My Raffle-baby's thread

[lil_miss_understood]

Not sure what to say exactly. I'm so bad at these threads.
I had a VERY stressful pregnancy with DS2, to say the least. I won't go into details about it but there were a lot of issues. Things calmed down towards the end of my pregnancy finally, but then my father died. I was also dx'd GBS+ so was given abx during labour (and didn't know any better at the time) though we'd just started the 2nd bag when he was born. Uneventful labour otherwise.
DS2 had some feeding problems to begin with- latching issues. No TT dx but I still have my suspicions about it. He had and still has a preference for one particular breast, I think because it's not inverted and has a difficult time to get milk from the other.
He has always been long and lean. He's very busy- always climbing, jumping, digging, running- seems not to know how to walk (he does, it just seems like he doesn't sometimes). Very "typical boy".
He reacts to berries (started as just strawberries- blood in poo that resolved with elimination), nuts excepting pine nuts, peanuts, coconut- suspect grapes, food colouring, sals. grapes/berries/colouring is behavioural with possible burned bum rash the rest are burned bum rash , acidic poo.
Recently found out that mag/b6/mo calms him down when exposed to berries.
counted blinks today with the result of 1/minute.

insights, questions welcomed and appreciated.

[kjbrown92]

Man, I saw raffle and I thought you were giving something away....
oh well, I'll sub anyway. I have no idea but now I have to count my kids' blinks to see what it means.

[mamafish9]

Hmmm, OK, with my Yasko 8 ball...

Like I hinted at in chat, the pathway is you need tyrosine (amino acid), which converts to dopamine. Dopamine can break down, or can convert to norepinephrine. Kids with "attention issues" (that's one of the things I'm taking from his always being on the go) usually have too much norepinephrine relative to dopamine.

There are other ways to low dopamine...

So, a few questions - does he eat a decent amount of protein, or a lot? As far as you know, does he seem to digest OK? Does he show signs of low serotonin as well, or only dopamine?

Bouncing off the walls and climbing, and mag/B6/mo helping, I'd say you have a likely deficiency in there somewhere. Any ideas which one? What of these does he get regularly, and how much?

Does his poop float, by any chance?

Last possibility is gaba/glutamate issues and/or high calcium (which would connect with the low mag and sals reactions).

Any supps he gets regularly? How much B6 are you on?

OK, done .

[lil_miss_understood]

Well, I might be willing to loan him out occasionally, Kathy. Sorry for the false hope. Just his nickname.

Originally Posted by mamafish9

Hmmm, OK, with my Yasko 8 ball...

Like I hinted at in chat, the pathway is you need tyrosine (amino acid), which converts to dopamine. Dopamine can break down, or can convert to norepinephrine. Kids with "attention issues" (that's one of the things I'm taking from his always being on the go) usually have too much norepinephrine relative to dopamine.

There are other ways to low dopamine...

So, a few questions - does he eat a decent amount of protein, or a lot? As far as you know, does he seem to digest OK? Does he show signs of low serotonin as well, or only dopamine?

Bouncing off the walls and climbing, and mag/B6/mo helping, I'd say you have a likely deficiency in there somewhere. Any ideas which one? What of these does he get regularly, and how much?

Does his poop float, by any chance?

Last possibility is gaba/glutamate issues and/or high calcium (which would connect with the low mag and sals reactions).

Any supps he gets regularly? How much B6 are you on?

OK, done .

He doesn't like meat. At all. Or, at least, rarely.
I'm not sure about his digestion.
What are low serotonin signs? Hmm. Looked it up and it seems that he does have some. How surprising. Wonder where he gets that from? /sarcasm
I have no idea which one is the deficiency. I'm kind of putting my money on B6 though bc it wasn't until I added that to the trio that it started working... I take 250mg+/day of B6. He doesn't get any of them regularly. Some days he'll take it, others not and now that I don't have the B6 capsules, he hates the B6.
He's still not potty trained. He's resisting- I think partly bc of DS3. I'm considering potty learning them both at the same time at this point.
None of my kids get ANY supps regularly. I have been too self-involved to put much thought into their issues.

[mamafish9]

Girl, stop beating yourself up...!!!

OK, back to Raphael

The first thing I'd try with him is more protein. Maybe with the pancreatic enzymes if you get those - it could be he avoids protein because it makes him feel bad (doesn't digest well)? It may just be he's low in tyrosine & tryptophan (precursors).

Or you could try giving him some tyrosine (I have a bottle in the supps swap!!), and 5htp - if that works, it would give you a good clue about where the problem lies. If that doesn't address things (e.g. bring up his dopamine and improve his low serotonin symptoms), then that's a good clue as well.

So if you're up for an experiment, here's an idea - I can send you a supps swap package - I have tyrosine powder, empty capsules (what size does he happily swallow, I have 5 different ones ), a few p5p capsules, mo capsules. And I can send you a few of my 5htp ones too. Then you could mix him a custom blend with some of each of those. One of those a day, add some mag, and see where he's at in a week. If it works, you can order empty capsules and stuff from iherb, and keep mixing. Because I need company in my custom capsule stuffing .

[lil_miss_understood]

Originally Posted by mamafish9

Girl, stop beating yourself up...!!!

OK, back to Raphael

The first thing I'd try with him is more protein. Maybe with the pancreatic enzymes if you get those - it could be he avoids protein because it makes him feel bad (doesn't digest well)? It may just be he's low in tyrosine & tryptophan (precursors).

Or you could try giving him some tyrosine (I have a bottle in the supps swap!!), and 5htp - if that works, it would give you a good clue about where the problem lies. If that doesn't address things (e.g. bring up his dopamine and improve his low serotonin symptoms), then that's a good clue as well.

So if you're up for an experiment, here's an idea - I can send you a supps swap package - I have tyrosine powder, empty capsules (what size does he happily swallow, I have 5 different ones ), a few p5p capsules, mo capsules. And I can send you a few of my 5htp ones too. Then you could mix him a custom blend with some of each of those. One of those a day, add some mag, and see where he's at in a week. If it works, you can order empty capsules and stuff from iherb, and keep mixing. Because I need company in my custom capsule stuffing .

I used to have a protein aversion as well bc it made my stomach upset, so it wouldn't surprise me if that is the case for him as well. I've been considering/preparing an attempt to increase our plant proteins (beans, seeds etc) bc I know that those proteins didn't upset my stomach when I was younger.
We're coming up on my monthly supp order here... So I should look at ordering some what? Kitten capsules? What size are those again? Then some 5-htp capsules and re-order the B6 caps I had? Then use those and some of the tyrosine powder from my caps to make a blend for him? Should I put some mag in there for him since he's erratic with the Natural Calm? He'll happily take his liquid Mo and melatonin (I give him 4 drops of the NOW liquid Melatonin which is 3mg in an entire dropperful).
Or I could gratefully and graciously accept your offer and you can send me what you think he needs with instructions since my brain is apparently alternately in overdrive or useless. Today is a useless day. Stupid ants.

[mamafish9]

LOL - sounds like you have most of what you need. Yeah, I'd make him a blend of everything he won't easily take, and throw it in small caps. You can order #3 caps from iherb - that's the smallest size that is easily available. Because he's old enough to explain about swallowing with a mouthful of juice/water, #3 should be easy for him, so you might just try those.

I bet it's huge help with his sals reactivity, and it may help with the low serotonin & dopamine as well. If you can figure out a nice easy mix that works for him, you can do what I do, make it up once a week or so, and then you know he's getting what he needs every day, instead of having to get them in one at a time.

If you need anything from my stash, just let me know!

[lil_miss_understood]

I have a silly request, Deb. Could you take a picture of the different capsule sizes beside something common for a size reference for me? A dime maybe?
Also, do you mix all your supps together and then disperse them to the individual capsules? And are you doing this by HAND or do you have a capsule filler thingy?

[mamafish9]

Yup, I mix it all up and then stuff capsules by hand (scoop them through the powder). Very easy. OK, not easy with the teeny capsules, they're a real pain to fill, but the size 4 is not too bad, size 3 is easy.

Here's a couple of pictures:

bigger capsules in relationship to a dime:

http://www.bulkherbsandspice.com/lprod.asp?lookup=873

Here's one that shows down to size #3, you can see how much smaller it is than #2:

http://www.calvetsupply.com/product/...ruments_Gloves

And here's one with a size scale - note that to me, these look huge compared to the real capsules, I think the flat scale is deceiving:

http://www.erowid.org/archive/rhodiu....sizechart.pdf

ETA: size 3 is not uncommon for capsules. What are some supps you have in relatively small capsules, I'll see if I can figure out what size they are. (Ones I have that are #3 - iron, P5P, #2 - Thorne moly, trace minerals).

[lil_miss_understood]

Originally Posted by mamafish9

Yup, I mix it all up and then stuff capsules by hand (scoop them through the powder). Very easy. OK, not easy with the teeny capsules, they're a real pain to fill, but the size 4 is not too bad, size 3 is easy.

Here's a couple of pictures:

bigger capsules in relationship to a dime:

http://www.bulkherbsandspice.com/lprod.asp?lookup=873

Here's one that shows down to size #3, you can see how much smaller it is than #2:

http://www.calvetsupply.com/product/...ruments_Gloves

And here's one with a size scale - note that to me, these look huge compared to the real capsules, I think the flat scale is deceiving:

http://www.erowid.org/archive/rhodiu....sizechart.pdf

ETA: size 3 is not uncommon for capsules. What are some supps you have in relatively small capsules, I'll see if I can figure out what size they are. (Ones I have that are #3 - iron, P5P, #2 - Thorne moly, trace minerals).

The smallest ones I have right now are Thorne zinc citrate.
And yes, that flat scale looks HUGE. And thanks so much for the links!!

[mamafish9]

My Thorne zinc is a size 2.5 (somewhere between the size 2 and size 3 caps I have). It's zinc picolinate, but I assume the same capsules.

My suggestion - empty 2 or 3 and refill them with something bland (or sugar - something that won't taste bad if he chewed it open - DS never has, but if he tried, you don't want him to get zinc!!). See if he'll swallow them with a bit of something to drink. He might surprise you, and then you don't need to worry about finding really small capsules (the iherb #3 empty capsules are slightly smaller then the thorne zinc ones).

[lil_miss_understood]

Originally Posted by mamafish9

My Thorne zinc is a size 2.5 (somewhere between the size 2 and size 3 caps I have). It's zinc picolinate, but I assume the same capsules.

My suggestion - empty 2 or 3 and refill them with something bland (or sugar - something that won't taste bad if he chewed it open - DS never has, but if he tried, you don't want him to get zinc!!). See if he'll swallow them with a bit of something to drink. He might surprise you, and then you don't need to worry about finding really small capsules (the iherb #3 empty capsules are slightly smaller then the thorne zinc ones).

Ok, awesome! Thanks so much! Will try that.