A study on fish oil with pre-school children in the UK may persuade many parents to give their toddlers pharmaceutical-grade fish oil. Why? Fish oil was brain food for these toddlers:

After just six weeks of daily doses of omega-3, parents reported a transformation in the behaviour and learning abilities of children as young as 20 months old.

Professor Robert Winston from the Institute of Reproductive & Developmental Biology at Imperial College London went on to say that children who are not getting enough omega-3s are significantly lacking:

“The evidence is getting ever stronger that children who have diets poor in Omega-3 are not achieving their natural potential.”

The article goes on to detail the many fish oil benefits for the children in this study, some of which are rather amazing. First, the toddlers showing ADD/ADHD symptoms:

The results reveal dramatic improvements in the performance of underachieving toddlers, many of whom had been disruptive and unable to concentrate.

Children were assessed for their motor skills, IQ, reading, spelling and behaviour, and the study identified a huge reduction in symptoms of the sort associated with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder.

What were the more significant effects of fish oil?

The biggest improvements…were observed in the children’s concentration and behaviour. “The performance of almost 60 per cent of the children involved has improved dramatically,” said Dr Madeleine Portwood, educational psychologist for Durham local education authority and lead investigator at the Durham Sure Start trial. “‘We saw children whose learning skills went from being six months below their chronological age to absolutely normal in just three months.”

Even more amazing:

“Some two-year-olds went from having a vocabulary of 25 single words to being able to use whole sentences, while others were able to sit down and concentrate for the first time in their lives.”

Source: Study shows Omega-3 improves pre-school learning skills