Giving Fishoil to a 10 Year Old Boy

Hi L.: My son has a similar diagnosis and has been on meds since the age of 4 (he is now almost 17) We did the fish oil thing for a while. I never noticed any difference in him while he was taking it, but I know others have seen some results. At the time he took it, it was a big old horse size capsule which even smelled fishy. He never complained of stomach aches, but he said it made his mouth taste like fish (yuk!) I know they have changed the capsules now to not have that taste - would he take a capsule instead of putting it into something? Someone told me that the health food stores carry the best brands, but I don't know. Can I ask who the psychologist is you are seeing (I am always interested in a good one, and people often ask me for recommendations)? We live closeby.

Trader Joe's sells Omega-3 gummies in fish shapes that I give to my kids. They're pretty tasty.

I would not use the liquid. Pills are okay, but they can be quite large and hard to swallow for someone younger.

Hi L.,
Is the fish oil for the Omega fatty acids?

I put flax seed (high in Omegas) in their morning oatmeal, but it's also good in pancakes, waffles, smoothies, cold cereal, yoghurt with granola or fruit, etc.

It has sort of a "nutty" flavor and smooths out (not crunchy), my kids don't even notice it.

My son takes Nordic Naturals. They are available at the health food stores and are pharmaceutical grade. I would not give any fish oils that were NOT pharma grade.

The gel pills are easy for him to swallow and he has never complained of burping up any flavors. You can get the "junior" kind and they are smaller, so easier for kids than the adult size pills. Just be sure to read the label to know how many he will need to get the dosage your doc recommends.

If he can swallow pills, I would highly recommend giving it to him in pill form. The liquid is NASTY! A few recommendations for you are:
Life's DHA from Nutrition Dynamics
Clinical Omegas from Anabolic Laboratories
Enteric Coated EPA DHA by Metagenics

If he has trouble with burping up fish taste, you can freeze them. They will break down slower in the gut, or the Life's DHA is made from kelp and I have not heard of anyone burping it up.

These three brands are pharmaceutical grade and only available through your health care professional. Dont buy just anything over the counter. You don't know the quality you are getting. On Anabolic Laboratories website, it explains the difference between OTC and pharmaceutical grade supplements well.

If you are consistant with it and limit caffeine, processed foods, artificial sweeeteners, and refined sugar, and keep his world as structured and stable as possible, you will see results.

Research on Mercola.com. He has an excellent website and gives great advice. He used to be a traditional doc, now he does preventatives. Our whole family does high quality fish oil daily.

As for the smoothies, careful with too much fruit sugar. Drip in a little raw spinach, kale and parsley. Start with just a few leaves of spinach and pasrley and about a 1/4 leaf of kale. You don't want anyone seeing, smelling or tasting it....they get wierd about it. Eating raw, whole foods is the best thing you can do, and "fruit" smoothies are a great way for the family to get the raw beggies. We also add freshly ground (in a coffee bean grinder) flax seed to our "fruit" smoothies. Try almond milk rather than dairy.

We also use the Nordic Naturals Jr. 3-6-9, they can chew it or swallow it. I give it in the morning and night. My doctor has me give him 2 in the AM and 2 in the PM. It helps with so many issues, he has SPD and visual processing issues. We also are on a higher protein diet. We use a whey based protein powder that is also gluten free in our smoothies every morning. I use plain yougurt, frozen fruit, powder, and juice instead of milk. If it needs sweetening I add agave necter, he can't have processed sugar. It really has made a huge difference in behavior and focus. He must have a meat protein at each meal too. He get really hyper with out it.

hello
we use it for the whole family and give it to my 8 year old.. we use the Carlson Fish oil which has a hint of orange (you can also buy lemon) additionally, it doesnt give you that fishy aftertaste..
so far, it's been great.. my son doesnt mind it at all and we give it to him straight.. why do we give it to him because we don't eat a lot of fish and perhaps enough of other foods for him to get a lot of the omegas.. hence, we take this stuff. that isnt to say that good nutrition isnt also key, it very much is..
that said. I take capsules simply because it's easier for me but if I make a smoothie, I will add the liquid form of omega..
I take it for my skin but also for depression. I find it really does help me to feel better and think better.. you have to take it for a few days to really begin to see the difference..
mind you, I am not bipolar so I can't say for sure if it helps more extreme depression , although , in my opinion, I truly do think anyone could benefit to some degree..
The carlson brand can be found at the Vitamin shoppe, albeit it a bit pricey but it does last long. sometimes you can check out their samples first and see if you really like it before you buy it. that is what we did..
best of luck

Use Carlsons which is of a higher quality and doesnt have the mercury like the cheaper brands do.

Cod liver is is one of the highest sources of vit A (hence it works wonders for skin conditions) and also has vit D in it.

Magnesium is a definite need for anyone with ADHD problems. My kids take 500 mg magnesium malate daily.

I give it to my son. He has high-functioning autism with attentional issues. The brand we use is Nordic Naturals 3-6-9 Jr. Not all fish oils are made the same; you don't want to give your son one that is made with fish that have mercury in them. The reason we started giving it to our son initially is because he had digestive issues that really needed to be addressed and omega 3 fish oil was part of the healing protocol. We are continuing to give him the omega 3 capsule (1 per day) because it really helps with his neurological well-being and calms his system down. Honestly, I think that unless you eat a lot of high-quality fish or walnuts, an omega 3 supplement should be a must for everyone.

Anyway, when we first started giving our son the supplment, he wasn't swallowing pills yet so we mixed it in with some applesauce and added a dash a cinnamon to mask the flavor. I've since taught my son to swallow pills, which has made life a whole lot easier.

Hope this helps.

If you don't feel comfortable with what your child's doctor is telling you then get a second opinion. My question to you is how does fishoil help with your son's ADHD and ODD?

My daughter is 12 and we give her fish oil for her eczema (it really helps!) I give it to her in pills, because you can't taste it that way (it is pretty disgusting). She has never complained about it giving her stomach aches or anything else. Maybe try the pill, with some sort of "bribe" goodie to be had right after? My daughter wanted to take it, because her skin looked so bad and it really helped, but your son, since he may not "see" the results, may need encouragement to take it!
The one thing we made sure of was that it was a 'pure' oil... it will say right on the label that it is free of heavy metals and such - I would imagine that is pretty important.
Good luck!

I've read in man articles recently that fish oil has great benefits for your health. I would talk to your pediatrician before you begin him on fish oil and high protein diet though to be sure he/she approves and that your get the proper dosage of fish oil for children. Good luck.

My 11 year old son uses a pharmaceutical grade omega III oil that I originally purchased at my physicians office It's in a pill form and it is quite large however he doesn't seem to have any difficulty getting it down. I freeze them and that seem to help with any after taste. I did not have any luck with the liquids, plus the quality was poor. You can get this brand of omega III here: http://www.visionary-wellness.com under the product tab in the heart health section. Hope this helps.

Get the capsules that have delayed absorption so they don't affect his stomach. They will dissolve in his digestive tract instead.

We use the lemon flavored fish oil! Liquid. Our whole family does. My 10 yr old son loves it! It has absolutely NO fish taste. A mom on here told me to try it for asthma! AND IT WORKED! it`s been about a year. I order it through the vit. shoppe, alot cheaper.

You might want to try Flax Seed oil, or at least mention it to your psychologist and see what they have to say about it. We put flax seed oil on our breakfast every morning and I have found it helps me focus throughout the day.

Also, you might want to see if your son is intolerant to dairy products. Try making the smoothie out of Rice, Almond, or Soy milk (keep the fish oil) and see if he develops a stomach ache. The results of the test will tell you what he should be eating in the morning to avoid feeling icky later in the day.

Good luck.

C..

It might give him a tummy ache. It is oil. How much do you give him? Try less and build up. But what do you make the smoothie with. The upset could be from milk, etc....

There are childrens vitamins with DHA. I think that is what your doc is going for.

It's great that you are seeking wellness solutions to help your son! I can't address fish oil, but I can talk about Pycnogenol. It's another way to go that has some pretty impressive results. You said "any and all answers" so I thought I'd put it out there. If you want information, let me know!

S.
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One of my sons has ADHD and ODD also. For years we tried other alternatives to medication before we finally agreed with our psychiatrist and psychologist that he NEEDS medication.

Pre-medication, my son took the children chewable fish oil pills - they were orange flavored. The flavored chewable pills cost a bit more, but made it a million times easier for him to take so it was worth it. We also had him on a high protein, low carb diet. Additionally, our psychologist had us giving him another supplement called L-Tyrosine which is meant to help with focus and mood.

Ultimately, the high protein and supplements did help him a bit, but not enough which is why we finally agreed to accept prescription medication.

We've had to tweak his medication three different times, and will need to tweak it every time he goes through a growth spurt, etc., but I can now admit that I wish I hadn't fought giving him medication for so long.

Good luck!