Omega-3 Source

If you are looking for food sources with Omega-3 in it, Smart Balance has a peanut butter that has 1000mg of Omega-3 from flax oil in it. Surprisingly, my kids will eat it. I bought it yesterday with the expectation that it wasn't going to taste very good and that my kids would turn it down. They didn't. They asked for seconds! Of course, I didn't tell them it was good for them.

It looks the same as regular peanut butter, but the consistency is different. It is stickier than the average peanut butter but that didn't stop my daughter with braces from asking for more either.

It is a natural peanut butter but it doesn't need to be refrigerated so you don't need to worry about tearing up your bread the way refrigerated peanut butter does. It is also non-hydrogenated and trans fatty acid free!

This is not a sponsored post. Smart Balance is not paying me for this review. In fact, they'll likely never know about it, lol.

Omega-3 is something I am currently researching because of the reports I've read on the improvements seen in ADHD children after taking Omega-3 regularly. I've also recently read that parents of children with verbal apraxia (speech apraxia, dyspraxia) have also seen noticeable improvements. Since my husband's son has ADHD and our son together has apraxia, I have a huge interest in finding out if this really works.

A lot of children are given an ADHD diagnosis who don't deserve it. Sometimes, I think the schools want it diagnosed so it is easier on them (or a parent wants it diagnosed because a pill is easier to give than consistent discipline and structure). I am not saying ALL ADHD children or ALL parents of ADHD children, however, at the rate ADHD is being diagnosed, it is like an epidemic! We have a generation of children who are being medicated that wasn't seen before. If something as simple as an Omega-3 deficiency is to blame for even a small percentage of these kids, how easy is that to remedy? Simple!

As a parent, I would want to try everything safe first before drugging my child!

This is not a sponsored post.

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Omega-3, ADHD, and Apraxia - I NEED YOUR HELP

I am researching Omega-3 supplements for children and its benefits in terms of ADHD and Apraxia (for our own kids). I have spoke to our pharmacist who says it can't hurt (ok, would like more info. than that, lol). The online information I have come across so far has shown positive results for children with ADHD (as opposed to medicating them). Then today I ran across parent reviews of children with Apraxia who also saw positive and noticeable results in their children after supplementing with Omega-3.



I would like all parents and any other adults who have had positive experiences with supplementing with Omega-3 for their children with ADHD and/or Apraxia to comment and let me know your experiences. I am really hopeful that this is something that isn't a hoax but accurate and positive.

So, please, if you know anything about this, or anything else that you have seen aid in safely managing ADHD and Apraxia without drugs, please comment to this post. I would really like some firsthand accounts on this other than articles online.

Thanks!

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Speech Apraxia & Dysfluency (Stuttering)

My son and one of my daughters has speech apraxia. Actually, my son also has other disabilities as well but we'll talk about that another time. They were both diagnosed as toddlers when we noted their speech was severely delayed. My son being the older of the two was the first diagnosed. It took us pushing his pediatrician a bit to get her to diagnose him so we could get him into speech therapy. (I MUST stress that if you, as the parent, feel something is wrong - if you have that feeling that "something isn't right" - then push your pediatrician to listen to you!) I must say I am VERY glad we did so we could get an early start with helping him. I believe it made all the difference in how well he is doing now - catching it early and starting treatment (speech therapy) because he was quite severe. Since we knew what to look for because of my son and had a diagnose and good treatment plan in place, we (the parents) and our pediatrician were agreeable in watching our other younger kids as they started to talk for signs of speech problems and were able to catch my middle daughter's delay early too.

We are not sure why they both have speech apraxia, also referred to as verbal apraxia. What I do know is that it took several years of weekly speech with an outside speech therapist as well as early intervention in a preschool setting with speech therapy there as well to get on top of it and get them both to a point where you can rarely tell they had any speech delay at all.

They both also have dysfluency. For those of you who don't recognize that word, it means they stutter. We do know where they got that. That is genetic from their dad's side. Their speech therapy also dealt with this as well.

I am pleased to say that with several years of dedication to helping them with therapists and lots of practicing speech at home, they are doing great! In fact, I think they are doing so great that I would be surprised if the school provides speech therapy for them next year. I have a meeting with the school in two weeks to find out! My kids have worked hard, have done great, and I'm very proud of them.

For more information, check out these resources:

Apraxia - Kids
Kaufman Children's Center

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