Fish oil for children

bylromarha

Boots also do bottles of fish oil which are £6 (currently £12 for 3) and last my boy about 1 month per bottle.

mandirinmonroe

I buy the fish oil for £1 from poundland. it is 500mgand give my son these.

crispeater

also i dont know if anyone is aware but if you go to the boots advantage card machine there are 2 vouchers in there, 1 for 100 points if you spend $7.50 in one transaction and the other is 50 points when spending over ($9.00 i think lol) on childrens health care products.. i used them both today on the 3 for 2 on the fish oils

Ted_Hutchinson

What matters when working out the value for money of any Fish Oil capsules is the amount of omega, rather than the amount of oil.

A 500mg capsules may actually contain only a pathetic amount of Omega.
The Zipvit Fish Oil capsules for example contain 120mg DHA and 180mg EPA so a 1000mg capsule contains 300mg Omega. £9.75 for 360 so about 2.7p each.

It would help others work out if the Poundland, or Superdrug are better value if the OMEGA strength was noted together which how many you get and at what cost.

amanda40

I buy milk from M&S that is 'enriched' with Omega 3 0 HAs anyone else tried it, or know if it is of good value? I only use it for the kids right enough.

j-baby-scotland

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Ted_Hutchinson

amanda40 wrote:

I buy milk from M&S that is 'enriched' with Omega 3 0 HAs anyone else tried it, or know if it is of good value? I only use it for the kids right enough.

I and others can only comment on whether or not it provides a useful amount of Omega 3 if you could please report back the actual amount the EPA/DHA (omega3) content has been increased.

Although increasing dietary sources of omega3 will all add up, there is a danger in thinking that because you are using one source which is improving the amount you consume you are therefore getting either the minimum daily amount let alone the desirable OPTIMUM amount for maximum benefit.

Changing from ordinary milk to organic is one way of improving your omega intake as it has up to 70% more omega3. However if you only drink one full glass of milk a day this organic milk will only provide about a tenth of the minimum amount you need each day so you mustn't get misled into thinking that because you have improved the amount you are now consuming, you are actually getting sufficient. Anyone thinking that by switching to organic milk means they no longer have to eat fish twice/four times a week will be making a big mistake as compared to the amount you need the improvement in this particular source is relatively trivial though of course when you are in debt everything you do that improves the situation however slightly is better than nothing.

bluep

Columbus eggs are also known for being omega 3 rich but like Ted says, I don't rely on these for our intake, we just eat them anyway.

nightsong

I gave my teenage son EyeQ last year and he found it completely revolting.

He and I now both take Morepa, available from our local 'Nutrition Centre'. The junior version is strawberry-flavour and he finds that palatable. It's expensive.

I think there are a few points here -

1. If it's just a general supplement for you or your family, a cheap generic capsule or liquid is probably fine. Personally though, I would want to check for purity if I were giving it to a young child. The expensive versions tend to be 'pharmaceutical grade' which I believe is not any sort of legal definition but does suggest a higher degree of purity. Considering that the fish may be contaminated by heavy metals including mercury, I think this is important. BTW that is one of the reasons fish oils are better than cod liver oil - the liver concentrates the nasty toxins.

2. If like us you are taking them for medical reasons then as Ted says the total amount of EPA and DHA is highly relevant. Generally speaking, DHA appears from the research to be most beneficial for young children as it helps to build healthy brains. EPA seems more useful for other health conditions. Some research shows a mixture of the two, but with a high proportion of EPA, works best.

3. Although any one food source is unlikely to provide enough extra Omega 3, a really healthy diet with lots of Omega 3 rich foods would probably be all we needed. The problem comes from the imbalance between Omega 3 and Omega 6 - the modern western diet is horribly skewed towards Omega 6 which is inflammatory and therefore may lead to all sorts of diseases. If we cut out a lot of the fats we eat which are high in Omega 6 and ate oily fish, nuts, organic meat, eggs and milk, etc, we would be a lot better off and probably wouldn't need the supplements.

Please note that I am not a doctor and the above is my opinion, supported by lots of reading on the web

mandirinmonroe

capsules from poundland read:
natural fish concentrate 500mg
providing 18%EPA and 12% DHA
Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) 77MG
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) 55mg

TOTAL OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS 150MG.hope this helps someone.