Fish oil supplements for children

[Utka]

We wanted to try this as a means of helping with dd1's eczema. DH bought regular cod liver oil, but it says it's for use only after the age of 12. Can anyone recommend what we need to get?

Thanks

Hiya we got some omega 3 in a bottle with a pink label from boots for age 6 months to 12 years.
hope this helps.

Asda and Tesco both do their own brand fruit flavoured chewable Omega 3&6, suitable from 6-12months. Haliborange also do a chewable one for kids but it is quite a bit more expensive. They are quite widely available at the moment due to all the publicity about their benefits.

eskimo is a new fish oil supplement especially for kids providing omega 3 6 and 9 plus vits d and e. i find its the best on the market at the moment imo. you can order it or get it from independant health shops or ask them to get it in for you.

i forgot to add its a tutti frutti liquid which is easier for kids to take.

just got haliborange for my dt's - now we all have sweeties for breakfast. i think they do fish shaped ones too which i will try next time.

has anyone seen any real improvements in concentration/schoolwork since their kids started to take fish oil supplement? Sorry to hijack the thread a bit but I read about it in the paper this week and am really interested if it works. DS1 is bright but has trouble concentrating.

Ds has 'Eye-q' which I get from Boots, quite pricey but it does last for ages. It's quite often on 3 for 2, so worth keeping a check on it. I use the liquid which DS takes happily off the spoon, but you could mix it in yoghurt etc or buy capsules. He's had it since he was about 10 months old (hes now nearly 4) for his dry skin. His skin now is lovely and like others have said it's very good for the brain. We also don't eat a lot of fish, so I'm quite happy that he does have it for that reason as well as his skin.

Thanks everyone!

In reply to wordsmith question.... My daughter's teacher said to me that daughter is really listening and concentrating much better lately, and her handwitting has improved! Daughter has been on the Boots Smart Omega 3's strawberry liquid for a couple of months now. We think that daughter is dyspraxic, has trouble concentrating.. writting.. listening.. etc We've noticed a difference that she seems much calmer at home. I've also changed her diet for the better, no more junk food... well not much
Rummum

There has been masses of articles in the papers lately,(ok-I admit-The Daily Mail-sorry!!),proving that Omega 3's really work-you dont get it in Cod Liver Oil but I bought ds1 some from Boots made by Haliborange(is that right?Havent got the box to hand) and they were £3.99 buy 2 get the third free although these were capsules with an orange liquid in and so far ds1 has only had one and wasnt that impressed-he's used to his wine gum like vitamin sweets!

All the brands vary widely in the ammount of EPA's they have in them, we have found one called

MorEpa (minis) capsules

which contain twice the EPA's of EyeQ for instance, which we were on. It works out cheaper as they wouldn't take the liquid (v fussy!) so I searched around for capsules that did not have a beef gelatine capsule (its fish derivate gelatine capsule) Dd has had Epa supplements now for 5 years and there was a marked improvement with concentration within about 2 months. You might want to 'GOOGLE' on Eczama and epas as some might be better for it than others

hth

I was talking with a friend yesterday who has experienced problems with her ds aged 5. He gets extremely upset over (to us) trivial things and has outbursts of extreme temper over them. She has put him on fish oil supplements and says they have calmed him right down. If she forgets to give them to him she says the difference is very noticeable.

Am I the only one who is worried that giving artifically high levels of omega 3 etc. may backfire on us in the future?

I'm just afraid that the immediate benefits of concentration/behaviour improvement, may be over-ridden long term with cancers, or some equally horrid side effect, that we don't have any research results for yet.

I'm trying to include things like mackeral or sardines (fresh) in our diet more often, but not giving high concentrate supplements.

Easy - have to say I agree with you - we are trying to modify our diet to get what we need rather than take suppliments. I believe organic milk has high levels of omega 3 (due to cows eating clover/grass/something - can't quite remember at this time on a Friday afternoon!)

Agree that should not have to supplement - but ds and dd will not touch a fish finger, let alone mackeral or sardines!

Organic milk does have high levels of Epas in it (can't believe this hasn't been used in a Milk Marketing board Ad!) but my two both have Soya

That's really interesting rummum and anorak, think I will definitely get some omega 3 stuff from Boots. I agree about artificial supplements - we do eat a lot of tuna but most of it's tinned - but I would like to do something whereby I can specifically see a result in concentration.

They had an item on this on This Morning today with Dr Chris Steele. They said that the best one for value, taking into account the active ingredients, is MorEPA which is the one that FIMAC1 mentioned. I've been meaning to start giving fish oils to the children for ages. I got as far as buying Eye Q and no further, as I wanted to check it out with a doctor first. I think this research is going to prompt me to do that.

Ohh... wish I had seen that item on MorEpa, I will def keep buying it now, thanks!

• there was a news item on the BBC last week where a whole school county were given high fish oil supplements for 6 months, they were giving them 6 capsules a day. The end result was the schools, parents - and children! noticed big differences in behaviour and concentration

FIMAC1 - Yes, I think it was that school that was referred to during the item. I tried going to the This Morning website to look it up afterwards but couldn't find the in-depth stuff there. I thought it used to be on the website in detail, but there you go. Luckily I'd scribbled some notes. They also mentioned pumpkin seeds and flax seeds as being very good for you. I'll try to get some of those, too.

TipTop

Oh thats weird that it was mentioned on the same prog as the MorEpa bit, the BBC didn't say which capsules they were taking. Most families were going to continue taking them, which was interesting. Can't remember where in the Country it was now, and it was the first I had heard of it.

Easy, there are no risks with fish oils. Eskimos have for generations consumed levels of Omega 3s that far, far exceed anything that you get in supplements, but are fine! And the supplements are just fish oil - not a chemical replica of fish oil, but fish oil. They are just the same stuff as you would get in fish. The trouble is we are all so incredibly deficient in one of the key building blocks of the human brain. Adding supplements is only beginning to bring us back to 'normal'.

Easy I never really thought of that until you mentioned it. Do you think that would apply to flax seed oil too as dd actually reacts to fish oils.
The thing is it has to better for kids than Ritalin or other meds, which is what has been offered to my dd!

Why are we all so deficient in a key brain building block? Because we don't eat enough fish? Is that why Victorian kids always used to have codliver oil?

Partly because not many babies are bf and bm has the things in it.

Partly it's because we don't eat NEARLY enough oily fish, but also because we eat FAR, FAR too much processed oil, Omega 6-rich oil and hydrogenated oil, which alters the balance in our bodies and means we can't absorb the Omega 3s.
I think it's a bit misleading to think of these supplements are artificial - they are no more artificial than, say, putting olive oil on your salad (olive has to be pressed etc). And a LOT less artificial than eating fats that have been fried or hydrogenated.