Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Fish Oil and the Fires

When we evacuated during the fires, I had my wits enough about me to grab Casey's giant jar of (liquid) lemon-flavored fish oil. I packed it in some gel ice and a cooler bag and we put it in the fridge at our friends' house. Each night, we gave him fish oil before bed. This is part of his daily routine, and he asks for "fish owawa" if we forget. For a child who is picky about his brand of peanut butter and who refuses to eat pretty much everything, I'm still not sure why he enjoys the fish oil so much, but he does.

Why give him fish oil? Well, Casey has some difficulty with attention and behavior. Much of this is the result of him be a late-bloomer when it comes to communicating. His speech has improved dramatically with time, and I'm sure he's less frustrated now, better able to sit still and focus. But I also know it's the fish oil. Within a week of starting him on fish oil, every single adult who interacts with him asked us what we changed-- he seemed so much more calm and focused. And fish oil aids the memory, too.

Anyway, when we left our friends' home, I did remember to take the fish oil with us. But we were still evacuated, so we didn't go home right away. Instead, we left the kids with Jason's parents for part of the day, and that's also where we left the fish oil. That was Wednesday. And Casey hasn't had fish oil since.

I did go by and pick up the jar of it this evening. But it's already obvious he's missing it. He got in a heated discussion with his best friend at school today (also called a fight, though they did make up). He threw a tantrum when his teacher told him he couldn't eat the special orange-flavored MnMs I brought home with me from New York for lunch, that he had to eat his sandwich first. At dinner, he talked so much-- about nothing and everything-- that neither Jason nor I could get a word in edgewise, then he shoved two fish sticks and part of a banana in his mouth all at once. At book time, he couldn't sit still to finish a single book. He kept interrupting me with questions. He did take his fish oil tonight, but he didn't go to bed until after he asked me to race him to his room twice, then kiss him good night three times.

And now, he's laying in bed awake. I can hear him. I won't go check on him yet, because he's trying to put himself to sleep. I think. He may just be playing with Lightning McQueen. I'm not sure. But his mind is clearly racing, making it hard to calm himself to sleep.

If I weren't a believer in fish oil before the fires, I sure am now. That stuff is miraculous.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this information about fish oil. I have recently heard about it being used for active children and told my daughter about it but had no concrete evidence to give her. Tonight I called and read her your blog entry. Carter has some issues that could perhaps be helped by using fish oil. I am going to by a bottle tomorrow and take it with me to Temecula tomorrow night when I go to see the children trick or treat. I have taken the lemon flavored fish oil off and on myself but am going to take it daily from no on now that I am entering the sliding memory age!

Thanks again for your insight into this.

Rowena Harken

Andrea M said...

Can I ask how you heard about the fish oil? Or resources for information? My son can be "active" and lose concentration, maybe this would be worth investigating for us.
Thanks,
Andrea :)