Ohmama, need info on Omega III

[Mayleng]

Hi Ohmama, I am thinking of adding back the Omega Fatty Acids to my son's diet again. He hates the gelcaps, I heard that there is a Nordic chewable (strawberry flavor - which I know he will love) available? Is that true and will it have enough EPA/DHA for him? Where can I get it?

By the way, I directed a few people interested in Natural Alternatives and also having questions about the Amen fMRI to you here, hope you don't mind.

Could you post your responses over at millermom's too, in case I don't get a chance to visit here?

Thanks very much.

[Mayleng]

OK, the person who told me they were chewable did not explain herself well. She meant the softgels can be chewed. ?

Also how big are the Nordic Factors softgels anyway?

[dfp]

Hey Mayleng,
Nice to see you in the neighborhood. Ohmama & Catatonic are the real experts here, but I will say that I have looked at them and those strawberry gelcaps don't nearly have enough omega-3 to do much of anything.

That being said, my sons won't swallow the big gelcaps either, and we have great luck with Nordic Naturals Omega 3 lemon flavored LIQUID. We put 1/2 tsp in a small glass of lemonade in the morning and both my boys drink it down. It makes the drink 'sparkly'.

We currently use Nordic Naturals' Omega 3 Liquid (450 mg EPA & 300 mg DHA), but we're about to switch to their Ultimate Omega Liquid (875 mg EPA & 625 mg DHA).

See you over at the other board!

dfp

[ohmama]

Mayleng,
So good to hear from you. I haven't had a chance to get over to the MM board lately, guess I should check it out. I mostly hang out here. This natural alternatives section is very active with good advice. If you think I know anything you will love the posts from Cat. She always includes websites packed with enough info to keep you busy for a week.

I don't know about chewing the softgels? That doesn't sound too good to me. The liquid is much better, no chewing involved. It also has a lemon taste to cover the evidence of fish. I give this to the boys and take it myself by the teaspoon and just follow with a glass of water. As dfp says you could take it with juice also but I haven't found that it mixes too well, just kind of sits on the top. I have the Ultimate Omega Liquid that dfp posted about (875mg EPA & 625mg DHA). Depending on your sons age (sorry I don't remember) you may want to shoot for a higher DHA and lower EPA. Is he younger than 7?

Nordic Naturals makes a gelcap called DHA that is 250mg DHA and 75mg EPA. This works very well for younger kids that require a higher DHA content. It's not large at all so if he can swallow pills he shouldn't have any problem with it. If I remember correctly all the gelcaps they have are strawberry scented. It is a good quality product being both molecularly distilled and pharmaceutical grade so the size is as good as you can get. I haven't used this in a while so my memory could be off a little on the size.

I think a good one to start with if he is over 7 yrs old is the Omega-3 Liquid, lemon taste, with 450mg EPA & 300mg DHA (per1/2 teaspoon). You will need to include a 100 IU vitamin E with this for antioxidant protection (to protect fat in cell membranes from rancidity). Natural Mixed Tocopherols is the best form to use. These come in a softgel and are very tiny in size. Are you using any other vitamins? If you check some of the topics there is tons of information on using these.

Almost forgot to tell you... the Nordic Naturals Products are available from http:// www.vnfnutrition.com (1-800-681-7099) at a better price than you can get on the Nordic Naturals website (http://www.nordicnaturals.com).

[Mayleng]

Thanks dfp and Ohmama for your great info.

I asked you some questions over at MM so I won't repeat myself and make you post twice. My son is 8 yrs old by the way. 57lbs if weight matters any.