SPD Support Forum

Maybe I'll suggest that they add a forum for Supplements and Special Diets (and maybe Alternative Medicine??).

What supplements have you tried with your SPD child? Or for yourself, if you have SPD.

How many of us have tried GFCF diet? How is it going? Notice a difference?

I've been giving my older son fish oil/Omega 3 chewables for about 6 months (not good about giving it every day though)--in addition to his multivitamin. I've tried to get my younger son to take it too. But he is my picky eater and I can't get him to take them. I've tried two different brands without luck. Luckily older son will take them at least.

For myself, I take fish oil, Vit D, B complex, and my multivitamin. I have depression and anxiety. When I take these regularly, they seem about as effective as an anti-depressant.

I haven't tried the GFCF diet yet. It seems so daunting to me. I might be wrong, but I feel like it would be a lot of work for a little bit of difference. I probably should try it. Though if I told hubby about it, I'm sure he would give me eye rolls!

We have done it but I've posted all over about it so I'm guessing you are looking for some other perspectives

We've done a lot of supplements because we worked with a DAN doctor, her perspective was that the omega 3 chewables were not a high enough dosage for a child with neuro issues and we needed to do the cod liver oil, we just mix it in juice and since they rarely get juice otherwise they happily drink it. We also did B-12 nasal spray and glutathione cream which helped a lot but are prohibitively expensive for me right now. Probiotics are really important also. Right now I am doing fermented foods which is a wonderful source of probiotics too but a whole 'nother topic. Mineral supplements are often needed (calcium and zinc especially) to help picky eaters notice taste over texture and get on track with healthier foods.

GFCF is the single most helpful thing we've ever done for our daughter's SPD, by a long shot - my experience is it is at least 10 times more effective than OT. I really really did not think it would work, I thought I was doing it just to rule it out so I could say I tried it and get the doctor to move on to other ideas. When we started GFCF we also did a supplement called intestimend from brain child nutritionals, it was expensive but it accelerated her gut healing and I think it is in part responsible for the fact that she reacts to fewer foods now than she used to.

Ooops, I didn't even see the sub-forum! I was looking at just the main forums. I was just looking to put it all in one spot so we can find it more easily. I'll see if a mod can move this to the sub-forum.

Thanks for the info!

Is just your daughter GFCF, or did you do it for the whole family? Is she on a strict diet? Do you notice it when she has something with gluten?

We actually found that it helped the whole family. When you first start you have to be really strict and careful with everything because it's the only way to know what's working (or not). We've been casein free since she was a 18 months, food coloring free since she was 2, and gluten free since she was 3, soy free since she was 3 as well. Currently, we are very very strict with the gluten because she gets quite sick when she eats it and my husband feels very yucky if he accidentally gets gluten as well. We are very strict with soy because my younger daughter has an allergic reaction to it so nothing soy is allowed in our house. Casein we have found we can now do some cultured high fat casein like cultured pastured butter and well cultured cheese made from raw milk so it's sort of speciality high quality dairy not like we can go out and get ice cream or something (although coconut milk ice cream is AMAZING!!)