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

We go back on Friday pop

Parents evening tomorrow Oh how I dread them!

daftmaul Am loving your nn!!!

I absolutely agree that there will be ups and downs for all of us..and its important to talk about them as much as the progess!!

Hi

I have just started this with DS.

Thanks for the Zn and Mg supplement link, I have been using Osreocare but Ds hates it. We are also using eye qs which ds likes but although the EPA/DLA ratio is Ok I noticed it has strawberry flavouring in so may try the OMEGA supplement in the link too .

I have also been making my own bread in my lovely new panasonic breadmaker as Ds loves bread and really the additives in shop bought bread, even the reasonably good ones are quite scary.

Breakfast now consists of homemade wholemeal bread/toast and one of

ham,

hummous (sometimes homemade if I can manage it),
sardines (ones without bones or skin)
Tinned mackeral
Baked beans (low salt and sugar)
Eggs
Veggie sausages

Sometimes we have Porrige (this I am afraid has some syrup in)#
Ds is surprisingly willing to try sardines and mackerel as I tell him they are brain food and he is very keen to eat healthily at the moment. I think some of this is due to his current anxieties about dying , but for once that is a good thing.

Indigo - Try not to over worry about the blip. Focus on how far you have come. One agresssive incident since September is very good, it is one in over 6 months. How many did your ds have last year?. Try and see where the improvements have been.

You are doing a very good job.

Also I wanted to post that Ds is doing Easy Read at the moment and it has helped his reading a lot, We have our first appointment for vision therapy later this week and will see how that goes

We are still on the stair walking exercises at the moment. Can anyone clarify what is meant by doing them "perfectly". Ds is pretty wobbly at the moment or else he thumps his feet down and sort of jerks up and down?

Are we aiming for a slow glide? or just for him to walk without wobbling? I can't see him managing it perfectly for several weeks yet.

It takes time *bumbling

Ds1 has been doing the stair exercise for 8 weeks and is only just starting going backwards and is pretty wobbly

I think we will be doing them for another 8 weeks!

He is much better at doing his teeth now though.

BB - my kids are still doing the stairs exercise after almost 4 months.

I very much hope when we go back next week Robin says they don't need to do them anymore.

Anyway, over time they get better. At the beginning it should be hard for them to do.

I think doing them properly means walking normally, with full control. So not wobbling and thumping.

I understood 'perfectly' to mean - one foot on each step, hands by sides not touching banister or wall and keeping eyes closed all the way up and down.

I don't think wobbling too bad if they are not touching anything to re-balance.

But what do I know, I'm jus a newbie at this!

Thanks Becaroo. I quite like this new name too

Interestingly, dd cannot do the stairs at all and she is not the one following the plan.

When I gather the energy, I may get her to do them too.

I tried the backwards one and fell over

My dd isn't on the plan either but insists on doing the stairs too (she can't let ds get all the limelight) she has found it easier than ds but it certainly is hard for most people to do regardless of any developmental delays!

Beca- parents eve and TH in the same week! Don't worry about what the teacher will say, I think so much depends on how the dcs have been behaving over the last few days- ds' was all positivity at ours before half term saying SENCo was seeing lots of improvement in him. For the next three days he hurt another child quite badly every single day. The teacher then sent me to see the key stage 1 manager for her to sort me out!

I think it is the same at school as it has been at home with more good days (hence the teacher's positivity) but still there are plenty of bad ones too (hence the hurting). Hopefully there will be fewer and fewer of those as we progress.

I find though that it's perversely harder to deal with the bad days when they come after a few good ones. When you are in the mindset that pick-up will involve grave looks from the teacher and tears and tantrums from ds you mentally prepare yourself for it. It's much harder to deal with if you're not expecting it iyswim.

12 words! 12 words in a sentance with the right tense and meaning -AND the proper linking words too and all his own work!

Sorry just a little excited - went to TH about 3 weeks ago and ds is coming on in leaps and bounds.

This is the child who 7 months ago was communicating in signs and had about 10 clear words

very very proud of him! TH works!!

Fantastic news! I'm so happy for you and little who.

(Is that 12 words spoken or written?)

Very, very exciting.

Wow, amazing!

Does he realise how wonderful it is too?

Ds said he felt sick this morning. I'm wondering whether the vitamin tablets I gave him might have caused it. The Vegepa hasn't arrived yet so was only multivitamin and Osteocare. Anyone else had this?

12 spoken words! His TA is being brilliant with him - she does an hour every day of speech modelling and word games and she says his concentration has improved no end and that there is very little resistance to the work now (used to have a melt down nearly every session as it was "too hard")

She had me in stitches yesterday telling about a game they play where she pretends to be a robot and ds has to give her voice commands to tell her what to do - they went for a walk round the school and the little sod directed her into the HT's office. Apparently ds was killing himself laughing and thankfully the HT saw the funny side of it.

I know we still have a long way to go but tbh I didn't think we would get to where we are for a long time (if ever)

who Oh wow! Thats so fantastic! Very very pleased for you and your ds

daft Hmm...not sure on this one...are you giving them to him before/after or with food? I know one of them has to be before meals?

Please send good vibes for parents evening tonight!...I would just, for onece, to come away from a parents evening without me feeling very down/depressed and like I am failing my son

who amazing progress for your ds and in such a short time too- just think what progress he might make in a year from now! You must be over the moon!

beca sending lots of good vibes to you for tonight. Just remember you are NOT failing him, you are doing a great job. Even though sometimes they make great leaps like mini-who has done, most of the time it is very slow almost imperceptible progress, but over time it adds up to a very different child. You will get there eventually- we all will.

Hello everyone!

Well, I survived ds2's pre school booster jabs and Ds1's parents evening.

So.

When he was assessed last year (oct) Ds1 was;
Reading - 1a
Writing - 1b
Numeracy - 2c - the same as he had been for the whole of Y3

As of last assessment (dec) he was;
Reading - 2b
Writing - 2c
Numeracy - 3c

....and his teachers say he has made progress since then too!!! They think he is probably a 3b in numeracy now (target for end of Y4)!!!

They have both noticed a change since Jan - i.e. since TH! - and are very happy/pleased that he is a) making such good progress for the first time ever and b) his confidence is growing. It is really lovely to have teachers as pleased as I am about ds1's progress!!!

Just.....wow

Roll on the vision therapy and 3''s across the board!!!

:) :) :) :)

I know !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

....oh, and its not just NC scores either...they both commented on how much more involved he has become in class...in science (which he has never really bothered with much) and their topic atm which is India.

Am just thrilled.

Sorry!

How wonderful Becaroooo

What a positive parents evening. I think a celebration mus be in order in the Becaroooo household!

Yep. am already mainlining Lindt chocolate!

To what extent do you attribute the improvements to the diet compared to the excercise part of the programme (eg if you had to give a ratio or weighting to the programme components how would you?)

Not much more I can do on the diet front.

Bochead - the most important part of the therapy are the exercises.

It is the exercises which are the 'neurodevelopment' part of the therapy.

I really think you should try it. It doesn't cost any money to get started.....

I really dont think its the diet tbh boc His diet was pretty good to begin with i.e. no sugar/choc/fizzy stuff etc - was very carb heavy which Robin has told me is very common in kids with underfunctioning/underdeveloped cerrebellums...they crave it.

We have only made minor adjustments to his diet - He now has;
A protein breakfast
Fruit puree (he will not/cannot eat whole fruit)
Veg and potatoes at dinner
Thats it really! Am also going to introduce a couple of gluten free foods like pasta too to see if that helps.

Plus the supplements, but I am also unsure how much is down to those...

The diet is certainly helping his bowels though which is great.

Ds1 has already done RRT and responded VERY well (only took 9 months to complete the course) and I feel its mostly the exercises to stimulate the cerebellum(that has been underfunctioning/not developing properly) rather than the diet and supplements that have helped ds1.

If I had to use a ratio I would say;
Exercises - 80%
Diet - 10%
Supplements - 10%

For someone elses dc (like indigo's) it might be completely different.

If the childs diet was really bad/limited/restricted for whatever reason then I could see the parents attributing any improvements to the diet and supplements rather than the exercises IYSWIM? But I have seen, firsthand, the amazing results that can be obtained with these sorts of exercises. They are - and I am not exagerating - life changing.