About Us
We are parents who struggled with our kids’ mental health symptoms
We want to share the resources about nutritional support for childhood psychiatric symptoms that were useful.
Gut health and nutrition was a route we went down, alongside talking therapies, that helped our struggling kids. It was a really important piece of the mental health jigsaw, helping to improve symptoms and get our lives back.
Symptoms often cross over many disorders from ADHD, OCD, Anxiety, Depression, ASC, Sensory Processing Disorder, PDA, ADD, Eating Disorders, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Dyscalculia
Shared symptoms:
Many kids share symptoms across the disorders, from struggles with anxiety, sleep, eating & sensory messaging which can impact every aspect of daily life
Sensory Processing
When sensory messaging is out-of-sync there is no area of life that isn’t affected
From eating (taste), getting dressed (touch), being in school (noise, hearing), school cafeterias (smell), reading (sight) and much more.
All of these out-of-sync intrusions flood the brain and can make it very difficult to concentrate and can impact focus at school.
It can also impact being able to switch off the brain in order to fall asleep.
These factors can also impact anxiety levels
Eating
Many things can impact appetite and being able to eat a full range of foods
Nutrient deficiencies such as low Zinc can impact sense of taste.
Out-of-sync sensory messaging can impact reactions to food textures.
Gastrointestinal issues and gut imbalances such as dysbiosis can affect tummy discomfort and appetite. When you have a tummy ache, the last thing you feel like eating is a full roast dinner and all the trimmings! You might be able to contemplate toast, crackers, simple rice or pasta at best.
Sleeping
If you are reading this…
You’ve probably already tested your parenting skills to their limits; creating a regular bedtime routine, bath time, quiet reading in bed and more, to try and help a calm transition to sleep time. You’ve probably invested in elaborate routines around trying to settle your child, sticker charts and incentives to stay in bed. All to no avail!
When a child can’t switch their brain off at bedtime it’s near impossible for them to fall asleep.
This too can also impact anxiety, stress and adrenalin levels for all involved
We found that a nutritional approach can often help with all of these struggles
Our experiences are that childhood symptoms can sometimes be linked to underlying factors.
We have seen our kids benefit from identifying & treating underlying factors such as:
Gastro Intestinal dysfunction
Inflammation
Auto-immune system malfunction
Out of kilter microbiome
Nutrient deficiencies
Areas impacted by nutritional interventions:
Anxiety
Intrusive thoughts
Appetite & range of foods
Sleep
Focus
Sensory Processing
Executive function
Sociability
Communication