Has anyone tried Learning Factors?

[mommyclaire]

I found a recommendation for this supplement from natural Factors. This product contains Vit E, Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, EPO and thyme oil.
I haven't noticed any change, though we have not been regular with it for more than 1 month. My son is Inattentive, no hyperactivity. I'm curious of others' experience with this product. Am I better to get less expensive Omega 3 at the health food store, and separate Vit E?
thanks,
Claire

[DenverSarah]

I have used this product with great success for about 6 months for my 6 y/o. We use it in conjunction with the Feingold program. Don't buy it at the health food store. The link at the bottom is the cheapest place I've found it 17.95 for 2 bottles of 90 gel caps at the bulk price. Good luck!

www.seacoastvitamins.com/NaturalFactors/LearningFactors.html

[Kimmers]

Denver-

what do you use the Learning Factors for... Hyperactivity? Innattention?

And what is EPO?

Thanks,

Kimmers

[DenverSarah]

By the time we started using it we had been Feingold for 3 months and the hyperactivity was already gone...these seem to help him have better social skills...he holds lengthy conversations, and can read body language. He gets less frustrated with schoolwork, and he's generally just a little less cranky. I would recommmend this product to anyone. It seems expensive...but when I buy bulk my son's 4 per/day dosage comes to about 12 bucks a month. Small price to pay for parental bliss!

[catatonic]

Kimmers -

EPA = Evening Primrose Oil. (Source of GLA)

I haven't tried the Learning Factors, but having looked at the ingredients, you would need to take 8 per day to consume an adequate quantity of DHA. (You need to get 480mg daily.) You would need 7 per day in order to get enough Vitamin E, which ought to be around 100 IU. (1 tablet Learning Factors contains 65mg DHA and 15mg Vitamin E.)

To me, that would seem rather expensive and kind of a lot of pills to take. Not that we use too much less ourselves. My son takes 4 fish oil, a vitamin E and an Evening Primrose Oil, so that's 6.

Economically, the Learning Factors runs $20 for 180. If you're using 8 a day, that will last you a little over 3 weeks. By purchasing supplements separately, my cost is at about $5 for the same time period for fish oil, vitamin E and EPO.

However, this is a decent supplement from a good name brand and it's convenient to have all in one, if you don't mind spending more. No reason it shouldn't work perfectly well - as long as you use enough.

Based on my experience with how my son does on various supplements, I avoid concentrated types of fish oil that do not contain EPA. For some reason, my boy doesn't do well on them. This is just our experience, though, as many (if not most) other people do just as well without the EPA.

[mommyclaire]

I don't think that I'm giving my DS enough of the Learning Factors so it really is a waste of money! I'm not sure I could get him to take 8 of those large gelcaps anyway. So with the information that I've gained today, I'm going to the health food store tomorrow to get more supplements. I looked on the bottle of the multi-vit that my DS takes and there is no magnesium, so I'll pick that up too!

Thanks so much for the information.

Am I right in assuming that the fish oil, etc. will help with the Inattentiveness, since we don't battle with hyperactivity?

-Claire

[adhdtimes4]

Claire,

My boys are ADHD/Inattentive, and we've found the Omega 3 to be a great help. We put one of our sons on it first, and have started to see a big difference in him. Our whole family has been on the stuff for a month now. I use Neuro-DHA, and can get a bottle for $11.35. With 90 capsules, that will last one child 45 days.

Of course, we have 4 'childs', and my husband and I are both taking it, so I buy it in bulk, get an 8% discount and free shipping. (10 bottles for $104 lasts us 75 days. Who had all these kids, anyway?!)

Oh Mama from the other board was the one that pointed me to the Neuro-DHA brand. Catatonic pointed me toward Magnesium supplements.

K

[mommyclaire]

Thanks for the tip on Neuro-DHA. I'll look into that as an alternative. And I'm glad to hear from someone with aADHD/Inattentive child who responded well to the supplements. Have you found the supplements effective enough so you can avoid medications?

-Claire

[mommyclaire]

One more question about Neuro-DHA - how much does your child take? I looked on the website, and it looks as if 1 tablet supplies 500 mg of fish oil. Is that sufficient for a 10 yr old?

-Claire

[adhdtimes4]

Only one of our boys takes medication, and we haven't tried him without it. It's really early in the game, and his grades are precarious enough! We'll probably wean him off Stratterra this summer and see how he does. No meds is our goal, but I'm not going to watch him suffer through school.

(Currently he's studying stuff like the phospholipid bilayer of the cell membrane, Punic Wars, and the third declension. Its TOUGH.)

And he takes two capsules per day.

[catatonic]

Neuro-DHA has 250mg DHA and 100mg EPA per cap, so 2 is a good dose. It has the advantage of being a relatively small capsule.

We use a fish oil by Now Foods simply called "Omega-3" which is rather large. My son takes 4 per day (at $5.50 for a bottle of 180) and this works well for him. It's a rather high overall dose of fish oil, with 480mg DHA and 720mg EPA but he seems to need this and did not do well on Neuro-DHA or DHA-250. Most people don't seem to have this problem, though.

We use both diet modificiation and supplements, and the two together are successful anough that we have so far avoided meds entirely.

I'd recommend reading Laura Stevens' book "12 Effective Ways to Help Your ADD/ADHD Child" for a good general overview of non-medication treatments. It's pretty widely available in libraries, and you can buy it through the author's website at users.nlci.com/nutrition/

The Feingold Diet has been a lifesaver for us, truly dramatic changes in the temper tantrum/nasty behavior arena. (Supplements seem to provide the extra boost necessary to tackle attentiveness/hyperactivity.) There is a website at www.feingold.org that is worth taking a look at.

[Allanque]

*ponders*

I think that Learning Factors was the thing we picked up at the health store. I don't think I took it long enough to really tell a difference from what I've heard on here.

[catatonic]

Allanque -
According to the research gurus, it takes 10 - 12 weeks to correct an essential fatty acid deficiency, so if you didn't take it that long, you probably didn't give it enough of a chance. In our experience, we saw results right about at the 6-week mark. Very obvious improvement. You might want to give it another shot.

[Allanque]

*nodnod*

I know that now.

However, I'm perfectly happy taking my Fish Oil and magnesium to see if they do anything wonderful before wandering off to try other things.

*puts vitamin E on her list of things to buy this afternoon*

Apparently I'm supposed to be taking that too.

[catatonic]

I like good ol' fish oil myself. I could, however, live without the attractive repeating effect of fish burps. Can't have everything, I guess, so I just buy lots of Altoids.