Fish oils for difficult behaviour - Can anyone give me some advice?

[Greensleeves]

DH and I have been talking about (among other things) trying fish oils to help ameliorate ds1's increasingly explosive behaviour. I know I've seen stuff on here about the use of them, but I have no idea what to buy or what to expect, or even whether there's any real basis to the idea. Could someone advise me? I am planning to ask for advice from his teacher'Head/senco, with whome I am going to try and arrange a meeting ASAP to discuss the problems he's having atm.

Oh, and anyone who fancies taking the piss on the grounds that I am a stuck-up 'foodie', knock yourselves out - I couldn't give two shits.

I might look into the homeopathy too

I have to say, a diagnosis has made things better for my ds. If you want to contact me, please do!

I would have to second what Aloha has said about geting a diagnosis. I have two DSs with AS-one (DS5) was dx at age 6, the other (DS3) has only just been dx at 18. I really wish it had been picked up when he was younger too, but it was not recognised as much when he was assessed in his primary school years. It would have made things much easier for him and us!

Sorry to hear that things are difficult for DS1 (and you!) at the moment.

I'd just second trying Eskimo and preferably unflavoured capsules if your DS can take them. DS1 became absolutely foul on the strawberry chewable Eye Q ones - they are coloured as well. Still haven't managed to get any 'pure' oils into DS1 as they do taste disgusting if you can't swallow capsules - he can't. Might try rubbing flax oil into him.

DS2 takes Eye Q capsules, but then he has never been as behaviourally challenging as DS1.

Please don't say you are a bad mother, having seen lots of your posts it's patently Not True!!
We all feel guilty sometimes;(my two are grown up and I still beat myself up) you love and care for your children and it's a draining and thankless process sometimes.
If you can, get some support and do something nice with DP so you can relax for a little while.
Re fish oils/omega oils, I've had severe depression and they helped me. Maybe we are all aquatic apes

That is very kind of you Earthymama, thank you .

DS1 is being really delightful and lovely this morning, and I am bracing myself to tell his teacher that things are spiralling out of control and I want a proper meeting to discuss things. Sod's law

GS- if you do go down the homeopathy route the one I would really recommend has clinics here (you know where I am ), Kingsbridge and Totnes. If you can get to any of those I'd really recommend her, she's lovely with ds1, well with all the boys, but doesn't expect ds1 to go to the clinic etc- she 'gets' it. She is going to be away off and on for the next few months - but still worth seeing her if you do decide to try that as well. CAT me if you want her name/number/more details etc.

Where are with this Greensleeves ?
Ds takes the Healthspan , Omega 3 Brain Boosters - but they are orange falvoured, so that may not be suitable.

My mum swears by omega 3 for all children. She has investigated it, extensively. Ds is not particularly hyper. But I thought that we'd give them a go. Omega 3 can do no harm - I am sure that is scientifically correct.

What have you decided ?

I have used fish oils for years on my older boy (dhe is dyslexic) sadly no significant changes to his distractibility but hey, it can't hurt and he only likes salmon in terms of food with omega 3 in.

Eye Q lemon flavoured oil is our drug of choice, as ice cold, it slips down relatively ok. The new vanilla one is more readily available and tbhm even the smell of it makes me hurl and ds is not keen.

TBH, don't think fish oils will be a miracle cure for your particular probs. Will echo the others in exploring some tests....

I'm sure you don't really belive you're a bad mother. The fact that you are on here asking for help and trying everything you can would seem to contradict that...

Really good luck though, you seem to be really going through the mill at the mo with this.

I use fish oils for both our boys (8 and 6) and have done since the eldest was 5. He also used to have horrible, horrible tantrums and exhibited much of the showy, out-of-control behaviour that the OP mentioned. However, he was also very bright, interacted normally with children, adults etc. so we never suspected anything seriously wrong. But I well remember the relentless grind of monitoring, wheedling, shouting etc to get him to behave - it completely wears you down!

Anyway, after a particularly bad tantrum where he collapsed in tears after and said "Mummy, I can't help it, it feels like the clock in my head is going around the wrong way", I decided I had do some SOMETHING. So we started him on fish oils and also took a much closer look at what he was eating. His diet was pretty good but we decided to cut out anything with artificial sweeteners and also a lot of E number colours (if you google Hyperactive Children's Society they have a good list) and the change was immediate. TBH, I think the food issue was probably more crucial for us but it's certainly something you might consider in conjunction with fish oils. For us, the big baddies were fruit squashes with no added sugar (but lots of aspartame instead!), cheap jams, jellies - that kind of thing.

Good luck greeny. Forget the eat crap food thread. Hope it all goes well.

Hi Greensleeves

We've found the fish oils have been miraculous for ds and his violent outbursts and also for me. My mood is measurably better when I'm taking them (have no idea why this is but I am the biggest vitamin/supplement sceptic and I am convinced it makes a difference).

Ds still kicks off a fair bit with me and dd (hitting and kicking) but has definitely improved.

I remember considering a referral for ds at about the same age - I was sick with worry about how he would manage at school because his outbursts were so extreme.

I think talking to his teachers is a good idea - I found they put all his behaviour into perspective for me and helped me understand just exactly what was typical and what wasn't (iyswim).

Greensleeves, the Mental Health Foundation did a rather interesting study on the links between food and mood a while back, which is on the MHF site. I also wrote an article which drew a lot from it, which might be useful - I can send you a copy if you're interested.

MI - can I be really cheeky and ask for a copy?? Tis is pet topic of mine (work in MH and love food )

'course you can. CAT me, no problemo.

belated thanks for your answer to my query Tigg,apologies for interrupting your thread greeny, and best of luck with the fish oils.