Reasonably priced micronutrients?

[FrankenMummy]

I've got a 6 yr old boy diagnosed with adhd, , anxiety, and working on a possible autism diagnosis as well. He is on intuniv 2mg and it seems to be helping. I've been trying tolook into proper nutrition to hopefully help manage what the intuniv isn't helping. I'm trying to find a multi with a fair amount of iron magnesium and zinc that doesn't break the bank, as right now we're on one income while my husband is starting a business. I tried the smarty pants multi and that seems to make his symptoms worse,which makes sense because it has less vitamins in it than the nature's bounty that I was giving him. If you've had any success with anything within a reasonable price,without questionable "natural" ingredients, please share. I'm going to start him back on the nature's bounty tomorrow and get fish oil as well to hopefully get him back a little to where he was,because the last 2 weeks on smarty pants has been god awful, with both of us crying every morning over getting dressed (he has a lot of specific requirements for his clothing, seems to be linked to anxiety) please please share what has worked for you, my heart breaks every time he gets worked up and I can't help him.

[Onthemove1971]

Welcome.

I hope you find what you are looking for.

Just curious and not sure where you live but are you getting additional assistance for him from Occupational Thearpy and or a Behavior therapist/Specialist (at no cost because learning in school could be a struggle with these issues) ?

Both of these services can been given in the school system. If you could learn how best to help him I know that would make like a lot easier on everyone.

I am sure also medical doctors could get you some of these services from the medical community.

We are always here to help support you. We are in this journey together.

[FrankenMummy in reply to Onthemove1971]

Thank you so much for your reply! He is supposed to be seeing the psychologist and the OT at school once a week, but the OT just had a baby and there's no replacement, and we've been struggling for them to get him to see the psychologist, despite it being on his IEP and despite the school system forcing us to send him to this program "because they have more services", the boy has been through 4 schools in the past year all due to not having the proper support in the district, as well as some idiotic school administrators and teachers who caused pretty significant emotional trauma on him, we get bits and pieces sometimeswhen he's willing to talk about it. We have a child psychiatrist and have been trying to get a behavioral therapist for him but no one seems to call back. Unfortunately, we can't home school and can't afford private services at this time, but I will be contacting our child advocate to see what we can do about gaining him the legally mandated services in the school. The anxiety seems to stem from the trauma of last year and him thinking he's not good enough, and we're trying to work through it. Thanks so much for your response, the fight for my funny, sweet, smart, stubborn sensitive little guy is a struggle daily, this morning being particularly difficult.

[Onthemove1971 in reply to FrankenMummy]

Your son sounds amazing, it sounds like you are doing an amazing job with your schools. I am sorry you are in this situation with the schools.

I know the struggle "from both sides", I am a rare specialist that is so lucky to work with amazing kids like your son every day.

I will say since I work in the public school system, that your struggle is like so many families and school districts. I know that many amazing professionals are leaving the school districts for many reasons ( way to much work, burn out, lack of proper compensation, the list goes on and on). Also school district do not have qualified teachers/specialist becuase they can't find them and keep them.

I also have a son with ADHD and health needs in the public schools and he has a 504 plan which I fight for every year/month/day.

What I am also seeing in the schools is them turning to Virtual services for help so they can "meet the needss" and private agency employees. These were both very rare when I was just starting.

I am sure your advocate understands when a child doesn't get services what the parent can receive. I have to be careful in what I can say.

I hope your son can have teachers and specialist who truly LOVE kids... every child deserves that.

Not sure it you have thought about this, know you can call an IEP at any time during the year. Could you ask for the OT to consult with you, so you can get logical recommendation to bring home and work on?

Last things becuase I could go on and on with suggestions.. I know for me what I was demanding from my son when he was young was WAY TO MUCH.. I compared him often to neurotypical children who could wake up, make their beds, eat what I served, dressed in clothes I thought were best for him... on and on. So many demand on him before a long day...

I wish you the very best and know we are all in this journey together and each one of us deserves a Parent of the year award for our struggles that not many people see.

Best to you! Have a great day.

[Hidden]

Have you tried any of the European stuff- Centrum brand is popular all across Europe and available on Amazon. Centrum adult multi gummies can be used for children (you can see the amount of vitamins and minerals and it’s safe for kids). Magnesium in an artificial form can act as laxative so I generally prefer to give bananas to my kids- I make sure they eat 3 bananas per day and this is about 100mg magnesium where daily needs for a child age 6 is 120mg. Iron I prefer to use iron water Spatone (it’s natural and it comes in no flavour or with added vitamin C and then tea naturally flavoured). I tried some multi from US- purchased via Amazon and I noticed that often ingredients are too artificial. Let’s say Centrum gummies (the European stuff) have only natural colourings like beetroot juice etc, surely that’s better.

I would recommend Equazen for Omega- good for brain development especially if child doesn’t eat enough of oily fish such as sardines and salmon. I do give my son fish oil too but you have to watch that as it has naturally high levels of vitamin A so it might be too much for a child.

Last but not least is your son on ADHD medication? Before my son was on medication I was also preoccupied with nutrients and spending a little fortune on ‘natural magnesium’ and all… Now he’s on Atomoxetine and it controls ADHD well enough and it also helps him with mood and anxiety. I stoped worrying about micronutrients- he just gets his daily Omega (Equazen) and daily multi. Have you checked your child’s bloods if he is iron deficient- my son was for a while at about 6 years old and for 3 months I was giving him high Iron daily and then rechecked his blood again and he wasn’t deficient anymore.

[FrankenMummy in reply to Hidden]

He is on guanfacine ER 2 mg nightly, as well as melatonin when he needs it. We have cut out all artificial food dyes, as we live in the US and they are in literally everything. Cutting out the food dyes helped quite a bit, and now slowly cutting out the more processed items. We have not checked his blood, because of my health insurance it would cost us about 200-300 just for bloodwork. My son doesn't like bananas, and doesn't even eat fish sticks, and can't add any ground flax to his oatmeal because he tastes it. I'm pretty sure if we get bloodwork done we would find an iron deficiency, but unfortunately we can't really afford that at this time. Thanks for your reply, I'll look into the equazen.

[Hidden in reply to FrankenMummy]

ah I don’t blame little man for not wanting ground flax in his oatmeal! I do hiding (probably like most parents) food he doesn’t like in something he likes. Let’s say chicken livers have loads of iron but he wouldn’t eat them so I make beef ragu like for lasagne and add some liquidised chicken livers into it. My kids can’t taste the difference now. I was slowly increasing - first time just a tiny bit of liver and so on. Egg yolks are great for brain too- choline and easily absorbed iron, I think it’s possible to get eggs which are also extra rich let’s say in Zinc or Omega3 (in the UK it’s available- basically the chickens are fed a diet rich in that). So let’s say if your child likes shop bought custard then I hat it up in microwave and when it’s piping hot I whisk in an egg yolk. He doesn’t know it’s there. It let’s say he likes chocolate custard so I get the shop bought one and whisk in an egg yolk- he’s not able to detect. Or if your child likes breaded chicken nuggets- I get chicken breast cut into strips and bashed so it’s thin, then coat it just in egg yolk (no whites) and panko breadcrumbs and fry it. I tell him it’s chicken nuggets, he doesn’t have to know more😄

[IheartDisney]

i dont have a comment on the nutrition but one on clothes. A couple of things that helped with my son, who is now 10, diagnosed at 7 was at that age, he was really particulat about his clothea. They way they felt on his body and he didnt want to change his clothes ever. So after fighting it forso long, we let him wear the same outfit to school and bed all week. I was worried about kids making fun of him but he never said anything and it didnt phase hime. I was more concerened about the anxiety and how upset he was getting when we tried to change his clothes on a daily basis. Once we let that go, it was WAY easier in the morning and he was better able to cope with things. He is also on Guanfacine er 2g. He started to change that habit at the end of last school year on his own. One thing that was also recommeded to us from the OT was to get him sport shirts that have that tight athletic material. I cant remember everything she had said at the time but she was saying that it can feel like a hug and haveing that light extra pressure sensation can also help to calm down anxiety. My son is also really small and thin and gets cold easily. He just started wearing a base layer under his clothes since it is colder out and he is super happy and comfortable. Good luck with everything and it will get better, it is just a process

[FrankenMummy in reply to IheartDisney]

we have the base layer, he started wearing leggings or tights under basketball shorts....unfortunately if the long sleeve is too long, or has wrinkles, it's a no go, which is why I think it's the anxiety....the clothes are not as bad as the shoes, he only wears one pair of shoes and is in between shoe sizes, which means if the shoe slides off his foot it's a tantrum, and if there's a tie, velcro, or a zipper they're a no go...he wears one pair of slip on dress shoes that I bought second hand, and I just found some on Poshmark that are brand new, so hopefully I'll at least have a back up until his little feet grow. At least I have hope that it will resolve on its own