Are your kids on fish oil?

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Seems people in the west are getting very little omega-3 fats. Some people think
its a major part of our brains and growing kids need it. Women need it to if they
are having a baby.

As an adult I'm taking 6 x 1000mg fish oil a day(in 3 divide doses with meals).
There is some real science saying people need fish oil for other "non-mental"
uses so it would not hurt to try it.

There is a study on kids with dyspraxia(many ASD kids have dyspraxia) where
fish oil seemed to help with mental things and not the dyspraxia.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... med_docsum

We gave Dylan Nordic Naturals ProEFA (fish oil) due to his verbal apraxia and it has helped greatly, we haven't given any recently but during the time he was on it, it helped his speech and all greatly.

Omega 3 tablets reduced my AS effects at school in Year 7. I think they made me disruptive which is why I got in trouble often.

I've been on it for a long time, since I can't eat oily fish, but the Omega question first came up in respect of heart issues, before its other benefits emerged.

Sometime. somehow, I seem to have picked up a tiny bit of damage, or have a small congenital oddity that had never been picked up.


Never mind: as Private Frazer corrrectly pointed out, "We're doomed, we're all doomed!"

I have started my 8yr old girl on a brand called Eye Q (australian supplier name) which are omega-3 fish oils with evening primrose oil. An Australian researcher has found that her own studies indicate benefits to concentration and reduced stress levels (or that is my recollection of the results) in children with ADHD, ADD and other learning disorders. I havent specifics of the study but I hypothesised that it may benefit aspie kids also. I reasoned that it isnt likely to be harmful, given my child has quit eating fish, and it may help!!

After four weeks its difficult to say; the product suggests it takes 12 weeks to get ample levels of omega 3 oils into the brain for an effect to be distinquished. I'd love to hear if anyone else is trialling it or something similar, and what their results are. I will post another in coming weeks if I notice anything significant.

Yes, my little monkey (aged 5 and a half) has been on eye-q for almost 2 years. He loves it and we call it his fish medicine. He also has his "tonic" orange daily multivitamin syrup which he also loves. He loves the ceremony of it all. We have seen the greatest changes for the good in him since we started but I can not scientifically attribute it to fish oil. We'll never know. But, one thing's for sure, it won't kill him and he can stay on it forever. His diet is very limited so it is a good way to deal with that. He had blood tests last year which say that his vitamin levels are optimum. I was shocked.

I am a vegan but someone sent me some soya milk which is suitable for vegetarians which has omega 3's in it so it would seem (i'm too lazy to read the pack) that you can get vegetarian sources of omega 3 if you are squeamish. When I was pregnant (#3) I even took capsules of fish oil (uucchh!) to see if it would make any difference. I am sorry but I just didn't have the energy for another aspie! The baby is very typical so - who knows?

Flaxseed is a plant based source of omega-3 but your body must convert it
to the active form (found in fish oil EPA and /or DHA). I think the conversion
rate is low(you need alot of flax)

Fish get their omega-3 from plants in the food chain. I think small amounts of
algae oil are being produce by a few companies. I'm sure in the future we will
be getting our omega-3 from that algae oils.

My AS son and myself take a tablespoon of Flax oil each day, it definitely helps with general functioning, it's also good for the skin and hair, and contains no harmful chemicals such as Mercury, unlike Fish oils (which we wouldn't use as we Vegan anyway). Good, cold pressed organic Flax oil tastes nice and can be added to salads. Flax seeds are nice added to cereals, too .

I did become obsessed with Omega-3 fatty acids for a period of time, although I have never taken them myself. There is reliable and thorough research on their usage for depression and schizophrenia and a little research for other purposes.

As someone pointed out, flaxseed oil, although it does contain Omega-3 fatty acids, it contains them in the form of ALA while your body uses DHA and EPA. Your body is able to convert some of the ALA, but not very effectively.

Looking at the studies, it seems that for most treatment, EPA seems more important than DHA in producing positive outcomes (while DHA is easier to isolate).

Researching, I have looked at Eye Q and found that, although it is probably not harmful, it has very low levels of EPA and DHA. The one study that utilized this product used a dosage of 6 pills per day, equaling about 500mg of EPA and 200mg of DHA. Psychiatric studies usually utilize dosages between 1 and 3 grams. As an alternative, I am a fan of OmegaBrite, as it has one of the highest levels of EPA per milligram on the market or PBL Pure Omega 3, which although it is not quite as pure, gives you 100 1g pills for about the same price as most merchants give you 60 500mg pills. With OmegaBrite I would recommend at least 3 pills a day. With PBL Pure Omega 3 I would recommend at least 2 pills a day.

Next, there are several vegetarian/vegan Omega-3 pills available on the market, although they seem to provide primarily DHA, advertising their DHA content and not mentioning their EPA content. I will provide links:

http://www.devanutrition.com/vegan_DHA.html
http://www.water4.net/products.htm
http://www.detoxyourworld.com/acatalog/omega_zen.html

I have been unable to find comprehensive and conclusive studies in the usage of EPA or DHA for the treatment of ADHD or Autism. I can say that it is quite unlikely to be harmful.