I would love to be able to give my son the fish oil capsules that every one is saying is so good for them. He refuses to swallow any tablets and i have tried disguising then in dinners, sweets and drinks but to no use. Has any one got any other ideas as these i am sure would be so good for him as he has ADHD, thank-you Emma.

Hold nose, tilt head backwards, open mouth and put capsul down throut, help it down by pressing on neck!!!! :D

Ok now serious, now about bribary or even say he will die unless he take one aday!!!!

maybe "die" is abit drastic, but you get the picture!

Rox

in a bit of milky way?

Ice Queen
I can just imagine this poor child with his head held back being told he will die :rolleyes:
Poor child ! You wicked lady you ;)

Thats why my life plan doesn't have children in it!!!!!

Only dogs, dogs, dogs and pet cats!!!

Rox

Bribery usually works with children, well it did with me. You could say if he takes the tablet, he can stay up an extra half hour, takes them for a week and can go swimming, to the cinema or something he enjoys doing.

JMHO

liberty

I have to say that two of my boys have survived (1 is 10 and 1 is 5) on absolutely no medication (except calpol which they love!).  There is no way I could ever offer them enough to encourage them to take medicine, let alone a tablet they didn't want. On one occasion, with antibiotics, Knowing how important they were WE did actually hold one of them down and force the medicine in only to be sprayed head to foot with it (serves us right I suppose!).  My other son is much more biddable and pliable - no problem.  If your son is open to bribery, then Liberty's suggestions are good, if not, I can only sympathise I am afraid (no help I know - sorry)

Fiona

Emma just give him the liquid version!!  Boots do it and I have just done a quick sweep of the www and its readily available in strawberry flavour liquid form (additive free of course!).  I did put a link in the other post on this subject to some research on EPA's which I personally think is quite amazing and certainly worth a try.  If you can't find the link then send me a message and I will dig it out for you.

I don't consider Fish Oil a medicine, more a supplement which in an ideal world we would get from diet, but I can't imagine any child eating Fish three times a day! 

Jacky

Hi Emma, my 6 yr old has taken the liquid form of EPA  for a couple of months now, it is citrus flavour called "eye Q" from health shops, he chews a piece of chocolate first and then while his mouth is full of chocolate flavour he has the liquid and then swallows. !!!!

Sounds GROSS but it works. (curly wurlys don`t work theres too much toffee and not enough chocolate !!)

Hilary

medication is so hard for a child that doesn't want it my 4 yr old is currnetly on amoxiclav and has been on it for 10 weeks now and has another 10 weeks (roughly) to go could be less, she is in need of an operation to remove a cyst that is connected to her voice box, windpipe and thyroid and if she does not take her meds after a few days it will trun into an anscees which grows like a golf ball on the front off her neck then she has to have surgery to drain it and then IV drugs. Anyway just had to get that off my chest.

The best way for capsules is open it an put the contents into milk shake and mix it well with a blender or hand mixer, it works for mine.

Cordelia

It is quite important to get the approval from either the doctor or the pharmacist if you are going to open capsules.  Capsules are often given rather than powdery tablet form because they outer glycerine coating releases more slowly in the stomach.  By removing the protective outer the drugs could be absorbed at a different rate which isn't often desirable and negates the reason for the protective coating in the first place!

Hilary have you noticed any improvement in concentration for your daughter and how long did it take to 'kick in'?  Does she have a ADHD diagnosis?

Hi jackyjat (Its my son actually), no he hasn`t got ADHD, I decided to try him and his 14 yr old brother on the fish oils following all the research that became available.
The 6 yr olds last school report was full of the usual "lacks concentration, easily distracted" he was also being taken out into a smaller maths group because the school said he couldn`t cope with a large group.!!

We had a parents evening 2 nights ago and they were pleased with him, the comments were, "he was settling down", "working well" and might not need the small maths class after easter if he continued to work well, (I didn`t tell them he was taking these suppliments.)

He`s been on them 10 weeks and on the bottle it says that it can take about 12 weeks to build up the body`s store of long chain fatty acids.

HTH
Hilary

What are the tabs called i have been wanting to put my 10yr daughter on them, she has a few probs, ditracted easily, spellings, english (they call it litracey) and the reading age has now gone up to age 8 was a age 7 and little common sense. I thought she was dislexic but they say she is fine. Where as my 8yr daughter has a reading age of 11yr and spelling is wow excellent she came home with a word the other day and even i had problems trying to spell it, lol. Maths is A1 perfect and well above average even her common sense is mor mature for her age.
If your like me the worst time is in the morning i have to shout until i'm are blue in the face to get her up, washed, dressed, breakfast, and get her hair done so maybe the tabs would also help with that part of things too.

Cordelia

All chemists and supermarkets sell Fish Body Oil under a variety of brand names such as Seven Seas, their own or generic. 

Hello Everyone and thank-you for your suggestion's and i am pleased that other children are benefiting from the fish oils supplement. I have been to Tesco's which is a big store but they do not do a children's syrup form and our boots is small so i am going to do a search on the boots web and see if i can order it or if my local chemist can. I really like the sound of your suggestion Hilary and that will be the first one i try, but after discussing it with my hubbie we are also going to put our older son on it to as he is having some difficulties with concentration etc and i hope this gives Ryan the incentive to take it as well. I have to agree with Jacky on one of the subjects and that is that you do need to check before opening up a capsule as it really does alter the way the medication is absorbed into the body. Ryan has a sleeping capsule in the evenings and this is fine to open up and we place this into a syringe and adminster it with juice but one of his ritalin that they want him to be on now cannot be done this way. This is why i asked if anyone else had come across this problem, though i have to be honest and say i think he has a fear of choking as he will not eat boiled sweets or anything that has to be sucked on, must be able to chew it to death before swallowing. The problem is that they say by the time he goes to senior school he has to be on the capsule form, i am not sure why but as i have been battling this problem for 3 years and not got any closer i am beginning to think i am fighting a lost cause :-( . Once again thank-you though and i am off to look at boots now, might even treat my-self :-) Emma.

Holland and Barrett have them

Although supermarkets sell a variety of food supplements under the generic term 'fish oils', the ones you should be getting for children need to be high in EPA's and lower in DHA's.  EPA's are the more expensive bits and so cheaper versions tend to be higher in DHA's.  Cod liver oil has this in but not in the quantities thought to be beneficial without an overdose of Vitamin A.

Fish oils contain many chemicals but attention has focused on two: DHA and EPA, which are omega-3 or n-3 fatty acids. It used to be thought that DHA was the vital ingredient but it is now believed that EPA is the key. EPA is used by our bodies to control hormone balance and the immune system, both of which are crucial for a healthy brain.

Holland and Barrett don't sell anything specifically suitable for children, but Boots certainly do.  I've just had a quick look at their website and the Eye-Q stuff is on 3 for 2 at the moment.  It's not cheap stuff but those of use who use it would say it's a small price to pay.  My sons story is the same as Hilary's really.

I would recommend a look at the Food and Behaviour Research Bureau website http://www.fabresearch.org (sorry couldn't get the link to work)

Why do children need different FBO?  Or is it purely a "taste" thing eg they won't swallow capsules?

i am going to get some of the eye q from boots and try it.
How long before you see results i escpect it to be many weeks but just wondered how many.

Cordelia

Cordelia if you read all of the posts above you should be able to gain the information you need.

They do say to wait 12 weeks before seeing an improvement.  Have a look at the link I gave too as that explains it better.

Its worth a try!  Good luck.

The web site on the bottom of my bottle is www.equazen.com and it mentions the BBC documentary, Child of our Time.
It is quite expensive £9.99 for 200 ml and they recommend at least 3 teaspoons per day for 12 weeks. And then this can be reduced to 1 teaspoon per day as a maintenance dose.

The tablets we use are from our local health shop and cost £5.99 for 120 capsules and is recommended 6 capsules per day for a 14 yr old.  These are shops own make which are cheaper than the "eye q" own brand.

If taking tablets is a problem try giving them an ice pole to suck before and after the tablet - worked for Gothboy and his horrible Ritalin tablets when he was younger. The ice numbs the tongue and removes the aftertaste.

Cordelia,

You are describing my daughter (now nearly 20) she was bright enough to talk to and picked things up quickly (understood A_Level Biology at age 9) but was 'slow' learning to read and found maths confusing.  In addition she found it difficult to concentrate and was very disorganised with no real sense of time (and sometimes no sense at all :rolleyes:)  If you sent her upstairs for something she would forget by the time she got there!!!   The schools all insisted that there was nothing wrong she just needed to concentrate and work harder :rolleyes: (she was already working harder than most kids we knew) 

After getting 5 GCSE's she decided to go to college where they quickly identified a razor sharp mind and dyslexia, discalculus and organisational memory problems - her brain works in a totally different way to most people.  I was then informed that I could have INSISTED that she be tested for dyslexia etc. when she was 7 or 8 !!! but no-one had ever bothered to tell me!!  Luckily my daughter is gifted musically and has chosen to persue this as a career and is able to gain qualifications on a practical-based course.

For ANYONE worried about their child - don't let them fob you off - if you are worried then insist on them being tested so that they can get any help they need, teachers don't always spot learning difficulties.