Epsom salts baths for ASDs - how much to put in?

[ecomum]

Hello

I'm sure someone out there must know the answer to this. How many spoonfuls of epsom salts do you put in the bath? I think I've been putting way too much in. I started off with 1/2 a spoonful and worked up to about 4 spoons. I read somewhere that you need about half a cup for an adult?

DS recently had blood tests and the doctors thought he had rickets because his calcium and vitamin D levels were so low. I think this was because he had too much magnesium from the epsom salts. (Apparently Ca and Mg are opposites and too much of one can affect the other).

I'd stopped the epsom salts in the meantime and when they repeated the tests the following week the levels were normal! Oops!

Look forward to hearing what others think.

I would really like to know the answer to this too ecomum. I bought the salts ages ago as my ds seems to have sulphation (?sorry, so crap at science)problems, but have never known how much to use. I am slightly paranoid about the calcium issue as my son has been on a casein free diet since he was 2 and has never been the best at eating green leafies...does love sardines though

bump

Oh I MUST do this- ds1 drinks the bathwater which is why I haven't. I have heard theres a cream that exists that you can use instead- or you can make your own- someone gave a link recently on here. I think these days you can actually buy it though.

Here's the link again if anyone would find it useful.

Thank you rustybear! You're a star.

Thanks Jimjams

My DS must have been drinking a little bit of the bath water too because he also had runny poos whilst he was on epsom salts!

This is a really good link. But there is conflicting info on the website. One bit says use 1 cup per every 60lbs (27kg) body weight. But then it says the RDA for Magnesium is 80mg for children aged 1-3, but boost this to around 300mg for children with ASDs.

Ingesting Mg it is obviously more potent than absorbing it in bathwater, but going off DS's blood tests I reckon you can absorb a fair amount in the bath. So 1 cup per every 27kg weight does seem a little high.

Maybe half this amount would be suitable?

I think a definite rule though should be stop or cut down if your child gets constant runny poos!

I might have ago at making the cream but does anyone know what MSM powder is?

Cheers everybody.

lots of info here as well- says here that kirkmans sell the cream ready made- I'm going to try that......

Thanks again jimjams. another useful link!