lorrainejmc Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Ds7 has speech delay and weak consonant production. A month ago I started giving him EyeQ fish oil and this last few days the strength of his consonant production has improved quite a bit. He seems aware and very impressed with himself. Nothing else has changed in our routine. Could it really be working? I am such a skeptic.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 My son had a mild stuttering problem that seemed to get better with fish oil. So I think there could be something to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorrainejmc Posted June 10, 2011 Author Share Posted June 10, 2011 My son had a mild stuttering problem that seemed to get better with fish oil. So I think there could be something to it. Ooooh, interesting. I forgot to mention that ds also seemed to have trouble at times to get his speech out but now it seems to be flowing much easier. Mmmm, I'll keep giving it then.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Misty Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 (edited) Not a coincidence and nothing to be skeptical about. More and more research is showing that what we eat directly affects our brains. Here is an except from Dianne Craft's Brain Integration Therapy Manual.. We have two brain hemispheres, connected by a bundle of nerves called the corpus callosum. This corpus callosum is made mainly of fat. The brain is actually 60% fat. The main brain fat is DHA. This DHA (docosahexanoicacid) is largely found in two places: mother's milk and fish oil. The UCLA School of Medicine found that boys have a 3 times higher need for this essential fat than girls. It is indeed interesting that in the educational areas, we have found that we have 3 times more boys than girls who are bright, but struggling learners. Boys will frequently "self-medicate", looking for the fat they require, by eating excessive amounts of butter, mayo, peanut butter, etc. This has been observed for years. In Dianne's book, she explains how fullfilling the need for DHA essential fatty acids (along with repatterning the brain using specific exercises) allows the two brain hemispheres to work together again, eliminating diagnoses such as ADHD, dysgraphia, etc. Edited June 10, 2011 by Misty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redmondclan Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 I am definitely going to try this. I found a website where they compared different brands and this one got the highest score for taste and cost: http://www.iherb.com/Minami-Nutrition-MorEPA-Mini-Junior-Strawberry-Flavor-60-Softgels/14176?at=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merry gardens Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 (edited) Ds7 has speech delay and weak consonant production. A month ago I started giving him EyeQ fish oil and this last few days the strength of his consonant production has improved quite a bit. He seems aware and very impressed with himself. Nothing else has changed in our routine. Could it really be working? I am such a skeptic.:D I wouldn't neccesarily say it's the fish oils. I'm a believer in the importance of good nutrition for brain health and overall health. We take fish oils daily. so it's not like I'm entirely a skeptic of the benefit of fish oils. But I never noticed any dramatic improvement in my son's reading or any of my children's speech when we began fish oils. Even if I had seen any dramatic change, I wouldn't have neccesarily attributed it to the fish oils. We were doing lots of things to improve the situation before we started fish oils supplements. You say nothing else had changed, but it could also be that the other things that you've been doing are also starting to produce results, including just your child getting older. Edited June 10, 2011 by merry gardens Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorrainejmc Posted June 10, 2011 Author Share Posted June 10, 2011 I wouldn't neccesarily say it's the fish oils. I'm a believer in the importance of good nutrition for brain health and overall health. We take fish oils daily. so it's not like I'm entirely a skeptic of the benefit of fish oils. But I never noticed any dramatic improvement in my son's reading or any of my children's speech when we began fish oils. Even if I had seen any dramatic change, I wouldn't have neccesarily attributed it to the fish oils. We were doing lots of things to improve the situation before we started fish oils supplements. You say nothing else had changed, but it could also be that the other things that you've been doing are also starting to produce results, including just your child getting older. Yes, you could be right, and my inner skeptic says you are.:D On the other hand, he has had such a long struggle with his speech that I'd be a fool to stop the fish oil, especially as we are now seeing a spurt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom0012 Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Ds7 has speech delay and weak consonant production. A month ago I started giving him EyeQ fish oil and this last few days the strength of his consonant production has improved quite a bit. He seems aware and very impressed with himself. Nothing else has changed in our routine. Could it really be working? I am such a skeptic.:D I definitely think there could be something to it. I would love to be able to give my son fish oil, but he is allergic to fish. Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merry gardens Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Yes, you could be right, and my inner skeptic says you are.:D On the other hand, he has had such a long struggle with his speech that I'd be a fool to stop the fish oil, especially as we are now seeing a spurt. Oh, I didn't mean to suggest that you should stop the fish oils! We take them. I do believe that omega-3 fats are beneficial to over-all health and well-being, but I don't consider them a miracle cure-all to language problems. It's not so much that I am a skeptic as much as I look at this scientifically. You didn't do a double-blind study with someone whose identical to your child in every way to see how he would have done without fish oils. ;) I suspect without the fish oils, you would have seen some progress, but there's no way of knowing how much of the progress is from the fish oils and how much would have happened without them. Even if you stopped fish oils, if you filled in some type of deficiency it would probably take a while for that deficiency to show up again--and why would you want to stop something that seems to be working along with all the other things you are doing. I wouldn't give all the credit to fish oils, but they certainly may deserve some credit. I say that as someone who uses fish oils and whose done a lot of therapy-type activities with my children. When you find something that works, keep doing it. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missiemick Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 What type/brand of oil did you use? I'd like to start giving it to my family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paz Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 Fish Oil and magnesium did wonders for my dd. It seemed to help her sensory issues and her concentration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SweetMissMagnolia Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 have heard good things about fish oil in these situations....glad it seems to be working....awesome :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mergath Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 I absolutely think fish oil can work wonders for some kids. My dd has a genetic disorder that can affect brain development. At eighteen months, she could say two words. She'd had four words, but had actually lost two at that point. We started giving her half a teaspoon of Barlean's liquid fish oil each day, and within a week, she was up to ten words. Within a month, she was up to thirty, and she's just kept going from there. She's three now, still getting fish oil daily, and none of the expected/feared developmental problems ever materialized. She speaks in full sentences, and is actually ahead in a lot of areas, though she does have some articulation problems that are probably related to her low muscle tone. I can't prove it was the fish oil, of course, but between the studies I've read about and the anecdotal evidence, it certainly does seem to help quite a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorrainejmc Posted June 11, 2011 Author Share Posted June 11, 2011 Oh, I didn't mean to suggest that you should stop the fish oils! We take them. I do believe that omega-3 fats are beneficial to over-all health and well-being, but I don't consider them a miracle cure-all to language problems. It's not so much that I am a skeptic as much as I look at this scientifically. You didn't do a double-blind study with someone whose identical to your child in every way to see how he would have done without fish oils. ;) I suspect without the fish oils, you would have seen some progress, but there's no way of knowing how much of the progress is from the fish oils and how much would have happened without them. Even if you stopped fish oils, if you filled in some type of deficiency it would probably take a while for that deficiency to show up again--and why would you want to stop something that seems to be working along with all the other things you are doing. I wouldn't give all the credit to fish oils, but they certainly may deserve some credit. I say that as someone who uses fish oils and whose done a lot of therapy-type activities with my children. When you find something that works, keep doing it. :) :lol: I didn't think you suggested to quit, it was more a "note to self" as we have a very healthy diet at home already, so I only supplement or medicate if there is an obvious need to.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 (edited) Absolutely the oils help. They're upping the levels of dha that help the neurotransmitters get the message from the brain to the mouth for the movement. The benefit isn't even disputed on the speech yahoo group (for apraxia) I'm on. It's widely known, and so important that it was one of the first things our SLP told us to do. When we stop giving ds his oil (we use flax), his speech decreases DRAMATICALLY. Fish oil is better at increasing the dha, but for him it makes him fussy, makes him smell like fish, etc. I don't know if enzymes could help him tolerate it better? In any case, we don't do fish as a result. So there you go, it's not just the fish--flax will do it too. The point is getting the dha up helps the signals connect. Also, this is sort of budding with me, but I think soy and eggs help too. They are high in choline that also helps the neurotransmitters work. Yllek has done some research into this, so you could read her posts. She had something else she was trying, but I forget what it was. Just do a search. Now I'll take this one step further. The speech problems where I KNOW it helps are apraxia, which is motor control. ie. the signals aren't getting through correctly, and the oils help them get there. I have NO CLUE if it helps a developmental speech problem, as in just basically a delay. That should be an important question for you to ponder. Apraxia is often missed as the proper diagnosis. So I can't say whether the oil will help any other form of speech problem. I only know it helps apraxia. There are some other supplements (Nutriveyda which is a supplement shake with lots of amino acids and stuff) that helps apraxia as well. We haven't tried it yet. Maybe we should. We're making good progress. I'll tell you though, sometimes the good progress turns to amazing when people make that step, you just don't know. And yes, there are some people for whom fish oil doesn't give a surge in speech. But in general it does. Edited June 11, 2011 by OhElizabeth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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