Our Family Is Thankful for Calm

In my last post, I wrote about how amino acid supplements have had a huge impact in our daughter's anxiety and behavior.  We have also seen great results from using supplements with our son who has sensory processing disorder (SPD).  I share this, because for some reason, there seems to be a perception that sensory processing can only be addressed with therapy...even though there has been a tremendous amount of research using supplements in children with autism and ADHD, two conditions that often come with SPD, too.  In fact, ALL kids with autism have SPD.  So it only made sense to me that some of the supplement treatments researched for autism might have a positive impact on kids who have just been diagnosed with SPD.

Our journey into using supplements started about 8 months ago.  Last March began a very painful period of trying to figure out how to get our son to stay in his bed and go to sleep at night.  It has always taken him a long time to go to sleep, but historically he seemed happy to lay in bed and talk or sing until he eventually went to sleep.  Shortly, after turning 3 that changed.  He was very comfortable getting out of bed.  At worst, it could take 3 hours to get him to go to sleep.  I thought I was going to lose my mind.  So I turned to Google and found that apparently this is a common issue with kids who have autism and SPD.  It's been studied quite a lot in autistic children.  While scientists don't exactly know why autistic kids have trouble sleeping, they know that taking 1 mg of melatonin nightly seems to be very effective.

So we started giving him melatonin and it worked instantly.  He could fall asleep in 5-10 minutes.  That had NEVER happened in his entire life.  Suddenly, he could sleep for 11.5 hours a night, no problem.  Seemed amazing.  That additional sleep also seemed to have an effect on his cognitive abilities, which makes perfect sense.  It actually made me wonder how much of his developmental issues were tied to him just being sleep-deprived.

Now I will say that while melatonin worked fantastically for our son, I have since read more that has led us to make a switch to 5-HTP (tryptophan).  Tryptophan has been studied more widely in kids than melatonin.  Tryptophan helps the body produce serotonin, and serotonin produces melatonin.  Scientists know that children with SPD, ADHD, and autism typically have low serotonin levels.  Therefore, studies have been conducted and proven that these children have broader improvements, including sleep, when taking 50 mg of 5-HTP instead of just melatonin.  We now give our son 50 mg of 5-HTP (mix it up in his milk) at dinner time, and it works great.

The next issue we faced were meltdowns.  Soon after turning 3, he began having more severe tantrums, and they happened everyday.  They routinely lasted 45 minutes.  And he would consistently ask for us to calm him down.  After having endured this with our daughter, I just couldn't face it again with another child, so I began searching for new answers.  I came upon the recommendation of using either magnesium or Omega 3s.  Most children eating western diets can benefit from magnesium and omega fatty acids.  It's critical for brain health and development.  Omega 3s have been proven to improve mental skills and remembering in patients with ADHD as well.  So I decided to give them a shot.  We started with magnesium, but I didn't seen a change.  So I added fish oil.  720 mg of EPA/DHA.  Instantly, the daily tantrums stopped.  Don't get me wrong, he still throws tantrums, but now they typically last 3-5 minutes, not 45 minutes. (BTW, we use Barlean's Omega Swirl Fish Oil.  Our son likes it and thinks it tastes like lemonade.  However, our daughter who is super sensitive to smells can smell the fish oil, so she won't take it.  We use Coromega 3 with our daughter.)

Fast forward about 6 months.  We've made definite progress with therapy, sleep, and nutrition.  But at about 3 years and 9 months, he stopped napping.  He wouldn't go to sleep at school or at home.  Within a week, his behavior had regressed significantly.  It was like it was 6 months ago.  I thought, "Oh no, no, no.  This can't happen.  I have to get him to nap again."  We still happened to have the magnesium oil around, so I pulled it back out.  We started using it twice a day, applying it to his feet.  In 24 hours, he was napping again.  In fact, his naps increased from 1 hour to 1.5-2 hours.  Amazing.  He was back to the good, happy place.

At this point, I thought, it can't get better than this.  Okay, not really, but there wasn't an issue so pressing that it sent me scouring the internet.  However, as I mentioned in my last post, we accidentally stumbled upon the benefit of amino acids (l-theanine) for our daughter's anxiety.  That led me to wonder what impact do amino acids have on SPD?  One of the key issues with SPD kids is they usually have too many glutamates.  Glutamate is the most excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain!  Geez.  That explains so much.  So if you can help the brain balance that neurotransmitter, the child's overexcitabilities and anxieties can be reduced.  L-theanine (Relaxsaurus) can help reduce glutamates.  (Here's a great chart that helps break down brain chemicals and nutritional support.)

It's not like it cured him, but small wins are critical.  For example, I typically have to remind him every time to walk to the left side of car where his car seat is.  Otherwise, he just wanders or goes to the right side of the car.  Since taking this, he walks to the left side every time without being prompted!  Another example  - in the car one day, I said, "On the way home from therapy, remind me we need to stop and get gas."  This was really a test, because I knew he wouldn't remember that.  Usually, what would happen on the ride home is this - I would say, "What were you supposed to remind me?"  He would say, "What?"  I would prompt him again and he would say, "I don't know."  This time I said after we got back in the car after therapy, "Hey, what are you supposed to remind to do?"  He proudly said, "You are supposed to get gas!"  I was stunned.  

I'm very excited to see how this progresses.  But given that Thanksgiving is next week, I say make your kids eat lots of turkey (which has tryptophan in it) and hopefully, you will have a calm, relaxing holiday!

Some added notes:

I also give him a probiotic.  I can't say that I have seen a direct difference in his behavior, but from everything I've read, it's highly recommended for SPD and autistic kids.  A substantial amount of the neurotransmitters used by the brain are produced in the gut.  Therefore, if there are imbalances and shortages of neurotransmitters, it could be because there is bacterial imbalance in the gut.  Taking a probiotic help ensures the digestive system is balanced and functioning properly, thus improving brain function.

Also, I found this post to be really helpful and easy to follow if you want more information.
http://brainblogger.com/2015/06/20/the-role-of-serotonin-and-glutamine-in-aggression/