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Fish oils for children
My daughters are two-and-a-half years old and while I have heard a lot about the benefits of giving supplements of fish oils to aid brain development, all the fish oil supplements available over the counter that I have seen state that they should not be given to children under four.
The supplement I suggest you give your toddler daughters is an essential fatty acid supplement called MorDHA-Mini which is suitable for infants from six months to children up to the age of five. The DHA is sourced from fish oils but these capsules come in strawberry flavour which young children are going to find more appealing than a pure fish oil taste.
MorDHA-Mini from Healthy and Essential costs £13.99 for 60 softgel capsules. The therapeutic dose is one capsule a day. This excellent range is now on sale in good independent health stores, but if you want to order direct from the UK distributor, contact Healthy and Essential on 08700 53 6000.
DHA is short for docosahexaenoic acid. This is one of the omega-3 fatty acids that is critical to growth, function and brain development. It is present in human breast milk and, because it is so important to development, included in some infant formulae.
After the age of five, the more critical fatty acid is EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid). One way to remember the difference is to think of DHA as the “building block” for the brain (and therefore, the preferred supplement not only for children up to the age of five, but for pregnant women too), and then to think of EPA as the “fuel which runs the brain.” So, by the time your girls are ready to start full-time school, switch to a daily MorEPA supplement (£18.99 for 60 capsules) from the same specialist supplier.