Fish Oil for Kids – Part 1
I am aiming to answer some basic questions about fish oil for children – this article will grow with your comments and as things come up. Let’s start with some questions and try to make sense of the problem.
- Can kids take fish oil?
- How old (or young) of a kid?
- How much fish oil should they take?
- What about babies – should they take fish oil? If so, when can they start?
- How about pregnant mothers?
- What form of fish oil should they take? Is it dangerous? Is it proven with long term studies (for kids to take fish oil) or just a fad?
- What are the benefits of fish oil for kids? Will it help with brain development or concentration in school? How about fish oil and ADHD?
- Are there different opinions in the medical community about fish?
- My child hates fish oil or the thought of it, how can they get enough EPA and DHA?
First of all, you should ask your child’s pediatrician about fish oil.
Now fish oil comes from fish – the general guidelines are that you should wait for your child to be one year of age before they eat fish. Fish is one of the common allergens (see here), hence you want to be careful not to introduce this food too early, especially if your family has had asthma or allergies before. There have been some changes to this according to the American Association of Pediatrics – saying that fish is OK to introduce at 4-6 months – and that introducing fish early reduces the risk of eczema (see here).
My own comment here is that if fish can be introduced – I suppose fish oil would be safer as the mercury and PCBs have been dramatically reduced in the pharma fish oil category.
Now there are comments that I have read regarding manufacture labels on fish oil products saying years 4 and above.Oxford University, though, did have a 2005 study – see an excerpt from a description here: ”
In the latest trial, Dr Madeleine Portwood, senior educational psychologist at Durham local education authority, studied 65 children aged 18 to 30 months who received daily doses of eye q smooth, a combination of omega-3 fish oil and omega-6 evening primrose oil.
At the start of the five-month trial almost half were rated as having ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ behaviour. After receiving supplements, nine in ten had improved to moderate or good.
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