Dyspraxic Journey

Tag Archive: supplements

Short Nutrition Update

We have our latest update in our quest to get CB’s blood work to look unimpressive and plain jane. CB’s iron and zinc were solidly normal. IgA is just a little low, as well as, WBC and lymphocytes. Overall, it is a good report! His body seems to be in a good place. We are sticking with the GFCFSF diet and also started incorporating homemade coconut milk kefir into his diet. For the last couple of months, CB has not taken any supplements. We may add fish oil back in, as well as, a daily supplement, but not at this point.

March 9, 2017 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, , 0 Read more >

Nutrition, Supplements and Therapy Update

Here is a quick summary of CB’s supplements, therapies, schooling and diet.

Supplements

  • Morning
    • Vitamin D3 – 1 drop (Franklin & Friends – 400 IU)
    • Multivitamin – 2 chewables (Garden of Life Vitamin Code Kids Chewable Whole Food Multivitamin)
    • L-Carnitine – 1 capsule (Now L-Carnitine Fitness Support 500mg)
  • Evening (Before Bed)
    • Probiotic – 1 capsule (RenewLife 15 billion)
    • Fish Oil – 1 teaspoon (Nordic Naturals Omega 3 1600)
    • Vitamin C – 2 chewables (Nature’s Plus Animal Parade Vitamin C Natural Orange Flavor) – Periodically 2-4x a week

Therapies

  • Speech – 4x a week (2 private therapists and 1 therapist through proportionate share)
  • Occupational – 1x a week
  • Physical – 1x a week
  • Extra-curriculars
    • Piano Lessons – 1 x a week (to improve fine motor and motor planning)

(more…)

September 18, 2016 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, Therapy, , , , , , 0 Read more >

Summer Vacation

We are away on our regular summer vacation!! Unlike the past where we would home swap, this summer we ended up having to secure a home through airbnb.com. We just couldn’t get anyone to want to trade homes during the dead heat of summer, surprise, surprise :). Sort of surprised we had luck for the past 2 summers. Like usual, the kiddos were great road trippers! We made our way north which took about a week with stopovers with various family members. All of our family visits were short but sweet. CB has always loved riding in his car seat, even as a baby. I think HB has simply followed suit as he has seen how his brother behaves on car rides.

We could not have planned a more jam-packed summer if we tried. I can’t say I would have given up any trip or experience, but I do wish there had a been a bit more relaxation time built into the schedule. I think some of CB’s behavior tidbits this summer were directly connected with our travels. Overall, the summer break has been good for him. He has more chunks of time set aside for play, mostly with HB, which I think is good for him. We have followed the new supplement schedule with just a few exceptions due to traveling and I think the supplements seem like a good fit. We are sticking to the GFCFSF diet. Thank goodness for all the modified diet options we have today. We attended a conference a couple of weeks ago where we connected with other families and learned more about CB’s genetic difference. I think the main things we learned is that an MRI could be helpful, an updated hearing test, signs to look out for for anxiety, an awareness that developing seizures later in life is possible (not sure though if it is really related to his gene or others on the long arm of Chromosome 18) and a few more things to investigate.

I am toying with the idea of piano lessons but then I also want to ensure that he has sufficient off-time/playtime. This is the second time he has said yes. We will see. I guess the next thing I need to figure out is his schedule and to ensure not to pack in too much into it. How do you do that with so many needed therapies? I guess that is the challenge we have as parents with children with special needs. I know that playtime is super important at his age, and his school gets that. I hope this year if things get to hectic, I will be aware enough to back off a bit and see if things balance back out. I also should see if there is an insurance-covered OATS-like test to test his levels to see if the supplements and anti-fungal cleanse helped.

 

July 25, 2016 Genetics, Growth and Progress, , , 0 Read more >

Update on Latest Blood Work

CB’s last round of blood work was 6 months ago. Since the last blood work, we have made several changes to CB’s supplements and diet. We stopped well just about everything at one point, except for the probiotics. For the last 3 weeks, we added digestive enzymes and fish oil back into his schedule. For the last two weeks, we added D3 back into his morning routine. Dairy was incorporated about 3-6x a week, mainly through cheese, yogurt, butter, and some ice cream, for about 1.5 months. We wanted to see if the dairy was impacting his vitamin levels.

We got his blood work back this week and his body was showing the beginning stages of declining iron, vitamin D, and zinc levels. I believe all of these are related. On a positive note, his IgA was 1 number below the normal range…wow! I can’t believe that he might actually have normal IgA levels soon. His Vitamin E level was still high but lower than the levels reported over the last year or so. I think the high Vitamin E levels are still related to fat absorption or fat breakdown issues. We will see if the enzymes help the matter. I thought the L-Carnitine should have helped that, but the last test didn’t reflect that. We stopped the L-Carnitine awhile back so I don’t know for sure. His vitamin K, homocysteine and magnesium levels also looked good. So now, we have to figure out why he has declining iron, Vitamin D and zinc levels. Unfortunately, since we stopped the Vitamin D3 for awhile and we added in the dairy, we can’t say for sure whether the removal of D3 or the addition of dairy caused this. We are obviously assuming it is related to one of these things, but it is always hard to know for sure since we always make several changes between the blood work dates. We have decided to test again in 2 months with daily Vitamin D3 supplements and zinc incorporated for a week or so and to keep dairy in his diet. If any of the levels remain low, then we can assume that dairy is the culprit and to cut it out and test again in another 2 months or so. If all levels return to normal, then we are going to assume that CB needs D3 supplements and that dairy plays an insignificant role. For the past tests, we saw the vitamin D, zinc, and iron levels continue to grow while D3 was a regular supplement and dairy was not a part of CB’s diet. (more…)

May 5, 2016 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, Tests & Evaluations, , , , , 0 Read more >

Neck Odor Update and 23andMe

CB’s neck odor has persisted. I mentioned this in an earlier post from the fall, Weekly update on CB late October 2015. We thought it was related to starting the L-Carnitine; however, that was removed from his supplement schedule 3 weeks ago. The smell only comes from his neck and smells something like bo or a fishy smell. It just depends on who you ask. You only smell it if you are within inches of his neck, fortunately. The other interesting thing is that the smell goes away during the bath, and resumes within minutes afterwards. We have decided to greatly reduce CB’s supplement intake for the moment to see if this might be a sulfation issue caused by the b vitamins in some of the supplements. We also thought he could use a break from the fish oil since he has taken that without a break for almost 1. 5 years. CB’s holistic practitioner wants him to start Allergy Rescue as he thinks CB’s shiners are related to allergies. He also wants him to start digestive enzymes to help with the fat absorption issue I mentioned in my last post Parasite Detox with Humaworm. The current plan is to wait a week or so after the parasite detox has completed and start adding some of the supplements into the schedule one at a time. Fingers crossed, we figure out the neck odor issue. (more…)

February 25, 2016 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, Tests & Evaluations, , , , 0 Read more >

Holistic/Biomed Visit

So far on this journey, the main driving force to figuring everything out from therapies, specialists, supplements, diet, etc. for CB has been me (with a big help from my hubby). I understand that this is how our system is set up. From one perspective, it is quite empowering b/c there are so many options and opportunities for our children. We are no longer in a day and age where we find out our child is unique and we know our child will not have the same education and opportunities as typically developing children. Now don’t get me wrong, there are difficult times and struggles and extra challenges, but our children’s future is not set in stone. We get to help them in so many ways and they get to be whoever they want to be while playing an active role in our society. We are blessed in that way. On the other hand, it can be extremely overwhelming trying to figure out how to best help our children, how to get started, and how to sift through all the options from therapies to specialists (gastroenterologists, neurologists, child psychologists, behavioral psychologists,nutritionists, DAN doctors, holistic practitioners, Functional Medicine doctors, geneticists, etc.) to traditional medicine to biomed to diet changes and on and on. Plus, you have to consider what is covered by insurance and what costs will be totally out of pocket. I am fortunate that I am able to stay home with my kiddos and have the time and means to make the choices we feel will be best for CB. I hope one day that things will be easier for parents with children with special needs. I hope they will not feel lost and overwhelmed and that the resources will be easier for them to locate and access. I hope more practices will be recognized as beneficial and will be covered by insurance. (more…)

December 3, 2015 Allergy, Diet, & Supplements, Tests & Evaluations, , , 0 Read more >