All About Autism

[helplessmum3]

Supplements ? Is it costly… Oh God…


Lavendery, u currently pay all cost under private?

Which therapy are u going ?

[lavendery]

Helplessmum3,


You do not need to be so panic. Alternative treatements are subjective and really up to individual. There's no one size fits all. Bottom line basic therapies (eg SLT, OT, ABA etc) should still be your first line defense to treat your child. Again this is just my own opinion. If your son can talk well, no sensory issue, no behaviour problem, then i think you do not need to be as worried as me.

My girl is presently having her speech therapies with Leapfrogs. Depending on the psychologist diagnosis, which I believe may only be out by April cos she will only assess my girl by next month too. I have more or less guess maybe my girl might need OT and ABA too *sigh*

Meantime I'm also queuing up at KKH for diagnosis for second opinion too cos it's better to seek two opinions before i judge my child's condition.

Supplements should be expensive I guess. That's why I'm asking around, I have no idea

[helplessmum3]

Lavendery,

How much does leapfrog physcologist charge ?

I will send my son to PLT first…

[lavendery]

Leapfrogs is a EIP centre, which has speech language therapy, education therapy and occupational therapy and its also has RDI too. RDI is another alternative of ABA. But RDI and ABA should never be mixed together cos they are using different protocols.


My girl is seeing her psychologist at Mindmatters. First time consultation with parents and caretaker is 1hr so that she can gather as much informations and inputs regarding about the kid. Subsequently is the assessment where it will consist of 3 tests to be conducted separately on three days, each assessment will last 1.5hr.

There will also be forms and questionairs to be filled up by the parents/caretaker and the classform teacher too. In the event if there’s any grey areas, the psychologist may have to sit in the classroom to observe my girl for better diagonsis. Personally i feel that its very expensive. Hope this helps.

[specialboymum]

helplessmum3:

Specialboymum,

Thanks . My son didn't hav behavior problem yet..

He just seldom want to interact, like to play himself , must call at Least 3 times of his name then he turn n look just for awhile and back to his engrossed with..

When he play drum for instance, he will play and say this is a drum then knock a few time say \"drum\" then graze at me. Just never force me to see him play..

He will pull me to the shelve to get him cookies by graze at cookies. Through his body language n expression I know he want cookies. I will ask him \"u want cookies\" he will smile and just say \"cookies\" very loudly...

Do they need to nop head?

Last time he doesn't like hair dryer sound now its no longer affecting him.. Just stare at me blowing my hair ... Last time he will jus cover his ears by his hands. I didn't teach him how to cover his ears..

You are doing fine. Instead of calling him to get him to interact with you, perhaps you can join in in his game, for example, when you see him playing drum, you can join him in beating the drum, you can also further engage him by singing to the beat or march around the house.

By pulling you to the shelve, it is also a form of communication, to expand his language, maybe you can get your husband to be his model, so when you ask him \"Do you want cookie\", your husband can prompt him by saying, \"yes, I want cookie.\"

[specialboymum]

there are lots of alternate methods such as gcfc, biomed etc but there are always reports saying these methods are not scientifically sound. To me, I rather keep an open mind, as long as it doesn’t hurt him, I’m willing to try. For GCFC diet and Biomed, they are expensive and difficult to keep up. So far, I only give my son fish oil, vitamin B12 and magnesium (in the form of multivitamin)


I have also try TCM accupressure. Also difficult to keep up. It doesn’t really help to improve his behavior but it helps in improving his sleep.

[schweppes]

Enzymes therapy is useful as the enzymes helped to break down the foods that the children eat to make it easily absorbed into the body.


If you want to know more about Enzyme Therapy, I recommend the books written by Karen DeFelice. She wrote:

1. Enzymes: Go with your gut (more practical guidelines for digestive enzymes)

2. Enzymes for Autism and other Neurological Conditions

The books can be found at Kinokuniya.

Enzymes and supplements can help in balancing the neurological conditions as well.

There is a shop, Back to Basics that sells them. The address is : #01-01, Block 88A (Multi-Storey Car Park), Telok Blangah Heights, Singapore 101088. Tel: 62760872

The lady owner of the shop is very helpful and knowledgeable. She will be in the best position to advise you. Whilst the shop is open from Tuesday - Saturday, I believe she only comes in to the shop on Saturdays. Best to call in advance to make an appointment with her.

For info, I am not related to her nor do I gain from recommending her.

[schweppes]

Further to the above, I want to add that if your child’s age is rather young, you may not want to prescribe the full dosage as recommended by the product label. May need to give half the dosage.


To add, do be mindful about giving your child over the counter products and supplements (from the usual pharmacy outlets). Personally, for normal or neuro-typical kids, I think the over the counter products are not so much of a concern. But for kids with special needs, better to give supplements from companies who manufacture supplements specially formulated for their needs. This is just my personal opinion.

Some of the companies that formulate specifically with special needs in mind are: Kirkman Labs, Houston Enzymes, Enzymedica and BioRay. Other slightly cheaper alternatives are Efamol and Jarrows. You can google search the companies to have a better idea of what they do.

It is advisable to rotate the different brands of enzymes. This is to prevent the body getting used to one type of brand.

[schweppes]

Another thing to take note of. It might be useful to do a hair analysis test to assess the child’s heavy metals toxicity level. ASD kids usually test high in heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury, cadmium, lead, aluminum, etc.


For enzymes therapy to work effectively, I find that it is important to purge the body of heavy metals before the good supplements can nourish the body. This can be taken concurrently. It’s like getting rid of the gunk and bad stuff in our bodies before filling our bodies with the good stuff.

Whilst chelation may be recommended to rid the body of heavy metals, I am not comfortable. I prefer a more organic way via natural herbs and supplements.
For example, taking oregano oil, cilantro (a type of herb similar to our coriander) and chlorophyll are excellent natural herbal alternatives to for detox. These supplements help to "clean" the gut and expel all the unwanted waste from the body.

However, I must highlight the "healing crisis" as well. Kids (and even adults) undergoing the healing crisis may experience more stimming, meltdowns, "unruly" behavior. Sometimes the child may appear sick, like have a runny nose but it’s actually part of the detox process.

At the same time as the detox process, good to supplement the child with good trace minerals (for eg., calcium, magnesium, zinc), multi-vits and probiotics.

[schweppes]

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