Back to School Events!

Hi everyone!

We have been super busy here at Brain Balance of Summit! Sorry for our lack of posting! Here is an update for our events this month!

This month until 9/15 we are offering our comprehensive two-part evaluation for $149 (regularly $350)

We also have a few back to school open houses coming up!

August 20th @ 10:00 am
September 9th @ 10:00 am
September 25th @ 6:30 pm

We also have a very special event on September 26th @ 7:00 pm!
One of our parents of a graduate of Brain Balance of Summit, who is a hypnotist, will be doing a special presentation about her line of work and all the areas of life that she can touch! This is a limited opportunity so please RSVP.

All of our events are open to family and friends! Always remember to RSVP (908) 517-1101 or bbacsummit@brainbalancecenters.com

Hope to see you there!

Up Coming Events!

Hi everyone!

We are so excited that it is April! The weather is finally nice and it is Autism Awareness Month! In honor of this we will be having the following events!

Wednesday 4/10: Open House @6:30 pm.
We will be giving a short presentation about our program, a tour of our center, and answering any of your questions!
Please RSVP: (908) 517-1101 -- seating is limited!

Thursday 4/11: Dr. Melillo Book Signing @ Words Bookstore in Maplewood.
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Melillo on his book tour, for his new book: Autism. He will be at Words Bookstore @ 7:30 pm. Come meet the founder of Brain Balance, and get your book signed! We would love to see you there!
For more information, please go to the Words Bookstore website

Saturday 4/21: Autism Awareness Baseball Game with the Somerset Patriots!
Play Ball! Brain Balance is co-sponsoring a baseball game with the Somerset Patriots! Join us for a 1:05 pm game as we celebrate Autism Awareness!
For more information about tickets check out the Somerset Patriots
**We have free tickets available! Please call us at (908) 517-1110 to inquire about how many we have left for you and your family to enjoy the day!**

Tuesday 4/23: Open House @ 10:30 am
This will be our second open house for the month! We hope to see you there! Remember this is a great time to get your child signed up for our program. Brain Balance is open all through the summer!
RSVP: (908) 517-1101

We hope to see you at one of our events this month!!

We Did It!

The last 30 days have definitely flown by! Each Brain Balance staff member has now realized the benefits of eating a clean and whole diet. The first two weeks were by far the hardest, we were a very cranky office, but once we all got into the swing of things, and started to see the benefits of our diets, it became second nature.

So, I am sure that a lot of you are concerned with what happens next. For our children we do a strict reintroduction process, where we allow the child to consume one of the foods that they eliminated for one day, and then remove that food from the diet again, and observe the child to see how that food reacts in their system. Our overall goal with this reintroduction is to strengthen the brain, while healing the gut, which allows the foods to be reintroduced back into the diet, without causing any negative reactions. 

As a staff we will also be reintroducing our food sensitivities, and seeing how we feel after eating things that have caused us problems in the past. After our personal observations we will then see what foods we can consume again, and what foods still give us some issues. Personally, I know that this diet has propelled me into making wiser choices for life. I know that I cannot go back to the way I felt or how I was eating.

We will let everyone know how our reintroduction goes! 

Still Talking....

We recently received this wonderful testimonial from a family with a little girl that won over all of our hearts. She came through our doors every day with a huge smile on her face, and a boisterous hello! She loved to share her toys with us, she brought a different one every day, and no matter what she worked her hardest. We are so proud of her and her family. They dedicated themselves to seeing this program through, and we are so thankful for the feed back they they were able to provide us with. We miss you guys! Hope to see you soon!

To the entire Brain Balance Team,

It’s been a few months now since we left Brain Balance after Maegan’s program and we are still talking about the great things Brain Balance has done to improve our lives.   I say our lives because what Maegan goes through we all go through.  Maegan has always been a happy-go-lucky girl.  She developed normally from infancy through early learning years, but we knew she was developing differently than her twin sister.  She was physically more active and less afraid of doing things that seemed risky or dangerous.  When we enrolled the girls in a preschool run by Franciscan nuns, the nuns would always tell us that they used every trick possible to keep Maegan from getting up throughout the day or during circle time. 

When she started kindergarten, she showed the same behaviors of fidgeting and disrupting the class with her constant need to keep moving, touching things or not following instruction and at times throwing fits during class.  She had to be removed from her classroom several times during the year and placed in the pre-school classes on those days.  Maegan would come home crying saying she was placed in the baby classes because she was behaving like a baby.   We would discipline her at home only to see her do the same thing over and over again with some good weeks and some very bad weeks. 

First grade was a lot like Kindergarten, but fewer bad weeks as she started to make friends and socialize more.  Challenges at home were similar to challenges in school.  She would often get frustrated when she could not figure out the answers to homework on her own.  She would throw fits and toss her books and pencil across the table and refuse to complete the homework.  Maegan would cry hysterically and it would take her hours to finish her homework assignments when her sister would do it on her own and in a fraction of the time.  This would frustrate Maegan even more.  Before 1^st grade was over we received Maegan’s Tera Nova test scores (these are the state-wide academic tests) and we were disappointed to see Maegan score in the 15^th to 25^th percentile of the average scores of a 1^st grader.  The teacher told us she never finished the exam because she got frustrated and simply stopped trying.  We were all worried about Maegan at that point and realized this was not a maturity problem, but that this was a much bigger problem so we took her to the pediatrician for an evaluation.  That’s when she was diagnosed her with ADHD.  Now we knew what the issue was and we went looking for help.  That’s when I found Brain Balance.   

When we started Brain Balance Maegan was often too afraid to try new things and was too afraid to read out loud.  She would read very slowly and often lose her place on the page.  She was easily distracted and was difficult for us to bring her back to continue the task of reading.   Maegan was skeptical at first, and honestly so were we, but we had to try something to help her.  We started her sessions during the summer break and she enjoyed going to each session.  Some days she would say she was working really hard and other days she would say she had a lot of fun.  Her twin sister Lauren would wait outside and play with the toys and she also enjoyed going to BB each day with her sister.  Mid-way through the sessions I could already see a change in Maegan.  She was eager to read and she was reading much better.  She was attempting to sound-out words when before she would wait for me to sound them out for her.   Maegan was also not afraid to do new things anymore.  I was amazed with her new found confidence in herself.   

Maegan continued BB into the early part of her 2^nd grade and she started the year with a better view of herself.  At this point she was assigned a school aide to her class as part of the school program.  Her aide happened to be the aide that was with her during Kindergarten.  After the first week in school, the aide pulled my husband aside and mentioned that she had seen a tremendous change in Maegan.  She said she did not fidget during class, she didn’t disrupt the class and that she was indeed a better reader.  She asked us what we had done to achieve such changes and we said Brain Balance.  We are now mid-way through 2^nd grade and Maegan still has her days but she and her teachers tell us she’s able to manage herself out of those situations better.  What would take her hours to get through an emotional breakdown now only takes 10 minutes at most.  She knows and is aware of those situations and tries her best to avoid them.  It’s a work in progress but we know this is now easier for her and us to deal with thanks to Brain Balance.  As she grows older and deals with different situations, I will always think back at what Brain Balance has taught us about ADHD and I would not think twice about putting her through another session with BB if we think it will help her again.  We enjoyed the teaching sessions with Dr. Milello and Dr. Scire – they both offered great learning and tips on how to deal with Maegan’s issues.

Thank you to the team that was so patient and kind with Maegan.  Maegan continues to ask me to bring her back to say hi to her teachers.  She has her star posted to her wall to remind her of all the great things she’s achieved!   See you all soon…

Yours truly,

Sharon B.

Open House Invitation

I don't know if you know this, but Brain Balance of Summit, has been committed to having two [THAT'S RIGHT TWO] Open Houses a month. One in the morning, and one in the evening.
We realized that a lot of interested families want a little bit more than just a phone call or an email about our program. They want to come in and meet the staff, see our center, participate in an awesome presentation, and ask their questions. So we decided to make regular open houses a must for our families. You are not required to attend one, but so many of our families benefit from getting a first hand experience from seeing where their child has the potential to be for the next 12, amazing, life changing weeks!

If you are one of those families, teachers, or professionals who wants to see our center and learn about the Brain Balance approach, then come visit us on Wednesday 2/20 at 6:30 PM. We will have a presentation, followed by Q&A, and then a tour of our center.

Interested? RSVP to (908) 517 - 1101.
We are located at 33 Union Place, Summit NJ 07901
Hope to see you there!! If you cannot make it, then "like" us on Facebook (Brain Balance of Summit), we post regularly about our open houses, and other interesting facts!

Ooohhh, We're Half Way There!

The Brain Balance staff embarked on a 30 day (4 week), elimination diet. Just like our kids do! I know the title is corny  but we have just hit the half way mark of our diets. We are starting to really understand what families have to go through. The ease of just running out to grab lunch is gone. We all have to watch ourselves as we are preparing food for others, no more snacking! Our comfort foods are gone - We miss coffee and ice cream most :(. Granted, we are adults, and we understand what we are doing, and why it has to be done, so making dinner and trying new things is exciting. We know this is not always the case for our kids, and we hope that our journey allows us to motivate them more, and bring in some better recommendations - I've tried three different breads already! Some of us are already seeing some positive changes and have found substitutes that we love! For our kids it generally takes them about 2 weeks to get adjusted to their new lifestyle, have a few mess ups, and then we start to see the change.

Now, we are by no means experts, and we have all spent our fair share of time in a supermarket combing the shelves for a certain food item that we can have, and yes some of us have even made mistakes so far. But that is why we are on this adventure, to better ourselves, to better our understanding of the program that we fully believe in, and to better help the families that we work with.

We are now going to share some of our favorite new finds, some recipes, and of course our mistakes!

•  Bob's Red Mill gluten free all purpose baking flour! Good for bread, cookies, and thickening up soups!
•  Arrowhead Mills gluten free Quiona Rice and Shine - a great breakfast option and a great substitute for oatmeal!
• Bob's Red Mill gluten free pizza crust
• Bob's Red Mill Almond meal/flour - great for adding a little protein to your baking

• Pacific Almond milk - yummm
• Once Again almond butter 
• Suzie's rice cakes - great crunch 
• King Soba black rice noodles
• And my favorite, not pictured, Goldbaum rice noodles. They are a fabulous substitution for this pasta lover!

• Old Wesse Ltd, Cream Oat Bran - a little different than plain old oatmeal
• Sprouted Chia Powder - Superfood!
• Ginger and Cinnamon - a sweet treat for a anti-candida diet!
• Hemp Seeds
• Ground Premium Flaxseed - more omega 3 please! 

More pictures to come! We are so excited to be on this journey with our kids. The King Soba was actually a recommendation from one of our families - I had it last night, it was delicious!!

Our favorite recipe so far:

Almond milk ice cream

• 2 cups almond milk of choice (or any other dairy alternative)
• 1/4 cup maple syrup or agave - I haven't tried brown sugar or regular sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• I made mine with enjoy life chocolate chips and a little mint extract - yummm
• Combine all ingredients and then put in ice cream maker
• let it churn for about 15 mins (watch it though for the consistency you like)
• put in chocolate chips and enjoy!
• I recommend eating it all at once, letting it freeze in freezer wasn't as appealing 

Butternut Squash Soup

• 1 Butternut squash - roasted (really roasted)
• leaks 
• olive oil 
• 6 cups chicken broth
• Roast your butternut squash - 350 for about an hour or so 
• Cook leeks in the olive oil until soft
• Scrape out the really roasted butternut squash into your pan 
• Add chicken broth and let simmer for an hour
• Use a hand mixer and puree in pan to desired consistency  

Now on to try Cherrybrook kitchen chocolate cake and so delicious mint chocolate chip (coconut milk of course!)

The Nutrition Component

The Nutrition Component has come up a few times in the past, but now we are really going to go into detail about this integral part of the program! Mostly because it is the least understood part of the program, but even more so because the staff here at Brain Balance has recently gotten their ALCAT test results back, and each of us will be starting our own elimination diet! If the kids can do it - we can do it!

Dr. Robert Melillo, our co-founder, realized that while we might be stimulating your child to improve the functional disconnection, there is more then just a weak hemisphere that is contributing to the negative behaviors that you observe. To quote Dr. Melillo's book Disconnected Kids (p 213) "The brain's primary fuels are oxygen and glucose, which are manufactured from nutrients in our food supply. A brain that has plenty of stimulation but too little fuel will not be able to take advantage of that stimulation."

That being said the brain and the stomach are directly connected by a single nerve called the vagus nerve.   

Have you ever been nervous and you get that feeling we call "butterflies in your stomach"? Well your stomach isn't nervous! Your brain is! That feeling of nervousness is being perceived in your stomach. If you know what I am talking about then you have experienced the direct correlation of the brain and the stomach at work.  

Now, when a child has a deficit in one of their hemispheres, that lack of strength is consequently emulated in the gut. 

A weak brain = a weak gut

A weak gut leaves the child susceptible to:

• Less stomach acid, which breaks down food
• Weaker stomach muscles - less peristalsis to churn the food
• Nutrients from food cannot be absorbed
• Decreased circulation to the stomach and its large/small intestines

We call having a weak gut, leaky gut. The gut is actually so weak that the walls of the organ become permeable, and food that the child is eating leaks out of the gut. This leakage causes a continuous response from the body's defense system - the white blood cells - and results in inflammation that is wide spread throughout the body (the same way a cut gets inflamed when a white blood cell response to the breaking of skin). Inflammation generally means that a cut is healing, and in a sense the white blood cells are trying to heal the gut, but they cannot keep up with the constant bombardment from eating some of these foods every day.

As a result we see such negative responses like:

• Eczema 
• Inability to focus
• Diarrhea
• Constipation 
• Picky eaters
• So much more! 

BUT! If given the chance to heal, the body will heal itself! The body can only begin to heal itself if we know exactly what is causing the damage. That is where the ALCAT test comes in. All of our children are required by the Brain Balance Program,to have a routine blood draw. That blood is then sent to our lab, ALCAT, where the blood is tested for the individual antigen response (White Blood Cell response) to the introduction of an individual food to the blood stream. If the white blood cells respond to the food being introduced to the blood stream, then the lab knows that this food is a sensitivity for the child. The reason being, that the white blood cells are only supposed to respond to foreign invaders in the body (like when we are sick, or have a cut). Food should not be considered a foreign invader, but in this case, when it is, that is where we get a food sensitivity, and hence all of the negative reactions that accompany it.

That being said, all of the results that we receive are discussed thoroughly with the families, and the child in our program is put on a strict elimination diet. This elimination diet removes all of the foods that are manifesting themselves as a negative reaction, and allows the body to do what it does best - heal itself. The combination of our program, which is strengthening the brain, and the elimination diet, which allows the stomach to strengthen, allows the child to not only see an overall improvement in their functional development, but they are allowed to have all of their foods back!

The goal of the nutrition component of the program is not only to eliminate the food sensitivities, but also to heal the gut through the stimulation of the program combined with the elimination diet. This healing process reversese the permibility of the gut, and the food sensitivites can slowly be reintroduced into the child's life - with no negative reactions!

Knowing all this, the staff at Brain Balance of Summit, has decided to embark on the same journey as so many of our kids have before and many will after. We all got our blood drawn, and we are all doing our own individualized elimination diet. This will be our story. We will be posting about how we feel, what challenges we have, and will even be sharing some of our food choices. We realize that it is a little easier to reason with us when we can't have our favorite food because of a sensitivity, but we hope that our experiences will help anyone who is doing their own elimination diet, or any of the families that are in our program who need a little bit more motivation with their child!

Miss Betsy, Miss Casey, Miss Nicole, and Miss Sarah Anne are doing it too!