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

Blossomhill, I think my worry applies to any artificial boosting of any substance, over and beyond what would be obtained from a balanced diet.
Agree tho' that if I was faced with a choice between a 'food supplement' and a synthetic chemical such as ritalin, I'd probably choose the supplement.

Aloha, I appreciate what you are saying, but the eskimo diet is soooo far away from what we have in western europe/USA that the comparison still scares me a bit. Add to that the fact that their genetic make-up differs from the that of a caucasian child.

I just worry that people are prepared to push unnaturally high levels of supplements into a growing body, when we have no idea what the result will be in 20/40/60 years time.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I am a child of the thalidomide generation, and think that lesson is being forgotten.

But our diet is very far from being balanced. And most of us are hugely deficient in omega 3s, mainly because of our modern diet. The result is an explosion all sorts of brain disorders, including depression.
Eskimos don't really have a very different genetic makeup!
The levels in supplements only seem artificially high because they are artificially low in modern diets.

I think this information is interesting and shows why I think our current diet is the 'experiment on children' not giving supplements.
9. WHY HAS THIS OMEGA 3 - OMEGA 6 IMBALANCE OCCURRED?
We can trace our human ancestry back 4 million years. For more than 99% of that time humans were hunters and foragers. This established our dietary balance between omega 3 and omega 6 at the ideal proportion of 1:1. Many doctors believe that humans kept this balance until the mid 1800's when our diet began to fundamentally change. Our present day diet, rich in grains and seeds but poor in marine life, increases the omega 6 presence in our bodies.
"Omega 3 consumption has decreased to one sixth of the level found in our food supply in the 1850?s. Omega 6 consumption has doubled in that time drastically changing the ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 in our food supply. This change is reflected in the makeup of our tissue fats and in our health." (Dr. Udo Erasmus, FATS that Heal, FATS that Kill, 1995 (3rd edition), Alive Books. p52)
In a recent study, scientists concluded that " ... we are now eating 1/10th of the amount of omega 3 required for normal functioning. Alarmingly, 20% of the population has levels so low that they defy detection." (Dolocek, Grandits, World Rev. Nutr Diet. 1991, 66: 205-216)
Dr. A. Simopoulos writes that since 1960 our intake of omega 6 had nearly doubled and mirrors the increase of some of diet based diseases. She concludes that,"... it seems increasingly likely that the glut of omega 6 fatty acids in our diet is contributing to our high rates of cancer, depression ... diabetes."
10. WHAT IS BEST METHOD OF OVERCOMING THIS OMEGA 3 IMBALANCE?
If you are not prepared to make radical and permanent changes in your diet to include food high in omega 3, the most immediate answer would be omega 3 supplements.
Today, the ratio of omega 6/omega 3 is between 10-20:1 in Western Europe and in North America, whereas during evolution it was 1:1. Our current diet (Western diet) is characterized by an increase in total, saturated fat, trans fatty acids, and the omega 6 EFA; a decrease in the omega 3 EFA, the antioxidant vitamins C and E, and calcium and potassium; and an increase in sodium intake.
The change in the EFA balance came about because of the indiscriminate recommendation to substitute vegetable oils. i.e., corn oil, safflower, sunflower, and cottonseed oils, for saturated fat since 1960. These vegetable oils are very high in omega 6 fatty acids and very low in omega 3 fatty acids. Corn oil has a ratio of Omega 6/Omega 3 of 60:1, and safflower oil 77:1. In addition, because farm animals are grain-fed, their carcasses contain only small amounts of omega 3 fatty acids, but they are high in saturated fats and omega 6 fatty acids unlike the composition of meat from animals in the wild. Eggs and poultry in agriculture, fish in aquaculture, and cultivated plants contain lower amounts of omega 3 fatty acids than eggs from free-ranging chickens, fish in the wild, and wild plants (i.e., purslane). (Dr. A. Simopoulos - The return of omega 3 fatty acids into the food supply - 1999)

Also aloha, I think in SOME cases it's the amount of supplementing that is a factor. Yes it's no wose than adding olive oil to a salad, but in terms of proportions of fish oil to a child's body mass, daily, then we could have a build-up of something undisirable, the consequences of which are yet unknown.

I think I'm mainly concerned cos of the speed with which this 'revolution' is being taken on board, and the fact that no-one has proposed any downside at all. I can't believe that no child has had a negative reaction to this.
Once again, the pharmaceutical companies have a lot of money to make from this, and commercialism is very powerful

Sorry maybe I'm cynical, or just cautious

sorry spellings gone to pot cos I'm knacked.

off to bed.

By the way, not arguing aloha, just playing devils advocate. Won't be giving ds supplements tho'

Night

If and when my children start eating oily fish I will no longer supplement them - until then, because of the differences I have noticed in concentration - and health - they are picking up much fewer 'bugs' from school, they are going to keep having them, the pros far outway any possible cons

WARNING! VERY LONG POST COMING UP ...
What aloha says is so right ... great research there!
I think that supplementation is VITAL ... in the last 50 or so years the food we eat (even 'fresh' fruit and vegetables) has a fraction of the amount of vitamins and minerals it used to have. This is because modern farming practises strip the soil of nutrients (farmers no longer rotate their crops to keep the soil healthy and in commercial farming, ie non organic, chemicals and additives are added to the soil) ... cold storage of fresh fruit and vegetables takes even more nutrients from them (did you know that a 'fresh' crispy apple bought from the supermarket may well be almost a year old? It is kept fresh and crispy in cold storage). Not to mention the processed food that is on the market .... but then mumsnetters don't eat processed food do we?
We may have a much bigger variety of food available to us than the Victorians and our grandparents but the quality of it is far far inferior due to the fact that we live in the 21st century.
Did you know that 60 years ago a portion of spinach would have had enough vitamin E in it for one person for one day ... but today to get the right amount of vitamin E you need to eat 15kg of spinach A DAY????? Or perhaps you would prefer to get your vitamin E from 1kg of almonds a day instead?
The RDIs on packets of food and supplements merely relate to the minimum level of vitamins decided on in the 1930s to avoid diseases like scurvy and rickets in children. They bear no relation to the level of vitamins and minerals required for optimum health.
Regarding fish oils vs eating oily fish. The fish that produce Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) are deep sea fish, cold water fish. Most (if not ALL) fish that you buy is farmed fish ... farmed in warm water (or warmer than the deep sea) ... where they simply cannot produce the right amount of oils anyway .... so unless you eat oily fish every day you need to supplement OR unless you can guarantee that the fish you are eating comes from deep cold sea.
ALSO ... whatever fish oil supplements you do take, make sure that it is screened for mercury .... won't go into that one right now but I will another time if you want me to ....

Ooh yes please, Ghosty, perhaps you could start a thread on it?!

Ghosty

Does eating Organic improve vitamin and mineral levels in the foods?

The MorEpa minis state that they are from deep sea fish stock which I didn't know the relevance of until now, thanks for the info

Organic is definitely a step in the right direction .... yes ...
MorEpa sounds like a good product ...
Caligula ... need to dig out my info but I will come back to that one

DS hated the taste of Eye - Q liquid the vanilla one

Ditto the comment about vanilla Eye-Q. Bought some yesterday and dd1 took 3 tsp as per the recommended initial dose. She complained it was revolting, so dh and I tried some, and it was just disgusting. We felt so bad for having inflicted it on her she got to have a (small) sweet to take away the taste! Rather defeats the object!!

Today we masked the taste by including it with her strawberry actimel - she didnt' notice a thing. (Feel bad about the deception, but figure her brain will thank me in the long run!)

(And I bought 3 for 2 at Boots!!)

Yes please Ghosty more info on mercury-free - I don't yet give my kids fish oil supplements because I'm concerned about the possibility of mercury.

Yep, I'm with easy on this. You just don't get something for nothing where health is concerned.

History teaches us that there's no such thing as a treatment which works in 100% of people, or which is 100% free of side effects.

Am not an expert, but I bet you anything that it'll turn out that children will fall into roughly 3 groups:

1. The ones who are really helped by omega 3 oils (eg developmental behaviour probs)
2. The ones who aren't helped (lots of lovely money for the drug companies however)
3. the ones who are actually harmed (probably rare, probably mild, but still)

I've been reading up about this because dd has eczema. Found the description of a study in Aus, looking at n-3 fatty acids in colostrum and EBM, and relating this to allergy in the babies. Surprisingly, the ones with the highest amounts of fatty acids had the highest amount of allergy. They conclude: "Higher n-3 FA levels in the colostrum do not appear to confer protection against, but may be a risk factor for, the eventual development of atopy in high-risk breastfed infants."

Just think we should be a bit cautious about all this.

I would appreciate views on this..
instead of using supplements I buy an oil blend called Udo's Choice, "an organic perfected blend of nutritionally superior, unrefined oils" with a ratio of 2:1:1 Omega 3:6;9, and just add a splosh of it to porridge, smoothies and the like. Over a week I guess DD and DS get about 3 - 4 tablespoons each. Does this sound OK to you wise nutritionists?

what is the best or nicest liquid form of omega 3 for a 15 mth old?

I love Udo's Oil (apart from the price) - could slosh it on everything if no concern for calories! I would've seen it as enough for my 2 kids, only dd can scent a drop of "yellow" as she calls it a mile off and refuses to eat anything contaminated with it, grrrr.

I might have another go with it, though, ds is quite happy to eat it, and if I were inventive enough I could probably get a few drops into dd every week. Have you tried it? It's so yum on cottage cheese.

DS1 doesn't notice Eye-Q vanilla on his breakfast cereal. He knows it's there now because he saw me putting it on once but doesn't comment on the taste. I've noticed not a jot of difference in his bahaviour/concentration!

tiddleypom, Eskimo regular(age 12 and up) and eskimo kids(age under 12) are mecury-free. I own a small health shop in ireland and so far these are the best quality fish oil I have come across.

oops, was replying to your earlier question about mercury...didnt notice that you are using flax oil now.

I think we ought to be a lot more worried about the clear and obvious deficiences in our kids and the amount of highly processed foods/oils that they eat, and a lot less worried about giving them something entirely natural that they are suffering from a lack of.

Thanks Gloworm, I'm dithering, so may well look at Eskimo in the shops.

Aloha, I completely agree with you about the rubbish content of food - I'm just a bit sceptical of the value of supplements for basically well people.

There've been so many precedents - this reminds me especially of the fuss about antioxidants a couple of years ago. We were all going to take antioxidants and live forever if I recall. Lots of convincing evidence of the importance of antioxidants. And yet...... numerous studies failed to show a significant health benefit from taking antioxidant supplements, compared to just eating lots of fruit and veg.

The other aspect is the potential for harm, which becomes greater if there's no real benefit to balance it.

And there's huge money for this in the pharmaceutical companies, who are behind a lot of health "information" we read. Those antioxidant tablets were hugely expensive....

So, I'm sceptical. Happy to be proved wrong, and if I see convincing evidence that it would be good for my dd, I'll be first in the queue. Likewise with antioxidants - they may yet prove to be useful.

My current "policy" on the food-and-health issue is to eat a good varied diet (am still bfeeding), cook from fresh, and pay attention to the quality and source of the food we eat. We're in NZ so the situation is slightly different from the UK. We were growing our own veg until a huge tree fell down on the veg garden and obliterated it... flat carrots, anyone?