Vitamin Therapy
In 1996, I found some information on the Internet about a vitamin therapy that doctors sometimes prescribe for autistic spectrum children. It was mostly B vitamins, which are water soluble, so it seemed safe enough. I had long noted that my oldest child had traits similar to autism, but seemingly milder than what I was seeing in the literature. I had started to note that his younger brother had a similar pattern of issues but to an even milder degree. I figured I had nothing to lose and might have something to gain, so I gave it a try. It helped some with my youngest son but was life-changing for my oldest son.
First, I want to note that this research is at least 7 years old and I would encourage you to use this as a starting point and take a few minutes to do some research on the internet and see if there is anything more current that might be a refinement of this information. Additionally, I found the crumpled, pathetic slip of paper that I originally wrote my notes on and I will tell you what it says and what I think I meant by that -- again, I encourage you to use your own judgment and do a little research.
My original note has the following bullet points written willie-nillie, all over the place:
- (DMG) Dimethylglycine
- 125mg tablets or capsules
- take 2 - 3 weeks,
- vitamins B6, B5 then add B12/magnesium
Okay, I take that to mean that all the doses are supposed to be 125 milligrams. They did suggest you start things either one at a time or in pairs (and I take my notes to mean that the pairs are 'B6 with B5' and 'B12 with Magnesium') and observe if there were behavior changes with the addition of each thing. I think 2-3 weeks is how long you should have the child on each supplement before adding the next one.
I was comfortable giving my sons B vitamins without a doctor's supervision because they are water-soluble so they are very safe to take and it would be hard to poison someone with them (too much causes diarhea, as the body purges them from the system: use your common sense). Magnesium is leached from the body by carbonated beverages so I felt like that was probably safe for a limited time as well. However, as a general rule, if you are going to experiment with vitamin supplements, minerals are the most dangerous ones to experiment with because they can build up in the system and stay there for a long time. Water soluble vitamins, like B and C, are the safest to experiment with and fat soluble ones, like A and E, are somewhere in between those two extremes. (However, according to my son's dietician, vitamin E has never been proven to have any toxic side effects, at any dose, for any period of time and has prescribed vitamin E supplements year-round for him.)
I continued the B vitamins longer than the magnesium for the safety reasons I listed above. I still give my oldest son a B complex sometimes when he is just too weird. When I did vitamin therapy for my kids, I never found DMG. But someone I know found that it can now be purchased over the Internet. I think I had my oldest child on these supplements for at least a year and his younger brother for about 6 months. My younger child only showed very mild improvements and I discontinued the supplements because it seemed like no further benefit was to be had and it wasn't worth the hassle to continue. But my oldest child experienced marked improvements in social skills, handwriting, and some other stuff and he has never again been as difficult as he used to be. Some parents get no results from vitamin therapy. But I encourage parents to try it because it isn't a drug and it so safe compared to a prescription drug -- and for some kids it does make a big difference.
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Asperger's Syndrome: A Working Hypothesis
- Giftedness
- Personality Type
- Sensory Issues
- Compounding (Biomedical) Factors
- Eccentric Geniuses
- The Big Disconnect
- Socially Deaf
- Time Blind
- Rapid Brain Growth and Vitamin Deficiencies
- Different Minds
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