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

Hi all

Been to Th today...long long day...left at 9.30am and have not long got back!!

Robin says ds1 has improved with the exercises - his muscle tone is better (which means the exercises are stimulating his cerebellum i.e. working)

He also says his eyes are still not converging properly (esp the left one) so we start Vision Therapy next week.

In other news, last night ds1 told me he wanted to "do some writing"

So I said "ok" and got him some paper and a pencil and off he went....20 mins later he gave me a whole page of neat, quite well spelt and imaginative story about a forest in the jurassic period!!!

Cant wait to start the VT!!!........

We had our statement review today. The teacher was very clear that DS's behaviour has changed dramatically (since the point of starting vitamins/fish oils etc).

I want to ask a question though ...

DS is 5 and alongside with behaviour changing he has become quiet extremely sensitive about doing things wrong/ upsetting people/ breaking rules etc

If he thinks he has broken a rule, or is going to get into trouble he becomes very anxious and upset. Prior to the TH vitamin regime he could not give a toss about these things.

I just don't know whether I am connecting the two things and shouldn't be. Has anyone else found their children to react in this way?

Skewiff - my kids have changed a lot as the treatment progresses.

DD went through a few weeks of absolute uncharacterisic anger. Temper tantrums every day. And then as suddenly as it started it stopped.

Whereas DS developed facial tics. 2 weeks of moving his jaw when he was stressed. And then it stopped.

So I think it is possible what you're seeing is due to the treatment. And I think it's also possible it will just be temporary.

Becca - great news about the progress. Can't believe DS chose to wrote a story.

Becca - how did Robin test his muscle tone?

He did the test where he sort of bashes him from side to side? Sorry dont know the technical name for it!

It was so bloody obvious about the tracking/convergence issues though...I was quite close to robin and ds1 when he was tesing it (with the diopters) and even I could see it!! Makes me so cross that a paed, GP, optician and senco all missed it. I have been telling them for years that IMO ds1 has tracking/convergence issues!!! But hey, what would I know.

skewiff Differences I have noticed with ds1 are;
He now dances!
He now answers back/is cheeky to us
He is a bit more whingy generally

His teachers told us last week that he is "flying" and that "something has just clicked" Yes.

Am v v excited about starting VT...It seems so hard to believe that in a matter of only 6 weeks ds1's vision could be sorted.

....oh, and for those of you doing the stair exercises, robin confirmed yesterday that they need to be done slowly I think you need to be doing them for about 4 months to complete the set (we will have taken that long).

Also, for those of you giving floradix saludynam and kindervital robin says its ok to give the 20mls in one go rather than 10mls twice a day...I kept forgetting one dose so now I just do both at the same time.

HTH x

That is good to know re the stair exercises, thankyou. Ds has been rushing through them to get them over with but have made him do them slowly today!

I'm kind of relieved that some of you who have been having good results have not been curtailing screen time massively. Using extra screen time as a reward has always been useful, so I will continue doing so - especially on wet weekends like this!

We haven't had any more complaints from ds about feeling sick after taking his supplements. I give him one Vegepa and multivitamin after breakfast and his zinc/magnesium and a second Vegepa after tea. I might increase the Vegepa, Indigo, don't you give more than two ('swallowable') per day?

daft We dont really limit screen time tbh...ds1 isnt that into computer games anyway, but does watch his dvds A LOT - esp when the weather is bad and he cant be outside.

Ds1 tries to rush them too but I am being really strict with him and make him start over if he rushes!

I only give 2 swallowable ones a day.

And we're all settling down to watch a kids DVD now :)

I don't think DS has any symptoms of omega deficiency now. But it will probably take a few months for you to get there.

Previously DS had lots of bumps on his face and upper arms due to omega defeciency. (and DS2 was getting mouth ulcers due to magnesium defeciency )

I really do need to limit DS2s screen time. I know I do. But I have too much on my plate right now to be able to tackle it.

Hi everyone

Just thought I would check in with you all it's wonderful to hear how all your Dc's are progressing. My DD had quite a good week last week we just had a couple of minor incidents the one on Friday involved DD who is 5 telling her teacher and the classroom asst that they were both idiots so on a positive note her command of the English language is much improved

Am now doing the stairs in conjunction with the chair spins and she seems a lot more co-ordinated. Her anger/ tantrums have all but disappeared her reading is coming along really well. The teacher is still concerned about what she is taking in but it is obvious that she has made huge progress since January.

Can I just say aswell. I now notice that DD is much much more controlled in school. She doesn't hit anymore and rarely has a tantrum but on the flip side of that it is almost like because she is controlling herself so well at school when she comes home she is a real wee madam almost trying to pick a fight over the slightest thing? Does anyone else find that or is it just me????

Been checking a few things yesterday.

ZINC & IRON supplements beyond the levels of doses in the supplements mentioned on this thread should be medically supervised. If you aren't sure your kid is getting enough of either of these a trip to the GP's is in order. (Robin Pauc himself reccomends this in his book, as he isn't a medical doctor). Both can be easily checked with a simple blood test.

We all know about over supplementation of Vit A, but it seems as a group we have less knowledge about zinc, so I thought that might be worth highlighting.

Below is just the impression I got last night after doing an old fashioned "compare and contrast" exercise with my highlighter pens.

I'd say if your kid has gut issues (and you'll KNOW if poos are a problem!), start with the GAPS diet with an eventual goal being to move onto the Brain Food Plan only after the gut has healed.

There's also a lot more info on pre & pro biotics in the GAPS books, as Robin Pauc's books are a little thin on info for this area.

The GAPS author is medically qualified and her dietry explanations are much more in depth. However she doesn't touch on specifc theraputic excercises so her focus is much narrower. However she does address "True Autism", which Robin Pauc's protocol is not designed to address.

Good advice Bochead.

I spoke to Robin about the GAPS diet for DS, because he was sort of on it - well actually he was more GF/CF than GAPS :) but it was all inspired by GAPS.

And Robin agreed we should continue that diet with DS. But that we didn't need to do it with DD.

bochead - do you think that all these supplements maybe the reason for DS's poos changing colour. His poos are very pale now. They are much more solid than they used to be too (sorry for so much information!)

I give him osteocare and wondered whether this might have been the reason for them becoming so pale ... The osteocare has highish levels of zinc - well 6mg I think DS gets, maybe less as I only give him half the dose of the liquid.

Should I go to the doctor about pale poo - he seems fine and healthy in himself .. I wondered if it might mean that he was low in iron.

RDA for Zinc:

1?3 years 3 mg
4?8 years 5 mg
9?13 years 8 mg
14?18 years 11 mg
19+ years 11 mg

So 6mg of Zinc sounds about right. And stools being more solid is good news.

I have no idea about the colour though.

Remember in the 1970's pale dog poop on the pavements? It was caused by the common practice of dogs eating bones and excreting the excess calcium. (Now I know why DS likes collecting random facts).

If tan/pale brown coloured stick with with it for a week or so & see if it rights itself - if it stays tan see GP. If grey, green or greasy summats not quite right - see GP. (take a sample in a clear container).

Do you think its possible to take too much EPA, I've just found a super strength omega3 supplement with 664mg per 5ml serving. Would be very economical if I gave the DS's 2.5mls each. What do you think?

Check the Vit A content. Too much vit A is harmful deffo.

Whats the ratio of DHA to EPA? A lower dose of higher EPA ratio is healthier.

Equizen and Vegepa are both properly screened for mercury (neurotoxin) content which is very important. Not all supplements are.

I always err on the side of caution re supplements (ask next time you are at the GP's for safe levels) as a child should be getting the vast majority of their nutrients from a decent diet, and if they aren't you need to work on that before anything.

Wiggly - me and BlueShark have our kids on a 1000mg of EPA a day.

I recommend starting with 500mg, so the supplement you've found is fine in that regard.

How much DHA has it got?

I really think that vegepa is a good supplement, and it's not expensive.

I use Eye-Q for ds1 which gives him;
558mg of epa and 162mg of dha per day.

I use floradix saludynam (cal, mag and zinc) which gives him;
2.3mg of zinc and
124mg of magnesium
per day which are, respectively, 23% and 33% of RDA.

Obviously in an ideal world we would all get all our vitamin and mineral requirement from our diet but its not an ideal world and I, for one, dont eat as well as I should.

Sorry, should also have said that the Floradix saludynam is the zinc/mag supplement Robin recommends.

Robin also gives a code to use for Vegepa in orde to get 25% off. I think it works out cheaper direct from the company using the code, than from Amazon.

I can look it up if anyone wants it.

Yes, the code is on his website. It's EKP7EKGG

Using that code I bought the 'mailer box' which is about 6 months supply for about £40.

Blimey thats a good price indigo

Becaroo, could you snip them and squeeze the contents into something he eats/drinks?

Happy to send a few tablets from my stock if you want to try?