Omega 3 tablets for poor attention span..........do they ever work?

[makemineaquadruple]

Hi everyone

I have a nearly 5 year old dd who has certain behavioural issues and has a short attention span.

I'm not really a fan of suppliments normally. However, dd doesn't really have much omega 3 in her diet and that doesn't mean I haven't tried tirelessly to get in into her diet.........but as yet, i've been unsuccessful.

I've read lots about omega 3 and it's healthy brain function benefits. I really want to give them a go and actually already have, but the few that i've tried actually do taste of fish. I thought that the fish taste would have been masked, but obviously not.

Does anyone know of any omega 3 tablets/syrup that don't taste of fish and that more to the point, actually has shown some benefits?

Thanks for reading.

Its true, Omega 3 has many benefits that include the stimulation of growth in brain tissue. Sadly this will do nothing to help your daughter. Since a child I have struggled to focus and tried numerous supplements and drugs including Ritalin and even slapping myself around the chops in order to improve my attentetion and all with limited success. I know this can be frustrating and i'm sure you are keen to try whatever you can but Omega 3 certainly wont help you with
Sorry, what was your question again?

I have actually heard people say that they can't live without it for their children and that they notice such a difference in them. I am still keen to try them. I know that they wont do any harm. The problem is, I wont get them down her whilst they taste like the bottom of a fish tank! Not that I would know what one tastes like

In double blind tests these were proved to be useless - sorry. Better to get an assessment of your child and find out the true cause, and then get help with this.

Mine wouldn't eat the chewy pop-in-your-mouth ones but I've just bought a bottle of liquid stuff that goes in the fridge so it's cold, and one spoonful just gets swallowed without any complaint.

Nothing special, in Boots. Haven't been taking it long enough yet to notice nay difference...

I used to volunteer in a school with kids mostly who had ADHD and they ran a trial using Omega 3 and found significant improvements in their behaviour.. they mixed it in with a milkshake

nev, which tests? do you have links to the research?

omega 3 and epsom salt baths seem to be having a beneficial effect for ds1. our helath food store has baout 15 different types of omegas though, so we have had to do a few taste tests to see which are the easiest to get down. (i have one with sensory issues re taste and texture and one with swallowing difficulties lol, so it's all trial and error here)

oh, i should add, just taking the minimum dose had no effect at all. once it was doubled to the max dose, ds1's teacher commented that he'd be so different at school she wondered if we'd started him on a meds trial. (ie ritalin/ stimulants)

been so different, apols.

I tried (over a few years) fish oil supplements to calm DS down.
I can't see that he calmed down. Either it had no effect or he would have been a nightmare without & I'll never know for sure.
He did fall asleep much better, though (more quickly) ; I'm pretty sure the fish oils caused that.
He is hyper focused, but maybe was always that way, it wasn't something I was looking out for.

There's a huge variety of them on the market now, some taste a lot better than others.

Ok, so which ones taste better in your experience? Really useful to know because they're expensive things if you buy a bottle and then no-one will take them

ds1 currently likes 'squishy fishies'. dd1 says they taste like blackcurrant syrup, but they are supposed to be tropical or some such nonsense. i think they come in lemon as well. (2 a day had no effect, 4 does)

Mumsybore - I am not sure what studies you are referring too.
I believe the Oxford Durham study and the Adelaide study, found significant improvement in concentration and behavior.
OP - it is always worth a try, plus if you know your DD is low in omega's in her diet, then I would add them. They have many health benefits nd are very important in a healthy glanced diet.

I started my dcs on high strength vegetarian omegas (made from farmed algae) earlier this year (around April) and we have seen big developmental leaps in ds1, who has ASD. Of course he could have been going to have those leaps anyway, but we definitely noticed a correlation between starting him on the oil and the improvements.

He's gone from never being able to sit still for even a minute during lessons at school to, when I took my youngest on a tour of the school the other morning, me observing him sitting perfectly still completing a maths worksheet. My jaw literally dropped open when I saw him, as I have copies of numerous classroom observations from various professionals that described him as constantly in motion and unable to sit still, let alone concentrate in class. He was so focussed on his work, that he failed to notice myself and his little sister standing in the doorway of his classroom for ten minutes - this would have been unimaginable a few months ago.

We buy Opti 3 which, being vegetarian, has the advantage of not tasting at all fishy - in fact it doesn't really taste of anything at all. The capsules are huge, but we snip them with scissors and put them on his breakfast or into a yoghurt or smoothie.

They have recently raised the dosage in the capsules and coincidentally (or perhaps not, who knows) both his teachers and his ASD inclusion teacher have commented on how much calmer and happier he's been at school.

For us, personally, I would say they are an absolute must. Obviously I can't prove its the omegas that have brought about the improvements in ds1, but I'm not going to risk stopping them just in case. They are by no means cheap and we can't really afford them, but now make it a priority for all 3 dcs to take them on a daily basis.

Bear in mind though, that we are a vegetarian family, so its logical to assume that ds would have had very low levels of usable omegas in his diet to begin with and therefore we were perhaps more likey to see an effect.

I also take them myself. Started back in April and by mid May I started to see big improvements in my CFS symptoms. Seven months on and I am well enough to do the 30 Day Shred, very different from this time last year, when I had already started to go downhill and ended up with 7 months of basically being housebound, even bedridden at times. Again, I don't know if it was the omega for certain - I have also lost a lot of weight and built my fitness levels up gradually, so it probably all plays a part, but as with ds1 - there's no way I'm risking stopping it to find out.

For us, we started to notice a difference in ds1 within the first few weeks, so its easy enough to buy a couple of bottles and give it a go. If you don't see any positive effects, you don't have to buy any more. We felt the improvements in the first few weeks were significant enough to stick with it and are now pleased that we did.

Cooking with rape seed oil (instead of say olive oil) also increases amount of Omega 3 in the diet. My husband doesn't like the taste of it on his roast potatoes though (but it's only a very subtly different taste IMO)

I have posted re this before. My son has auditory memory syndrome and struggled with speech language and similar. He has been on eye q capsules since he was six now thirteen. He improved immeasurably in a short space of time.

He still has four a day, he had six for years. THe ones I but aren't the cheapest but some of them have very low levels of Dha and EPA and so not as good.

My son went from struggling at school to near the top of class and is now doing well in a very selective school.

I buy on three for two at Boots but the company may give you some samples, they were very generous with me when I asked.

Happy to answer any questions.

oh interesting my ds2 is just starting the process of being assesed to see if he has add/adhd and a friend recomended these to me, i figure its got to be worth a go as they wont hurt him and i have nothing to lose by trying them :)

Wow!! I thought this thread had died a death. I'm glad i'm hearing such positive stories and thanks ever so much for the tips.

moose, i'm definintely going to try the tasteless ones you mentioned. Dd has porridge most mornings so i'll give them a go and try stiring it in.

Does anyone know if doubling a dose could be potentially harmful?

Thanks again for all your help everyone

Makemine, if you are going to add them to porridge, it has to be cold or at least pretty cool first. You lose a good proportion of the benefit by heating the oil. We do add it to ds1's porridge, but he's unusual in that he prefers to eat all his meals cold anyway, so it doesn't bother him. I have been known to squirt it inside the bread for his lunch-time sandwich if I forgot to do it at breakfast though and he hasn't noticed yet.

I haven't heard anything about high doses being harmful, as they are essentially just a type of food anyway, but the doseage of opti-3 is supposed to be optimum anyway. Ds1 (9) gets the full dose every day, as does ds2 (7), but we only give dd (2.10) one a day at the moment.

We get through 3 bottles a month, with four of us taking them daily and I use their 3 for 2 offer to try and keep the costs down a little.

I believe you need to take more to build up a store of the nutrients. I have also maintained a fairly big dose because I recall someone told me that kids who physically benefit from them actually metabolise them quicker. Cost to me is about fifteen pounds a month based on four a day. To me well worth it. GIve it a go but please give it a few months because I think it takes a little while to kick in. Good luck x

So glad I found this thread. I am just about to start DD (7) on omega 3 due to lack of concentrating at school. We are also vegetarian so pleased I can get something that isn't 'fishy'!

Hoping this will really help.

My Son and Niece both have reported feeling "calmer" and "less jumpy" when taking them. Other symptoms that might indicate a deficiency in this area include dry skin and a dry flaky scalp, so dandruff might clear up at the same time.
Girls might be able to synthesis the right oils from vegetarian sources, but quite often boys can't, so flax might be an alternative for girls. The book by the original reasearcher, who is very very balanced I fell is: "They Are What You Feed Them: How Food Can Improve Your Child's Behaviour, Learning and Mood " by Dr Alex Richardson.

My ds has been on fish oils since reception and he's now in y6. I don't know how he would have been if he had never had them, but he takes them willingly enough. We have Healthspan, which are mail order.

Omega Fish Oil absolutely does work if your child is deficient in Omega.

20% of your brain is made up of EPA, so it's very likely your child will be deficient.

There are so many different types that it's very easy for the studies to be inconclusive. That doesn't mean that the right brand won't work.

This is the current top recommendation. Because it only contains EPA and not DHA. (It also doesn't contain artificial sweeteners)

If you can afford them, def give them a go. That's the only way you'll know if they work for your child or not.

I don't really know what tastes better, it's kind of individual. DS actually preferred straight oil to drink or plain capsules to fruity-smelling chewies (usually low concentration, anyway). Other DC let me put Eye-Q straight on their porridge.
So I think it's a case of trying different ones to see what suits. Never cheap, but you can have it yourself if they don't like it.

I Bought the eyeq smooth sachets today on the advice of the pharmacist. Put them in a milk shake for DD which to smelt awful and I wanted to heave but managed to get her to drink the whole lot if she had a bite of bread in between!

Here's hoping I can keep getting it down her and it will show improvement in her attention span soon!