Has any1 seen tantrums bcoz of STOPPING fish oil?

[Guest guest]

Hi,

We experienced something recently which we are just not able to figure out and

really could do with some help from anyone out there. My 3 yr 4 month old

daughter was on ProEFA (we had tried the 2:1 ratio of ProEFA:ProEPA but only

ProEFA worked better for her) since she turned 2 yrs old. At the time she hardly

had any speech. Now she has full speech but with what her speech therapist has

described as a phonological disorder.

As we were not seeing the fish oil making anymore impact on her atleast in so

far as we could make out, we decided to stop the EFAs (she was taking just 1

capsule a day) some 2 weeks ago. Our logic behind doing this was also to see

whether she could become a more sober and reserved child, maybe soft spoken even

as she has mostly been an excited and slightly impatient child with a short

attention span. We were under the impression that the oils increase

hyperactivity while helping in all other areas so we thought it might help her

behaviour.

Instead, what we thought shocked us as she started getting VERY VERY cranky from

the very next day that we stopped the oils.. the likes of which we have not seen

or perhaps seen only once or twice. This crankiness became a daily affair and

continued for 10 days at which point we decided to start her up on the EFAs

again and lo and behold, she was back to her normal self the very same day!

Does someone have any explanation for this drastic impact of the oils on her?

Does it indicate anything which we are not realizing? Would really appreciate

some help/advice from the more experienced and knowledgable parents out there.

Thanks so much in advance.

Nikunj

[Guest guest]

Hi Nikunj and great question!

Children diagnosis do not change from apraxia to a phonological disorder. They

may appear to because once on essential fatty acids the symptoms no longer fit

the classic profile of apraxia- and some professionals who are not knowledgeable

about or experienced with nutritional benefits to neurological impairments do

not know how else to describe it- other than to admit that they may have made a

misdiagnosis to begin with.

It is only due to our lack of understanding about essential nutrients that we

try to see if we can " stop them " (and I did this too when I was ignorant so

don't feel bad) As one wise pediatric neurologist (Dr. Martha Herbert) once

said to me years ago when I said " Tanner is 9 years old and doing really well

but to this day if I lower or try to stop giving him his fish oils he regresses "

" Why would you try to stop them? They are essential and I know that I feel

better when I take them "

Fish oils contain essential fatty acids. Essential means the body needs them,

can't assimilate them so need to consume them. Stopping fish oils is kind of

like trying to stop water because your daughter no longer seemed thirsty

yesterday. I was told by one PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acid) expert that the

brain is like a sponge and takes time for the stores to build up and time to

deplete.

If you can continue to get her enough of the essential fats in her regular diet

and she no longer requires the same therapeutic dosage you could stop

supplementation. However a daily fish oil capsule is recommended by just about

every medical, heart, hospital (etc.) out there because they are again

" essential " and found in numerous research studies to benefit just about

everything from neurological and psychological, to cardiovascular, digestive,

immune- well think of just about every aspect of the body and they are essential

to the body -so essential. There is not yet strong clinical research to support

for communication skills -however that is what we are currently raising monies

for through http://www.pursuitofresearch.org (which since God has a sense of

humor happens to be a product that contains essential amino acids which we also

found highly beneficial for therapeutic reasons!)

Your daughter is still quite young and has not even began her school career yet.

The fish oils I believe give our communication impaired children a bit more -I'd

call it an edge. They appear to help with academic performance as well. I

can't tell you how many parents think their child's speech is overcome at

preschool age (but not as much expected preschool age) but if you check the

archives they leave the group and come back years later with questions about a

new diagnosis their child just got school age. The child starts school and has

to start using complex words and thoughts in sentences, has to expand on

sophisticated language tasks in science, geography etc. and the student who is

apraxic is now diagnosed with CAPD, or receptive issues or learning disabilities

because the parent and the professionals are not aware that the underlying

culprit is still apraxia. Apraxia doesn't go away, like stuttering another

motor planning impairment of speech -one learns to overcomes it.

As far as hyperactivity we are seeing the changes with nutriiveda too with the

essential amino acids. These essential nutrients clearly are influencing

neurotransmitters. My ADHD son and many others are calmed to normal with fish

oils and nutriiveda -essential nutrients -but these same nutrients can appear to

have the opposite affect on a child that is laid back. Sometimes what we see as

normal in our child like my son Tanner was prior to fish oils was a lethargic

child. Normal isn't always quiet, still, and soft spoken.

You can play with dosage- try lowering the dosage and see if you can use less

then before? But if you were just using one capsule of ProEFA a day keep in

mind that is about equivalent to the dosage approved by the FDA found in infant

formula. Don't know if you would want much lower than that! I can tell you for

me that the only time I was ever able to lower Tanner's fish oil dosage was

after a few months on nutriiveda. And I'm not looking anymore to stop his

essential fatty acids -but I know that both fish oils and nutriiveda support the

metabolic system and I highly suspect his body is utilizing the oils more

efficiently now.

Just like the surges don't all happen overnight -neither do all of the

regressions. Just remember if you are able to get all the essential nutrients

into your child with other foods you won't need the food sources of fish oil or

nutriiveda. What I would suggest is you read the books The LCP Solution -Dr.

Stordy, The Omega 3 Connection -Dr. Stoll (which covers much about behavior and

the importance of the Omega 3s) -and we cover a chapter about this in The Late

Talker. (all of which you can probably get at the library) In addition you may

want to do searching online using the term PUFA vs fish oils so you don't get

all the commercial sites.

Here's info from 2 sites as well

http://www.cherabfoundation.org/2001/cherab-foundations-first-apraxia-conference\

/

and

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=115029735601 & topic=7401 (from our

apraxia.org page at facebook)

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