Help with ordering vitamins

[mommy2three]

My daughter was diagnosed with tourettes.

She developed quite a few tics that caused her a lot of pain and discomfort.

After trying the doctors way I researched vitamins and found they work much better and allow her to function without being drugged.

 

Right now I have my daughter on a vitamin regimen of:

 

300MG of Magnesium (which says: as mag oxide, aspartate, citrat, alpha ketoglutarate, taurinate - what does that mean??)

 

A B-complex 50

and an extra B-6 vitamin

 

I see here on the forum that the magnesium citrate is better? or is it magnesium taurate? Also I should add in calcium at a 2:1 ratio (meaning 2 doses of cal for 1 dose of mag right?)

 

I have been searching vitaminshoppe.com as well as iherb.com and can't seem to decide on what vitamins I should get her.

 

Her tics really have decreased with what I am currently using (see above) but haven't stopped completely overall.

So I wanted to see if I could tweak it a bit to find a combination that helped her more.

The problem is that she hates HATES taking the big vitamins everyday so I am trying to find something that is strong enough in one or two pills vs taking 3 or more pills at a time. Some of the dosage i've see has the serving size listed as 6 pills etc. And something that comes in an easy to swallow pill vs a chalky large pill.

 

Should I go with a seperate calcium and a seperate mag citrate or

a seperate calcium and mag taurate?

Or a combo cal-mag? (which one?)

 

I am very confused. I have literally spent well over an hour on the vitamin websites and can't decide what to do.

 

Can someone who orders vitamins tell me what would be the best choice. (specific brand - amount of MG etc.)

 

I don't want to order something that will be worse. (her weight is about 65-70 lbs if that helps)

Thank you for any help

[Chemar]

hi

 

sorry no one has replied yet...busy time!

 

if she is doing well on that magnesium (which is compounded) then maybe just add a calcium that will give 2x the amount of mag

 

no need to change the mag as long as it is working!

 

sorry...i am real rushed so cant post more now

 

[Guest]

Hi,

 

Glad to hear your daughter's doing much better. I agree with Chemar about not messing with the Magnesium if she's doing well.

 

I shop at vitaminshoppe & iherb in addition to my health food store for vitamins. I prefer the NOW brand. I also use Source Naturals occasionally. I'm not for sure about smaller vitamins. That used to be a big problem for me also, but it doesn't matter anymore. If you get tablets you can break it up into small pieces even fourths. When I was a teenager my dad always had to break up the vitamins in fourths for me.

 

You can also get calcium in a powder. Maybe if you're able to make her a smoothie or something she would handle that a little better?

 

Carolyn

[kim]

Mommy2three,

 

The form of magnesium that is discussed as appearing to have good results for many here, is mag taurate.

 

I order mine from Bonnie Grimaldi's Bontech line of vits http://www.bonniegr.com/products.htm (In case you decide to switch) One of my son's eats no meat, or any good sources of taurine, so I feel the mag taurate is important for him.

 

The calcium supplements that I'm using for my boys is Citracal (calcium citrate) Petites. Both calcium and magnesium are pretty bulky supplements, so in order to get a very much of it, you have to swallow a few capsules/pills, to get it all in. I know that there are a few liquid combo's, but I don't know what forms of cal and mag they contain. I think Kirkman's has a liquid, if I remember right. The citracal petites are fairly small and coated. There was also a thread here recently, discussing lead in calcium supplements. I found at least one site, that said the Citracal tested clean for lead. The citrate form of calcium, so I have read, is supposed to be pretty absorbable, however, if your child tends to have loose stools, you may want to avoid the citrate. If she tends to be a little "less regular" than you would like to see, it may be a good choice. This site, has tons of good info when searching for these two supplements.

 

http://www.enzymestuff.com/calcium.htm

 

http://www.enzymestuff.com/magnesium.htm

 

I found this site to be really valuable, when I first started learning about which vitamins, did what.

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/vitamins.html