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 :)

Hi all, haven't been on here for a while, I hope you are all doing well.

We have been buying floradix calcium, magnesium, zinc, vit D and the floradix multivitamin but seem to be flying through them...is there anything cheaper? I would be very grateful if someone could link me.

Also my DD has been having 2 eggs and bacon for breakfast every morning but its definitely leaving her with very runny poo....since changing back to toast it's settled again! Obviously I really don't want this and not sure what to do. DD also has Crohn's.

Hmmmm... I don't know anything about crohns, I'm sorry.
Are they supposed to avoid fat in their diets? Perhaps try and introduce more variety? My ds does have muffins and toast at breakfast, but has it with some protein (beans, cheese etc)
Perhaps you could ask her paed?
I use holland and barrat mag and zinc tablets which are £6.

Hi Pouncer, as Badvoc says, do you think the fatty bacon may be triggering diarrhoea?

Could she maybe try eggs on toast?

Ds had his final school fete today and took part in the Y6 Talent Show. He dressed as a geisha with wig, white face paint and he and his friend came second! It was brilliant!

Thank you both for your advice. We are visiting TH soon...is carbs allowed at breakfast? Should she eat the egg before the bread? Or it doesn't matter?

Sorry so many questions! Lol.

I am going to try and pop into town to see if I can find the zinc and mag vits..are they ones for children or adults?

Hang on...will check mine...they are just called magnesium with zinc.
They are small white tablets, 100 per tub. The tub is green.
Ds usually has some carbs at bfast, but with protein too....so beans on toast, cheese on toast etc

My book (the brain food plan), Floradix and Vegepa has arrived and I have such mixed feelings. I am scared at the commitment and the cost excited as I feel sure it will work and sad that this may have worked for ds1 instead of 10 years of Ritalin which has never sat well with me. If it works for ds3 then I may discuss weaning ds1 off Ritalin and onto these.

I am going to go to Holland and Barrett for the Magnesium and Zinc and start ds1 on then. I will give them to ds3 when the Floradix runs out.

I will probably be back daily for advice!

Jinty...I remember that feeling well!
The hope and the fear mixed together.
Just do it.
Then look back and smile x

Thank you

Pouncer - yes I remember reading somewhere in the book that carbs are important and it's not an Atkins diet - just need to get the proportion of carbs/protein right, esp at breakfast. Robin's suggested breakfast includes egg on toast and eggy toast - both one egg ane one slice of toast so I use that as my kind of basis.

Jinty - good luck! I had the book for a year before I dared actually commit!

And our good news here is that DS1 came home on Friday with pupil of the week certificate for his maths! He'd been really good at telling me about maths this week (unusual)- how he'd been first to put up his whiteboard with an answer on (for the first time in his life - usually he's looking out of a window) and had volunteered to try the extra sheet for homework because he thought he could manage the harder sums (again, utterly unheard of for him to volunteer to do ANY work, let alone extra work). Cautiously excited :)

Can I just ask the magnesium and zinc tub Holland and barrett one can it be given to children as it is said 18 yrs on it?

Mine doesn't say an age on it.
Harriet...lovely :)

...just checked the website.
You are absolutely right Stephanie!
It does say not for under 18s on the website.
Hmmm...ds has been taking them for months with no ill effect but I guess I should find an alternative now I know!
Thanks x

Ok....have just managed to track down the ones ds used to have by biocare.
Will try to link...
[[I just bought 'Biocare Kids Complete 30 Capsules' on Nutri Supplements
store-]]

Hello again, thank you shopping, bavoc, lookslikerain for you reassuring input re the diet side of things, and experiences of little ones.

Re zinc and magnesium, I bought the Boots brand that Robin showed me when I went. Zinc 10mg says not suitable for under 12s, as does the magnesium. I couldn't find the mag that Robin showed me so bought the calcium amg combination and ds takes half the dose , which is just over what Robin suggested, also not suitable for under 12s. ds is almost 9, but as Robin showed me these, I bought them. Has anyone tried these? not using them because.......?

Also, it's lovely to read about everyone's progress, and for some people, quite early on, but of course then I am worrying that we are not. We have been doing exercises, and suppliments religiously, since Easter, and diet as best we can around play dates, parties etc. So far I really can't see any changes in ds. Has anyone else had this, I'm worrying that maybe this program isn't for everyone and we are one of these.......:(. I just found some school work from a year ago, and really there is no differnce in ds ability to write or spell.........v depressing...

We are seeing Robin again next week. I'm presuming he will re-test eyes etc, and I hope that as we are doing Engaging Eyes, he will find some change, but in terms of ds's reading errors (skipping words, reading backards) etc there has been no change I can see, and she is still as slow to take things in as ever...... She has fininshed wack and alien and target A. Maybe we haven't done enough yet?

We are really only going for dyslexia symptoms, and Robin didn't find anything else either when he assessed.

We're only 2 months in, and I'm a bit worn out with it all...........

2 months is not long brightstars.
I can't remember when we first saw improvements with ds but it was probably around the 3-4 month mark.
Can you link to the boots brand mag and zinc?

(Whispers because Robin would disapprove) we only did magnesium and zinc for the first three months and haven't bothered since. We do, however, do vegepa religiously. Ds has still made massive improvements. I am convinced the exercises are the key to this programme and the diet, supplements etc work to help the brain respond to the exercises iyswim. Are you doing stairs etc brightstars?
P.s I know very little about dyslexia though, it's about the only DDS symptom ds didn't have.

My sons main issue was dyslexia too BS.
He is currently reading "how to train your dragon" book 5 :)
His writing has also improved immensely, although we do still need to do some work on his spelling.
I agree with shopping tbh...the vegepa is more important IMHO.

We saw no discernible difference by our first follow up appointment. Robin thought he saw differences and there were some when he retested her, but I was pretty .

And then a week later her nursery were singing her praises and since then there has been steady progress.
It is not a quick fix, but stick with it.

I am still unsure how far DD will go. And part of that is self preservation - I don't want to hope for too much. But i am so delighted that we started doing TH.

We don't do magnesium or zinc either. Vegepa everyday and decent diet. But DD has a great diet anyway and will eat anything we give her and doesn't really ask for sweets etc.

Thank you, all. My spirits are lifted! Will write more later as have little one at home, and off to gymfants.

Hello again, DD (not DS, must have dyslexia too!) told our babysitter that she is "rubbish at literacy, I'm in the bottom group of the bottom class" tonight. V sad to hear her say this, altho have to say she doesn't seem that bothered.....part of the problem...... Here's hoping we're in a different place soon.

Here's the link to the zinc tablets.....
www.boots.com/en/Boots-Pharmaceuticals-Immune-Health-Zinc-10mg-60-Tablets-_1139700/

And the mag zinc
www.boots.com/en/Boots-Pharmaceuticals-Calcium-Magnesium-180-Tablets-_1139818/
This mag dose is a bit higher than Robin suggested (nearly 180mg instead of 140mg).........

Any opinions on whether these are good, bad or ugly, gratefully recieved.

Shopping, yes we are dong stairs, good some days, bad others........the usual pattern with DD

Bavoc, greatly cheered to know Tom also had dyslexia symptoms and has improved, thank you......

We do vegepa every day, just wish I could persuade other two DDs to take it too as it seems SO good for them, they are 6 and 3. 6 year old can't swallow non chewables, and neither likes taste of chewables, any ideas? Would have tried bribing with chocolate in the past!!

Bit brighterstars, thanks to you guys :)

Poor dd, that makes me sad. Keep on keeping on, I am sure she will start to see some improvement herself too.
Chewables- I snip them and squeeze the goop into ds' morning fruit juice. He then hoovers it up with a straw. He didn't like the feel of the casing in his mouth so wouldn't chew the chewables but this works well for us. I think if you wanted to completely hide the goop you could try mixing it into fruit yogurt

Bright stars I have just been to see Robin for follow up and for my ds aged 9 he said he could have one of the boots zinc 10mg tablets even though the bottle says for over 12's. With regard to mag we use the boots red tub that says magnesium 375g. Robin said to give just one tablet for my 9 year old instead of 2.

Our 2nd appt was good and although we had a slow start (march this year) I was initially convinced that nothing had improved. However we are now just starting to see things improve and this became apparent when Robin retested, both boys are now starting engaging eyes target practice and ds1 is on hemi p. I'm so glad that we have persevered :)

Hi guys, I'm back!

Brightstars- As far as I understand, Robin starts with the cerebellum. The stairs and teeth are cerebellar exercises. These target dyspraxia in the main. The dyslexia is tackled more later on when you do the megastim exercises. My DD who only has a smidge of dyslexia ( Her main problem is ( was) attention deficit)made her main gains when she got to those exercises. I think you will start seeing the progress you want when you do those exercises. You should start getting them when your DD has completed Engaging Eyes.

I've had hair analysis on my kids and guess what?....they are both zinc and magnesium deficient.....I do vegepa but buy zinc, magnesium and B vitamins from foresight.

We went back to Robin on 4th May. My DS had been doing hemi p an t since his last appointment but developed a tic at the end of April. Thankfully, Indigo had experience with this and I spoke to Robin straight away. He told me to stop hemi t and so he hadnt done that for 2 weeks when we went to Robin . Robin told us to continue hemi p and gave us yoyo to do when we saw him( basically DS has to yoyo for a couple of minutes with his left had 2 or 3 times a day) The good news is the tic has gone. Do feel that we have taken a slight step back ( had hoped to be doing opk by now) but so gladd the tic has gone. Hope to get back on track at our next appintment.

DS has survived the yr 2 SATS...in fact he said he quite enjoyed them. I see this as amazing progress. 11 months ago he was so stressed about school I thought I would have to home educate. We still have a long way to go with his reading and spelling, but things are so much easier now and he still has quite alot of Robin's programme to go.

DD has now finished the megastim exercises and is just doing brain training. She really enjoys the games. I am not worried about her. She does not have ADD anymore. She has ADD traits but they almost gone.

By the way, it was me that did Engaging Eyes. It is hard, Vision therapy is in many ways the hardest part of this treatment. You just have to keep on keeping on. Yes, really important to NOT look away from the screen as you just loose it. If you need to move the arrow keys for your children ( as long as they tell you up or down iyswim)that's fine. Anything to stop them looking away from the target and circles. I bribed my DS with fruit pastilles

Jinty- meant to say a big welcome. We are here for you every day. Like Badvoc, I remember those early days, filled with trepidation and hope.