My 6 year old was having panic attacks getting out of the car for Kindergarten: GABA has completely relieved him of his fears

My 6 year old son was having panic attacks getting out of the car going to Kindergarten and taking two GABA Calm has completely relieved him of his fears. He has been going for 3 straight weeks in a row.

I thought it may be low serotonin since this happened last winter as well but I gave him 5-HTP for a couple months and it didn’t seem to affect him and his anxiety. We had to have him repeat Kinder this year.

But wow, the GABA has been fabulous and Kindergarten is in full swing because of your help.

This is from Lisa, a mom in the community. I never get tired of getting feedback like this – how wonderful for this young boy and his family. She shared this very positive outcome on one of the GABA blogs, asking this question (which I address below):

Quick question…does the GABA have to be taken on an empty stomach to work? We try to give it as soon as he is awake and wait to eat for 15-20 mins but sometimes it’s not possible.

The timing of GABA and tracking symptoms

I share that GABA is best taken on an empty stomach and ideally 30 minutes away from protein-containing food. But I also say that the way she is having him use it is clearly working for him. In a situation like this it’s simple enough to track the outcome on days they do wait 15-20 mins and on days when it’s not possible to wait the 15-20 mins (and make a note of how close to food he does take GABA). How is his anxiety, fears and panic attacks in these two situations?

Lisa shared that GABA works well in both instances:

We will keep doing the no food for 15-20 minutes after taking it because it is obviously working. We’ve only had it happen where he eats after about 5 mins and it seems to still do the job.

This sounds like a great plan. If they can, I would also do a trial waiting the full 30 minutes and see how he does on those days. She may find with the longer duration he only needs one GABA Calm.

It may also be that because GABA is being used in a sublingual manner like this, it can be used closer to food. Perhaps a trial right after food is worthwhile. I’m sure it will reduce some of the early morning stress and rush getting ready for Kindergarten.

I also confirmed with her that he is using the Source Naturals GABA Calm product. This is the sublingual product (with just 125mg of GABA and a few other ingredients) that I have so much success with. You can read more about it here – Source Naturals GABA Calm™: Why I recommend it for anxiety.

The school is in shock at how well carpooling is going for him

I love that the school is now in shock and that this mom went with her instinct and pulled him out of school the first year his fears showed up:

We just got a call from the school today and they are in shock at how well carpooling is going for him. They wanted to know what I was doing, ha! He had been a star student so they were shocked when he started to have meltdowns and panic attacks, running away and into traffic about 3 months into school. We deal with a bit of ADHD at home (it’s manageable with the diet) but anxiety is what most see on the outside.

We are repeating Kindergarten because half way through last year he started to panic getting out of the car. The previous school wanted to grab him out of the car and have me drive off. They said he would calm down better without me. What? Just what I want to do is traumatize my child at the start of his academic life. I pulled him and we waited since he was on the younger side and put him in a fabulous charter school this year.

The GABA has taken all those fears out and has been a huge bridge for him to get to school.

I do hope Lisa told the school exactly what he’s doing with GABA and how quickly it’s helped him. So many children are struggling with anxiety and mental health issues and could do with nutritional support like GABA and some of the dietary changes he had made before using GABA (more on that below).

5-HTP didn’t help and why a switch to tryptophan may have helped

You’ll notice she mentioned that 5-HTP had not helped the previous year:

I thought it may be low serotonin since this happened last winter as well but I gave him 5-HTP for a couple months and it didn’t seem to affect him and his anxiety.

Fear and panic attacks are common with low serotonin so it’s good that she did a trial of 5-HTP. Here are some of my insights:

• I would not have someone use 5-HTP for a couple of months – the amino acids work quickly so a week or possibly two should be enough to decide whether to continue or stop
• You always want to increase until you find the ideal dose. I’m not sure how Lisa approached this aspect.
• When there are low serotonin symptoms and 5-HTP doesn’t work, we switch to tryptophan. 5-HTP works well for some and tryptophan works better for others. You can see all the low serotonin symptoms here

It’s possible her son may still benefit from additional serotonin support. Or it may be that the GABA is all he needs. With ADHD it may be worth investigating tyrosine too.

Dietary changes: gluten, dairy, phenols and high histamine foods

It’s important to always address the foundational diet so I checked with Lisa about dietary changes. This is key to not needing long-term GABA supplementation (once other causes of low GABA are addressed – such as Lyme disease, phthalates, aspartame, gut health etc). She shared this about his diet:

He has always been gluten free and dairy free (only goats milk as a baby). We follow the Feingold Diet and try to stay away from high histamine foods as it causes his anger and anxiety to be worse.

It’s great she has made these foundational dietary changes with gluten and dairy – both can exacerbate mood issues. The Feingold diet eliminates phenols. Both phenols and high histamine foods can be problematic for many children too, as she reports.

All these dietary factors are so key but even then additional neurotransmitter support is often needed and in this instance it’s GABA that he clearly needs. Because of his issue with histamines it’s possible he may not have tolerated pharmaGABA (a fermented GABA) so GABA Calm was a good first choice for the initial trial.

Pyroluria testing – why I often don’t use this urine test

I know he has some imbalances so we need to do an OAT test and pyroluria test (I have pyroluria so I know he is bound to have it). Money is the issue at the moment so the GABA chewables have been a true lifesaver. I can’t thank you enough!

I let her know that I don’t often have clients do the urine test for pyroluria because of the false negatives. He’s doing really well but children with pyroluria are really good at masking and pushing through (and so are adults, as I’m sure Lisa already knows). The pyroluria protocol (zinc, vitamin B6 and evening primrose oil) provide raw materials for neurotransmitter production and can help with ADHD symptoms too. We simply do a trial of the protocol when symptoms exist and determine if they are helping.

I love her comment: “the GABA chewables have been a true lifesaver.” This and the outcome for this 6 year old is the reason I love the amino acids.  They offer incredible results and relief from anxiety, fears and panic attacks, while you are working through testing (like the OAT and others) and other contributing root causes.

I said her feedback is really inspiring and I’d love to share it as a blog post for other families. She kindly responded with this:

You can definitely write up a blog post about it. If I can help other families going through the same thing it was all worth it. If you have any other questions don’t hesitate to ask. Thank you again for sharing all your knowledge.

I appreciate her willingness to post their success and her permission to share as a blog post.

Resources if you are new to using GABA and other amino acids as supplements

If you are new to using GABA or any of the other amino acids as supplements, here is the Amino Acids Mood Questionnaire from The Antianxiety Food Solution (you can see all the symptoms of neurotransmitter imbalances, including low GABA and low serotonin).

If you suspect low levels of any of the neurotransmitters and do not yet have my book, The Antianxiety Food Solution – How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood, and End Cravings, I highly recommend getting it and reading it before jumping in and using amino acids on your own so you are knowledgeable. And be sure to share it with the practitioner/health team you or your loved one is working with.

There is an entire chapter on the amino acids and they are discussed throughout the book in the sections on gut health, gluten, blood sugar control, sugar cravings, self-medicating with alcohol and more.

The book doesn’t include product names (per the publisher’s request) so this blog, The Antianxiety Food Solution Amino Acid and Pyroluria Supplements, lists the amino acids that I use with my individual clients and those in my group programs. You can find them all in my online store.

If, after reading this blog and my book, you don’t feel comfortable figuring things out on your own (i.e. doing the symptoms questionnaire and respective amino acids trials), a good place to get help is the GABA QuickStart Program (if you have low GABA symptoms). This is a paid online/virtual group program where you get my guidance and community support.

If you are a practitioner, join us in The Balancing Neurotransmitters: the Fundamentals program. This is also a paid online/virtual program with an opportunity to interact with me and other practitioners who are also using the amino acids.

Have one of your children experienced similar results with GABA offering relief for anxiety, fears and panic attacks? Which GABA product helped your child and how much helped?

When using sublingual or chewable GABA products like GABA Calm, have you found the timing in relation to foods being important?

What dietary changes has your child also made and how have they helped?

If you have questions and feedback please share them here too.