TINSLEY HOUSE SUPPORT THREAD - PART 3!!!! :)

[Badvoc]

Well, here is the shiny new thread for all of us either doing the TH programme, doing part of it, or thinking about doing it! :)
A brief synopsis of stage 1 of the programme can be found in the books "is that my child?" Or "the brain food plan" by robin pauc;

Stage 1 of the TH therapy consists of:

1. Daily Multivitamins

• Omega
• Zinc & Magnesium

1. Healthy eating

• High protein, low sugar, no artificial sweeteners, additives etc.

1. Specific neuro development exercises done 3 times a day

• Takes about 4-5 mins

And that's it :)

Stage 2 involves computer programmes to sort out eye tracking and convergence which over 80% of children with reading/writing problems have.

• www.engagingeyes.co.uk

We are coming to the end of our time doing TH I reckon...certainly by the end of the summer I think. It has been in many ways much easier than I thought at the beginning but of course takes commitment and time.

I am so glad we "took the plunge". It has made such a difference to ds and to our lives :)

Hello! I'm back. I've been keeping up with the thread in between mopping up way more body fluids than I'm comfortable with. Turned out DS had rotavirus, which after googling, I now know to be the biggest cause of v&d in children worldwide. He started to pick up on Tuesday last week, just about the same time as DD started to vomit. She's only 14 months and it took her a while longer to perk up. It was a loooooong week with 2 wasted weekends. Apart from 2 trips to the doctor, we've been in for 10 days!

Anyway, back to normal for us now. Still seeing improvements in DS daily, despite a break from the programme. I'm sure he was playing doctors with a teddy at the weekend! It's completely unscientific, but he's been way more echolalic in the last week, and had gone back to using the gobble-de-gook language he used to use all the time. I'm putting it down to not having his omegas/vits for about 5 days as he was so ill. It's nothing more than anecdotal but it gives me hope that this is working!

Brightstars My DS was 3 in January, and we started TH at the end of February. We do the stairs and chair exercises. I thought I'd struggle to get him to comply with any of it, diet, supplements or exercises, but he's actually been great. He really liked Robin so we always say we're doing the exercises for Robin and he doesn't seem to mind. My DS also wasn't good at responding to his name but this is much, much better now.

PrinceRogersNelson Good to hear your DD is doing so well. I think you've totally summed up how I feel too. Lots of little things improving but together they make life so much easier!

Right, I'm off to make a lasagne for dinner while my DC are both napping.

Princerogersnelson lovely to see you ( waves) and brilliant news re dd's progress. So pleased for you all

Hi everyone.
Got back at midnight last night so am feeling a bit fragile :)
Good trip, but kissed the boys so much...have never been away from them for so long.
Tom - ds2 to be fair - coped brilliantly :)
Tom only has 2 pairs if clean pats left, but hey you can't have everything :)
Great news on the progress.
Glad the sickness has finally left the house lookslikerain!
BP...it was a gradual ting wrt reading. Tom was what I would call reading phobic tbh. It was that bad. He would never voluntarily even look at a book :(
I started to notice that he was looking at books from the bookshelves (we have lots of books! :)) then he was reading them out loud, and now he does silent reading.
His reading group at school is reading stig of the dump atm, which is HUGE progress for him.
It's very very hard for me to quantify toms progress as he has progressed in every area! :)

...oh and apparently he is being considered for the lead role in the end of term play!!

Fabulous!

Play update...he is an owl! :)
And delightd so that's the main thing.
His friend is jack and Tom feels very sorry for him :)
Can't wait to see his costume!

Owl how sweet. You'll be subjected to weeks of practice screeching :)

I love the owl! We are into owls bigtime in this house!

Hello all. I'm back from my walking trip - it was great fun and I def feel a bit fitter. The weather was awful, but I really enjoyed having a few days away on my own...

So much good news to catch up on.

Prince - sounds like DD is doing incredibly well.

Shoppingbags - whey hey to the class cup - that is just amazing and I felt so proud for you when I read that. Did you have a big celebration?

Beautiful - good news about the tic. Sorry to hear about DH's granny

Welcome Brightstars - good to hear that you are getting to grips with it all. I think the first couple of weeks are the hardest while you get used to new routines and diets. Our dd started at TH in Jan aged 2.5. She had been on the diet for a couple of months before and was delighted to start copying her big brother. She does the chair, stair and Where's Wally with a Richard Scarry book instead - she's very happy to do them, but the stair technique has been all over the place - at times I have felt quite ridiculous, but we are beginning to get there! She has made great progress with her speech and has come out of her shell. I am so pleased that we started her. It is expensive and also time consuming adding in the extra exercises but I have no doubt that we were going to have more problems as she got older and I would much rather do the pair together now. Would be really happy to chat more if you would like to pm me or call me.

We've got our review with Robin next week and I'm looking forward to seeing how we are doing. I am taking my mother who doesn't think there is anything wrong with our dcs, so it will be interesting to see what she thinks of it all!

Oh dear.
Tom seems to ha a chest infection again! :(
Taking him to docs later.
My nephews are ill Fm e there are,lots of bugs going around, but he is supposed to be going on a residential trip next week for 4 days! :(

Ruggles...my mil spent years telling me Tom was ok. That he was "just like dh".
Sigh.
No.
Dh could learn to read and write. And wasnt crippled by anxiety.
Of course now TH is the best thing since sliced bread :)

..l.and when we (I) took him out of school to HE she didn't speak to me for 2 weeks!
Then 6 months later told me "it was the best thing we ever did"
:) :) :)

Ruggles, Badvoc, snap! There's 'nothing wrong' with DS1 either according to MIL he's just like his dad. And when we see pictures of very poorly children we must think how lucky we are to have such 'normal' children....(clearly I'm very grateful for my children's health....)

I have to say it was a big thing for me to commit to TH and assert my authority to 'know' DS1 and to know his (and our) lives would be so much better if we could get to the bottom of all the things he struggles with. But I feel pretty empowered having made that step. Hopefully we'll have the turn around in opinion you've had Badvoc but to be honest I won't really care if I'm told 'see, he was alright in the end'.

Think I need to learn to have the confidence of knowing my DS and being his advocate a littlel more at school too.

Harriet...my confidence wrt Tom has always been very poor. I was never taken seriously by family/hcps/teachers.
It's taken me a long time to realise that it's not that don't want to help, but that they can't. They dont know how. So they come out with meaningless platitudes instead. Tell you what you think you need to hear.
It's wrong, but I don't blame them anymore.

We've deliberately told no one other than my mum and a couple of my friends for this very reason. In laws are totally in denial that ds had a problem to start off with. They hardly ever see him and 'he's just like dh' but tbh he's just like them too.
I've told a couple of acquaintances about TH thinking it could change their lives too. One hasn't got round to reading the book 6 months later (her poor ds is crippled with anxiety, often can't leave the house because of bowel problems and has developed a tic that's so dramatic it makes his shoulder hurt, but she can't get round to reading the book) and another never replied to my email so clearly thinks I'm a loon.
Have decided to keep it to myself in future.

Shopping....
I have told a few people irl too...people whose kids i believe would really benefit.
Have heard nothing back.
I don't mind people thinking I am a loon :)

My whole family think I am a loon. My DSister thinks there is nothing wrong with DS and that his behaviour is caused by my anxiety over him - she thinks that its all in my head and that I don't understand children. She has seen DS 4 times in the last year and it makes me fizz... Its how boys are, the school, our parenting, you name it... By contrast, MIL, who spends quite a lot of time with DS, feels that we should be doing rather more with him - you can't win!!

Hello everyone,

We're off to see Robin in half term (and the otters and owls while we are there). I've started DD on the vegepa chewables already, and we'll wait to see what else he suggests. I took the plunge because I can see that, without glasses, her squint is getting worse again. If he helps her co-ordination too, that's a total bonus.

And I'm very aware that her problems are minor in comparison with what most of you are dealing with, so I hope you don't mind me joining in. I will pipe down if it gets annoying.

Welcome inthesark - That's great that you've made an appointment and hope that Robin will be able to help. He is great with DCs and we are very pleased to be doing the programme. How old is your DD?

No such thing as minor in this thread inthesark!
Welcome and good luck.

Welcome inthesark. Otters and owls are fab! We have been going there for years and my dcs still insist on visiting every year at least!

Incidentally, ds is an otter in his end of term play!

I'm exhausted, it has been a tough couple of weeks for various reasons and the builder is still finishing the bathroom (after not turning up yesterday!). Can't wait for a relaxed weekend!

Sorry it's been a stressful time lately daft :(
Hope things get better this week x
Tom is 10 next month
Can't believe it!
Planning his b day tea party and surprise :)
Both dc are snotty and tired and do its early bath and bed tonight and trashy tv for me...hurrah!

Gggrrr to builders - there is nothing worse than the last few days of a building job... Hope they show up and finish up soon. An otter is good though

Haha, don't tell me that about builders, we are about to start on a giant refurb project (when listed buildings eventually let us) as we don't currently live in the downstairs of our house. Hope he turns up soon Daftmaul.

DD is 6 and has consistently been an otter for over two years now, so we're already regulars there (in fact we've sponsored an otter!) as it's not too far away from us. She's had a bad squint since two, had two operations and been signed off from the NHS, but it's coming back. She also has pretty poor gross motor skills (still comes down stairs one at a time for example) but less so with fine, although she has developed an odd pen grip recently. Robin says that apparently both of these are linked as they are to do with the cerebellum, so let's see what happens.

Hello again, and thank you for all yor welcomes, comments etc.

I am a complete newbie, and can't see how to PM someone, or post a smiley (I'd post an embarrassed smiley now, if I knew how!!)

So, now I have lots of questions, but will stick with a few...

Ruggles, lookslikerain, my ds3 tries to join in with stairs when her sister does them already. As she can't go up our stairs using alternate legs with her eyes open, I have to hold her under her arms to keep her upright. Is this what happens with your dc's or are they more co-ordinated!? Also, I am nervous about feeling I have to insist on her doing the exercises (if we paid to do TH for her, I would feel we had to do it), day after day......do your dc's just accept it as part of their life?

Reading the above posts, I'm not sure we're doing the diet right. Robin basically said to us, cut out junk food, and add protein to breakfast. DS1 doesn't show any hyperactive signs, and so Robin said we didn't have to be rigid about the diet, and that she could have two "treats" a week. We have cut out the junk at home, but I don't feel I can insist play date mum's cook something specific for her (how do you deal with this? DS1 has two play dates this week......do you cancel these things?). We eat wholemeal bread, pasta etc and organic when we can, but it appears that maybe I should be pouring over labels more??? Am I being woefully hopeful in my transation of the "diet"? Last night for example, we did home made pizzas, by which I mean, a ready made base, some fresh tom sauce from sains, stir fried fresh veg, and cheese on top........am I way off the mark? None of these ingredients have any e numbers......(she says hopefully)........

Re diet, we are not as strict as some other Tinsely housers and have still seen brilliant results. The points from Robin's plan that I stick to rigidly are: high protein for breakfast and increased protein for other meals, no artificial additives ( except at parties and other people's homes) and vegepa every day. I would say I am much more mindful about the dcs diet than previously.
i used to think that because my kids weren't overweight and were healthy, then their diet was fine. I hadn't really thought much about the effect of diet on the brain, rather than just the body. I now take more care particularly with the snacks I offer them. We used to have a packet of chocolate buttons or cookie or cupcake every day after school. I now vary with breadsticks, hummus, rice cakes etc.
I think it's vital that kids don't stand out and be a target for teasing so I let them have what they like when we are with their friends.