vitamins for 16 mo old with poss ASD?

[Anonymous]

I suspect my 16 mo old has ASD and have been reading about possible benefits of vitamin supplements, esp magnesium and B6. While I am just entering the world of SN kids and waiting for county services to begin, I thought it wouldn't hurt to try a supplement. Can anyone recommend a supplement that's ideal for a toddler? I'm not sure that he will be able to manage a gummy form or very hard chewable.
Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Hi - I am sure you will get lots of interesting responses regarding various supplement regimes. Because of our child's limited diet, at the recommendation of a nutritionist at Children's hostpital, we use a complete liquid multivitamin - meaning it has all the usual vitamins and also the trace minerals. (e.g., A, C, D, E, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, B6, Folate, B12, Biotin, Iron, and Zinc). We started with Schiff's liquid complete liquid multivitamin but it has not been available recently so I have been purchasing one from childlife (both through amazon). I put it in his juice to mask the flavor. The Childlife has a few more trace minerals in it - magnesium, selenium, chromium... (you can google childlife and check out the label). When we run out (meaning when I forget to reorder from amazon), my back-up is polyvisol. It is not as good a complete vitamin but better than nothing. I do believe that having the complete vitamin in his system "takes the edge off" times when he is tired, or sick or going through a growth spurt. Whether it does anything else, who knows but I see it as a very conservative and reasonable approach to ensuring adequate nutrition. Best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Fish oil made a difference for our DC. I think I started it at 18 months or so. There are chewable and liquid forms at whole foods. We put it in juice or applesauce. Be careful if you choose Cod Liver Oil because it is high in vitamin A and other things which are vitamins where you can ingest too much.

[Anonymous]

You might want to consult a DAN! doctor. There are literally thousands of supplements out there....it can be daunting learning what to do first and next, and on and on. There are several DAN!s in the area to help you with testing in order to find your child's deficiencies.

Best place to pick brains regarding supplements is on the Biomed Yahoo boards. one group is called MB12/Valtrax. Biomedheads is another one, I think. I think I spend a year reading there getting my bearings. There is a LOT to learn, but you can become your own expert.

I hope this helps. Good luck!!

[Anonymous]

I second the fish oil recommendation, as well as the warning to avoid cod liver oil. We use an algal oil-based supplement, so technically not fish oil. We went algal just to avoid the possibility of contamination.

May I ask what concerns/observations you have that lead to you think DS has ASD?

[Anonymous]

BTW, Cod Liver Oil will help tremendously with eye contact. If you are not seeing good eye contact, you need a good source of vitamin A....CLO being the best aside supplementing with a separate vitamin A supp.

[Anonymous]

I would not give anything other than a basic broad-based multi without checking for deficiencies. Certain supplements work for certain kids because those are the specific ones they need to rectify gaps in their nutrition/absorption/processing.

I would not randomly give my child high doses of vitamins, just because they work for someone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BTW, Cod Liver Oil will help tremendously with eye contact. If you are not seeing good eye contact, you need a good source of vitamin A....CLO being the best aside supplementing with a separate vitamin A supp.

Do NOT do this, OP, without medical supervision (blood tests to check Vitamin A levels). Too much Vit A is toxic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BTW, Cod Liver Oil will help tremendously with eye contact. If you are not seeing good eye contact, you need a good source of vitamin A....CLO being the best aside supplementing with a separate vitamin A supp.

Do NOT do this, OP, without medical supervision (blood tests to check Vitamin A levels). Too much Vit A is toxic.

You're right...too much Vitamin A IS toxic. However, most of our children are depleted of vitamin A. If you need a test to confirm, then take a test. I can guarentee you that CLO is not going to create toxic affects in your child....it would take a more than bottle a day over a long period of time to be toxic. Even so, there are specific signs to look for in determining toxicity. My doctor had us do the High Dose Vitamin A protocol to improve eye contact and diminish visual stims. We did it three times in 1.5 years. The protocol calls for 800,000 IU Vitamin A in a 2 day period. You'd think that it would be toxic, but it's not when done in short bursts. You'd be shocked at how deficient our kids are in Vitamin A.

Don't discount vitamin A just because the media has so much fear into it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BTW, Cod Liver Oil will help tremendously with eye contact. If you are not seeing good eye contact, you need a good source of vitamin A....CLO being the best aside supplementing with a separate vitamin A supp.

Do NOT do this, OP, without medical supervision (blood tests to check Vitamin A levels). Too much Vit A is toxic.

You're right...too much Vitamin A IS toxic. However, most of our children are depleted of vitamin A. If you need a test to confirm, then take a test. I can guarentee you that CLO is not going to create toxic affects in your child....it would take a more than bottle a day over a long period of time to be toxic. Even so, there are specific signs to look for in determining toxicity. My doctor had us do the High Dose Vitamin A protocol to improve eye contact and diminish visual stims. We did it three times in 1.5 years. The protocol calls for 800,000 IU Vitamin A in a 2 day period. You'd think that it would be toxic, but it's not when done in short bursts. You'd be shocked at how deficient our kids are in Vitamin A.

Don't discount vitamin A just because the media has so much fear into it.

I want to clarify (I'm the PP above) That I don't discount Vitamin A, I'm just saying don't do it without blood tests. You don't know your child is deficient until you check, that's all.