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 :)

My DS is 13 and has Tourettes, OCD and an anxiety disorder. He is home educated because he couldn't cope with secondary school. He hardly goes out. Could Tinsley House help him?

Oh, and the end of your post resonated with me, Beautiful, as we cancelled our holiday this summer because DS can't cope with it.

Toffeewhirl, how sad that he hardly ever goes out :(
Tourette's is definitely one of the things Robin looks at. Have a look at the Tinsley House website and give Robin a ring. He will be able to give you much more information. I believe the TH programme works well with older children because they usually want to do the exercises and can see the improvements for themselves. Lots of us have younger ones and it has, at times, been very difficult to get them to comply.
Do you think your ds would be keen to try a programme that may help him?

I toffee. I am sorry to hear that your son is suffering so much :(
Do phone robin..
That's the first step.
Also try and get hold of the books mentioned in the op.
OCD and Tourette's are both things that robin mentions on his website.
TH had certainly helped my sons OCD behaviour.
Good luck x

Thanks for your responses, shopping and Badvoc. At the moment, DS1 is on fluoxetine and is now having CBT for his anxiety and OCD. The therapist is really good, so I'm hoping for an improvement with his issues. We also, finally (after waiting two years), have an OT appointment through. But anything else that could help him with his daily struggle would be worthwhile. He is seriously underweight because of his fears of food contamination and he rarely gets any exercise. He spends most of his time on his computer and I have given up arguing because at least this means he is chatting to his friends online and isn't completely isolated from them.

In fact, he is living exactly the opposite life I would wish for him, which would include going out with his friends and having fun, coming on trips with us, getting fresh air and exercise, eating well and so on.

I'm not sure how motivated DS would be, but if the programmes were computer based, he would be more likely to stick with them.

It is very encouraging reading on this thread about how much progress your DC have made.

Oh, poor lad :(
Ds had a very restricted diet before we started TH.
I as dreading the diet part of the therapy tbh, but it's been so much easier than I thought! Ds has tried food he has never had before (even salad...I almost fainted) and has started having hot dinners at school.
I know it doesn't sound much, but you guys all know what massive steps these are for our kids.
And there is no such thing as small steps anyway...:) improvement is improvement, no matter how trivial it may seem to others.

Toffee whirl, lots of the exercises are computer based, particularly once you get past the first appointment. You may struggle with the diet initially - what foods does your ds eat without anxiety? - but as things improve the food should get better. The diet plan may put you off initially if food is an issue for your ds but don't let it because you can adapt it to suit your child and it is so worth making a start on the programme.
The best thing about TH for me (aside from the massively important fact that it works) is that as a parent you feel you are finally doing something to help your child. Mine had an ASD diagnosis and the professionals were only able to give me strategies for coping. I do not want to cope, I want to make improvements. Well actually, I wanted to cure my child. Mumsnet gets stressy about the 'cure' word but I think we are not far off that.

Badvoc - why did your DS have a restricted diet? Did he refuse to eat a lot of stuff? My DS1 is actually quite an adventurous eater, but he eats so little and is perfectly capable of starving himself rather than risking an imagined incident of food poisoning. I have recently discovered that he is on the 1st percentile and is terribly underweight, which is another worry to add to my long list. Today, he has only eaten Coco Pops (introduced, reluctantly, because it was all he would eat for breakfast and something is better than nothing) and one pork pie and has refused anything else. I know he needs to be eating loads more calories than that, but I can't force him to eat . He is very short for his age and, at this rate, he is never going to 'grow up'! It's encouraging to hear that your DS tried food that he never tried before and is now eating hot dinners at school though.

shopping - it's usually meat-based dishes that DS panics about, because of food-poisoning fears. However, he has been having Complan to boost his calorie intake and recently had a bad stomach which he is now associating with the Complan, so it can be anything really. The main thing about any diet programme is that DS must be consuming as many calories as possible. I have seen a nutritionist about his diet and she said to encourage him to eat as much healthy food as possible, but also accept junk food in the diet, as this will all add important calories to his intake. Sounds as if the TH diet won't approve of this!

As for 'curing your child' - oh god, I have long since given up hope of that. That would be beyond any hope I have left. DS1 suffers daily and, at the moment, I have no idea how he will ever live a so-called 'normal' life. Have you really seen such changes in your child? Tell me more...

The diet is mainly higher protein (and if he eats pork pie that's protein!) less sugar and less additives.
I would imagine in your sons case the sugar won't matter as much but definately need to cut down on the additives and E numbers. I would speak to robin about it.
Also the supplements are very important...omega 3 and zinc and magnesium.
Have you ever thought of introducing a pro biotic? That may help your ds as it encourages good bacteria growth and promote a healthy gut.
You can even get ones you drink...(yakult etc)

Toffee...some people on MN get very cross when we use the term "cure" but like shopping I am not sure what else I can call it!
"No longer symptomatic?"
2 years ago my son was severely dyslexic. He has never slept through the night (he was 8) and had a very restricted diet (beige carb heavy foods) And also had OCD and asd traits.
He left primary school 2 weeks ago at the expected level for all subjects :)
He reads well.
He sleeps through the night.
He is no longer in the NHS waiting list for exploratory bowel surgery (due to his bad stomach pains)
He is more confident, lots of self esteem and starts high school next month.
He went on a 4 day residential trip with school a couple of months ago.
I would simply never have believed it possible if you had told me all that 2 years ago.
And....frankly, you don't have to think it will work. You just have to do it :)
X

What you describe is beyond what I could even dream of, Badvoc. I'm really glad your DS is doing so well.

Introducing a probiotic is a very good idea and easy to do. I will start that anyway.

Does he do cheese, hummus, baked beans, eggs? Non meat protein is fine too. Baby steps, I would have a look at Robin's Brain food plan and discuss with your ds foods on the list he would feel happy about.
My ds was diagnosed with 'mild' ASD when he was 4. When we went to Robin a year ago his behaviour at school was appalling. Lack of concentration or over focus on favourite subjects, up to ten melt downs a day and he cried on and off all day for me. He was very controlling and very routine obsessed. He also had quite a few dyspraxic symptoms that had been ignored by the paed we saw.
Within 6 weeks he was dry at night and could ride his two wheeler. He was listening to his swimming teacher and had stopped flapping with excitement. His teachers reported he was much calmer at school.
He moved school last September and has gone from strength to strength. He was always a good reader but now writes with beautiful joined up writing. This on its own is a miracle for us. At the end of year one I didn't know if he could write anything other than his own name. Last night he sat at his desk and wrote his own version of The Tempest ( sounds like mum boast stuff but he wrote a full page of A4 with his own version of the story I'd told him earlier that day. He chose to do it, I was washing up, wondered what he was up to and found him at his desk).
He has gone from teachers talking about him needing a statement and one to one to being treated in exactly the same way as all the other chicken. The teacher says she doesn't even give him time warnings for changes of activity.
Now it is easy to argue that ds was immature and he has simply grown out of his symptoms. This may be true but I believe it's too big a change to simply be maturity and I would spend the five hundred pounds ish I've spent on TH this year again in a flash.
Sorry very long post but I wanted you to hear why I recommend TH to anyone who will listen.

Yes, yes, yes and yes (but only if they are fried, not scrambled), shopping. So that's hopeful.

"beautiful joined up writing" - well, if DS1 managed this, it would be a bloody miracle. I have spent the last year getting him to practise handwriting daily. It is a struggle.

What you describe about your DS at school sounds so like my DS1. We have tried so many things and life is still so difficult for DS1. 'Boast' all you like about your DS writing his own version of the 'Tempest', shopping. After what you have been through, you are entitled to it. I'm happy to hear that he is doing so well.

Can anyone summarise what TH will expect us to do with DS1? What kind of exercises, diet, etc and how long it will take each day? I realise it's an individual programme, but, roughly, how long each day? And what kind of computer-based exercises are done?

The exercises take about 4 mins per day iirc.
At first they are difficult for the children to do (obv or they wouldn't need the programme! :))
Like the The diet and supplements, the exercises do just become part of your day.
The computer programmes are not hard per se but quite often can cause the children to complain of eye strain/tiredness.
The analogy I use is that of using any muscle that hasn't been used/used too little...it will ache when you start using it again! (In this case the optical muscles)
I think from what you have said your son will like lumosity (which is a later stage of the programme) it's basically a brain training programme.

Shopping is right...my son eats lots of beans and eggs.

It is likely you will start with stairs and teeth. You can start this tomorrow if you like. Stairs: he stands at the bottom of the stairs eyes shut and hands by his sides. Walk up three stairs normally ( so alternate legs) and backwards down again with eyes shut. Repeat three times. Do this 3 times a day. He will probably be pretty wobbly so stand close behind him.
Teeth: stand on his left leg and brush his teeth with his left hand.
We did this for 8 weeks ( you increase the repeptions of stairs and the level of difficulty though) then moved on to sort out ds' convegence problems ( your ds may not have this problem, Robin will test him). This was a computer programme that started off taking 20 mins a day but reduced to 4 minutes over an 8 week period.
Ds has been doing hemi p, t and opk for 16 weeks now. That takes about 7 minutes per day on the computer.

Toffee...in year 3 my son did not use vowels in his writing at all! It was pretty much indecipherable :(
He couldn't do cursive writing and I was desperate.
He now writes beautifully and was one of the first children in his class to get his pen license.
Don't despair :)

It sounds very manageable. It has to be worth a try.

Fried eggs are better than no protein. Nothing wrong with a dash of olive oil IMO. So perhaps he could have egg or beans for breakfast every day? Does he eat fruit and veg? Potatoes with skins on?
I was amazed the difference a protein breakfast makes to concentration. Ds has scrambled cheesey eggs most days for breakfast now as opposed to the coco pops he used to eat. We also moved to wholemeal pasta and bread without the kids noticing. I thought the hardest thing would be ditching black currant squash but I threw the bottle away and they never mentioned it again. They only drink water and milk now and ds has one glass of fruit juice a day because he still won't eat fruit or veg and because I put the omega 3 into the juice.

That was pretty much my attitude toffee.
It certainly wont do any harm!
Tbh there will be days you just can't be bothered...it can get a bit...repetitive :) but it's so worth it.

Don't despair

I have to fight not to put my head in my hands when DS1 tries to write, Badvoc! It's amazing that your DS has made so much progress.

I am sure I can speak for most of us when I say we have all been there toffee!!
I simply did not know what else to do for ds. School were happily letting him get further and further behind with all the effects on his already rock bottom self esteem that brings. They also tried to tell me he was making progress when he demonstrably wasnt.
That's when I realised I would help him myself.
TH was a bit of a last chance saloon for us tbh.

I ordered 'The Brain Food Plan' last night and am going to start changing the boys' diets and adding supplements. We will have to ask MIL not to spoil them with sweet stuff anymore, which she won't like.

We try to give them both omega oils already, but they are quite fussy about the capsules.

Am also going to start saving a bit every month until we have enough to go for a consultation. We have spent so much on DS1's needs this year that we can't afford anything else at the moment, but I'm applying for DLA and that will help if we get it.

There is a clinic near us, but I'm inclined to go to see Robin himself. Is that what you have all done?

I feel very encouraged by all your positive stories .

We went to see robin twice and have done Skype appts since.
The vegepa chewables are quite nice...orangey

Just looked those chewables up on the website, Badvoc. I'll give them a go.