Monday, February 28, 2011

Fish Oil Supplementation

I first read about Omega 3 fish oil supplementation in The Late Talker book. They devote an entire chapter to the topic. As an SLP I am frustrated that there isn’t more research out there and I would hesitate to recommend something with so little research. As a parent of a child with suspected apraxia I have a completely different opinion. There’s almost no evidence of harm, and the possibility of hope. Why not try anything that might help?

Here are some of the articles I have found on the topic in addition to the Late Talker book. Read them and decide for yourself.


You might ask how on earth we get our two year old to swallow a fish oil liquid. The answer is that we don’t. We disguise it as an after dinner “special treat”. Sometimes we mix it in with a couple of tablespoons of lemon flavored yogurt. Sometimes we mix it with raspberry sherbet. Sometimes we mix it in with those yogurt drinks they make with kids. She doesn’t even know it is there. Getting her to eat it is usually no problem at all.

The product is not fishy at all. If it tastes fishy or smells fishy it has spoiled. We store our bottle in the freezer to extend its shelf life.

Is it working? Who knows? Ava’s progress has been amazing. But we started the supplementation at pretty much the exact same time we started therapy. Who knows if it is the therapy or the Omega 3s or both?

5 comments:

  1. I am in full agreeming with you. I do believe that the fish oil has been helping my son develop the pathways for speech, but I can not prove this. I just see a connection. Thank you for posting the links to articles. I am going to check them out. We are going to our naturopath doctor next week to see what she suggests in addition to what we are doing. I'll let you know what we find out.

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  2. Please do! I've never been to a naturopath doctor but I've always been interested. Definitely let me know.

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  3. We started my 2 year old on Omega-3's last week and in a week, I've noticed that he's not hesitant to try to make the beginning sounds of a word and he's getting better with his approximations of a beginning sound. We've been working on this now for over 6 months, so I don't know if it's clicking and he has confidence - or if it's the Omega-3's. For me, we're going to continue with them just in case! ;)

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  4. Gentle Blue: It's hard to say if the Omega-3's are helping or if it's just the therapy. They sure aren't hurting though and I'm definitely going to keep trying anything that might be helping. Which reminds me....I forgot her supplement tonight.

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  5. I have been doing the nordic natural childrens DHA - mixed in with his oatmeal for the past 6 months -- i am wondering why you chose the adult version instead of the childrens' -i know you said that you arent comfortable talking about dosage -- but i feel as if the recommended one is not enough for children's-- in your research did you find anything about if giving too much is harmful??

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