned it again )

Well done cats, that looks a really good start. I thin to have to start with what is acceptable to themand then you can begin to add othe foods in gradually.

Agree tha trying mash migh be a good idea. Would he eat shepherds pie using the same spag bog sauce?

Is porridge ok for breakfast? I always feel guilty when ds has this instead of meat but won't if it is thought acceptable!

Oh, and don't forget 'good quality' sausages too.

Indigo- he's four, now I've got an idea about his food I'm going to start the stair exercises although going have to do it gradually as he is speech delayed and doesn't really get what he's meant to do. I'm going to keep a food diary to so I can see over time if he is accepting more variety. Will also look into ordering supplements this week.

Daftmaul- I was looking through the 14 day food plan in the book and he has put porridge in there once or twice (says to sweeten with honey or add fruit) so I'm going to give maybe once a week as ds really loves it and it is quick and easy!

I've bought those sausages by Jamie Oliver's mate ( the farmer bloke). I would hope at £3 for six they are good quality!!

If he can't do the stairs you can start with the spinning chair.

Though hopefully he'll be fine on the stairs.

Just back from the new forest.

Can't believe we're still only doing vision stuff. Can't believe how many bits of vision there are to work on....

DS has to do Hemi P and Hemi T and eye tracking.

Whereas DD has to do Hemi P and Hemi T and Hemi OT and eye tracking and reading........
He gave her extra cause it's the summer holidays :)

I was hoping we'd be up to fine motor skills, but not yet.

I know I'm ungrateful, because both kids have made huge progress, but I wish the end was in sight.

Will be worth it in the end. If my ds makes half the progress your ds1 has made I will be over the moon and his quality of life and future will be immeasurably better

I know where indigo is coming from tbh...I have been doing therapies with my son now for over a year and tried lots of other things before that so I am coming up to 4 years of trying to help my son with his issues.
I am knackered :(
I am fed up its always me and not dh who takes responsibility. I am fed up that it has cost us £thousands. I am fed up I had to take him out of school and home ed him for a year. I am - basically - just fed up.
Which is silly as ds1 is finally making progress :) but maybe that's it? Maybe indigo and I know we are coming to the end and the fatigue is kicking in?
Who knows.
I wish I could g back and do things differently but I can't. I have to deal with today and whatever is next.
We have a busy summer planned of spelling and punctuation work and Maths catch up. Sigh. It will be worth it in the end.

It's ok, I've bounced back again now.

It's just the initial shock that gets me. :)

The kids have made so much progress. I will get there. They will get there.

And their SEN won't ruin their lives.

I truly believe that this time next year my ds1 won't have any sen.

But I am still tired! :)

Badvoc - I'll race you.

Whose DC can come off the SEN register first.

Obviously I have an unfair advantage, as I have 3 DCs in the race, and you only have one.

I'm still tired as well. And massively resentful that I've had my life sidetracked like this. And resentful of all the childhood my DCs have lost.

DD quite upset tonight.

As tired as we are - the kids are of course far more tired of it all.

Sorry to hear that indigo.
Ds1 is also pretty fed up but I think that's more to do with him being Ill atm :(

It is so hard but we are making a difference to our dcs' lives that will last forever. I too am totally convinced ds will be the same as everyone else (except a bit better because he is mine ) when this process is complete. Before kids I would never have believed I would wish for 'sameness' but sens are exhausting and frustrating and disappointing etc etc Sounds like we still have a lot of challenges ahead of us but you guys have done so well already that it inspires me to keep ploughing on.