We measure a lot of numbers when we talk about health.
Blood
Before I tell you about a nine-year-old boy who changed the way I think about this subject, I want to tell you something about me.
I do not have an autistic child.
I do not know what it feels like to hear that diagnosis for your son or daughter.
I do not know what it feels like to wonder whether your child will speak, sleep through the night, make friends, live independently, or be able to communicate what he or she needs.
I have not lived through the appointments, therapies, school meetings, sleepless nights, internet searches, conflicting advice, worry, hope, frustration, victories, and setbacks that many parents of autistic children experience.
So I am not writing this article to tell a parent what he or she should or should not do.
I am certainly not writing it to criticize any decision a parent has made.
I am writing it because I care.
And something has been troubling me.
I have now worked with the parents of 13 autistic children. In doing so, I have realized that there is an area of their children’s health that many of these parents simply did not know they could measure.
Nobody had told them.
That bothers me.
Not because I believe their doctors failed them.
Not because I believe the parents should have known better.
How could a parent know to ask about something they have never been told exists?
That is really why I am writing this article.
Whether a parent chooses to do anything with this information is entirely up to them.
I simply believe parents deserve to know.
And it begins with a nine-year-old boy.
He Was Nine Years Old and Non-Verbal
He was autistic.
He was non-verbal.
And according to his mother, he could not even hold a pencil.
Then we measured something most parents of autistic children have probably never been told to measure.
We tested the balance of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in his red blood cells.
Now, if you just read that sentence and thought:
“What in the world is an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio?”
That’s okay.
Most people I talk to have never heard of it.
So before I tell you this child’s number, I want to slow down for a moment.
Because if you’re going to understand why his results got my attention, you first need to understand what we measured.
And this is important:
This is not simply about taking fish oil or consuming more omega-3.
It is about the relationship between omega-6 and omega-3 inside the body.
It is about the ratio.
That distinction is one of the most important things I want you to understand in this entire article.
First, What Are Omega-6 and Omega-3?
Omega-6 and omega-3 are two families of fats.
Your body needs both.
Certain omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids are called essential fatty acids because our bodies cannot make them from scratch. We have to get them through food.
And these are not simply fats that get stored around your waist.
They have important jobs.
Omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids become part of our cells and are involved in many biological processes.
They become especially interesting when we start talking about the brain.
One important omega-6 fatty acid is called arachidonic acid, or AA.
Two important omega-3 fatty acids are eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA, and docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA.
DHA is especially important because it is a major structural fatty acid in the brain and nervous system.[1]
But AA is important too.
So I do not want you to walk away from this article thinking:
Omega-6 is bad. Omega-3 is good.
That is too simple.
We need both.
The question is not whether we should eliminate omega-6.
The question is not whether we should simply keep adding more omega-3.
The question I am interested in is:
What is the balance between the two?
And that is where the ratio comes in.
What Does an Omega-6 to Omega-3 Ratio Mean?
Let’s make this simple.
When you see an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, such as:
10:1
the first number represents omega-6 and the second number represents omega-3.
So:
10 = omega-6
1 = omega-3
If someone’s ratio is:
20:1
the 20 represents the omega-6 side of the ratio, and the 1 represents the omega-3 side.
If it is:
3:1
the 3 represents omega-6, and the 1 represents omega-3.
This does not mean there are literally three omega-6 molecules floating around for every omega-3 molecule everywhere in the body.
The ratio is calculated from the fatty acids included in the particular test.
But it gives us a useful way to understand the relationship between the two sides.
Think about a seesaw.
Omega-6 is sitting on one side.
Omega-3 is sitting on the other.
We do not want to kick omega-6 off the seesaw.
We need omega-6.
We also need omega-3.
The issue is balance.
And that is why simply saying:
“My child takes omega-3.”
does not answer the question.
The better question is:
“What is my child’s omega-6 to omega-3 ratio?”
Now that you understand that, I can tell you about this child’s number.
His Ratio Was 45:1
His first BalanceTest showed:
45:1
Remember what you just learned.
The first number represents the omega-6 side.
The second number represents the omega-3 side.
Several months later, we tested him again.
His ratio was:
2.3:1
He went from:
45:1 → 2.3:1
That is a dramatic change in a measurable biological marker.
And I want to emphasize something before we go any further.
The goal was not simply to give him more omega-3.
The goal was to improve the relationship between omega-6 and omega-3.
That is the difference between supplementing and balancing.
A person can take omega-3 every day and still have an unhealthy omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.
A person can take fish oil and still be far from balanced.
That is why the ratio matters.
And that is why testing matters.
But those numbers are still not the main reason I am writing this article.
What happened during that same period is what really got my attention.
His mother reported that he started talking.
A child who could not hold a pencil began holding one.
Then he progressed from not being able to color inside the lines to coloring inside the lines.
His mother continued reporting improvement after improvement.
During this period, he was using BalanceOil+ AquaX, a product I personally endorse and use as part of an approach designed to improve omega-6 to omega-3 balance.
Here is the part I want parents to understand.
The blood tests document that his measured fatty-acid balance changed dramatically—from 45:1 to 2.3:1.
At the same time, his mother was reporting meaningful changes in speech, fine motor skills, and everyday functioning.
Those are two different pieces of information.
The blood tests tell us what happened to his measured fatty-acid profile.
His mother tells us what she observed in her child.
One does not automatically prove that the other caused every improvement.
But when both are happening during the same period, I believe it deserves our attention.
His mother feels so strongly about what she has witnessed that she says she does not want him to go a day without BalanceOil+ AquaX.
I can only imagine what it must feel like for the mother of a non-verbal nine-year-old to hear her child begin talking.
I cannot pretend to know that feeling.
But I can listen to her.
And I can pay attention to what happened.
One child’s experience would certainly get my attention.
But this isn’t one child.
Thirteen Children Got My Attention
I have now worked with the parents of 13 autistic children ranging in age from 2 to 13.
These children are different.
Their ages are different.
Their challenges are different.
Their abilities are different.
Their starting numbers are different.
That makes sense.
Autism itself is a spectrum.
But as their measured omega-6 to omega-3 balance improved, their parents began reporting some surprisingly similar changes.
Parents have reported:
-
- Better focus and attention
- More speech
- Improved communication
- Sleeping through the night
- Better and more consistent bowel movements
- Better fine motor skills
- Changes in behavior
- Better emotional regulation
- Greater engagement
- Other meaningful improvements in everyday functioning
Let me be very clear about what I am—and am not—saying.
I am not saying omega-3 cures autism.
I am not saying an unhealthy omega-6 to omega-3 ratio causes autism.
I am not suggesting that parents stop speech therapy, occupational therapy, medical care, educational services, behavioral support, or anything else that is helping their child.
And 13 children are not a randomized controlled clinical trial.
These are parent-reported observations.
But I don’t think we have to choose between:
“This proves everything.”
and:
“This means nothing.”
There is a responsible place in between.
We can say:
“This is interesting. Let’s investigate it.”
That is often how science begins.
Someone notices something.
Someone asks why.
Someone measures it.
Then researchers design studies to find out whether the observation holds up under controlled conditions.
An observation is not the finish line.
But it can be the starting line.
And before we look at what scientists have discovered, there is another question I imagine some parents are already asking.
“Why Hasn’t My Child’s Doctor Ever Mentioned This?”
If you are the mother or father of an autistic child, you may be thinking:
“Wait a minute, Robert. My child has been to pediatricians. We’ve seen specialists. We’ve been through evaluations. We’ve worked with therapists. Why has nobody ever talked to me about an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio?”
That’s a fair question.
But I don’t want you to read this article and become angry with your child’s doctor.
There is a simpler explanation.
Different health professionals are trained to look at different things.
A developmental specialist may focus on your child’s development.
A speech-language pathologist focuses on communication.
An occupational therapist may work on fine motor skills, sensory issues, and everyday activities.
A pediatrician is responsible for your child’s overall medical care.
All of those roles matter.
My professional lens is different.
I am a clinical nutritionist. Nutrition is my space.
I spend my professional life looking at food, nutrients, fatty acids, metabolism, and how nutrition relates to the human body.
So, I may ask questions that aren’t routinely asked during a developmental or pediatric appointment.
That does not mean I know more about everything.
I don’t.
It means I am looking through a different lens.
Think about your house.
If you invite an electrician inside, the electrician looks closely at the wiring.
A plumber looks at the pipes.
A roofer looks at the roof.
They can all be excellent at what they do.
They are simply looking at the same house through different areas of expertise.
Your child is the whole house.
Nutrition is one part of that house.
And I believe it deserves attention too.
I am not asking you to replace your child’s doctors or therapists with a nutritionist.
Quite the opposite.
I want to add information to the conversation.
And one piece of information we can add is something measurable:
Your child’s fatty-acid balance.
So why might that balance matter?
To understand that we need to look at the brain.
Your Brain Needs Fat
When most people hear the word fat, they think about body fat.
They think about weight gain.
They may think about something they should eat less of.
But fat is much more than stored energy.
Certain fats are actual building materials.
And the brain is rich in fat.
Fatty acids are important parts of the brain and nervous system.[1]
Think about building a house again.
You need wood.
Concrete.
Wiring.
Plumbing.
Roofing.
You cannot build a healthy house without the right materials.
Your brain also requires building materials.
Fatty acids are among them.
And remember, we are not trying to eliminate one family of fats.
The body needs omega-6.
The body needs omega-3.
We are interested in their relationship.
That relationship is why the ratio matters.
Every Brain Cell Has a Membrane
Here is another term you may not have heard before:
Cell membrane.
Don’t let the scientific name make this complicated.
Every cell in your body has a thin outer layer around it.
That is the cell membrane.
Think of it like the outer wall around a tiny house.
But this wall isn’t just sitting there.
It helps control what enters the cell.
It helps control what leaves.
It helps cells communicate.
And fatty acids are important parts of those membranes.[1]
DHA, AA, and other fatty acids become part of this biology.
So when we talk about fatty-acid balance, we are not simply talking about whether someone eats fish or takes fish oil.
We are talking about fats that can actually become part of the structures of our cells.
And this is where a published study becomes very important to our conversation.
Researchers Actually Measured the Fatty Acids in Autistic Children
Researchers asked an interesting question:
Do autistic children have different fatty-acid patterns in their red blood cells compared with children without autism?
They studied 231 children between the ages of 3 and 17.[2]
There were:
121 autistic children
and
110 children without autism.
The researchers did not simply ask what the children ate.
They examined the fatty acids in the membranes of the children’s red blood cells.[2]
Remember the house analogy?
The cell membrane is part of the material surrounding the cell.
The researchers were essentially examining some of the fatty building materials contained in those membranes.
And they found differences.
The autistic children had lower levels of total polyunsaturated fatty acids in their red blood cell membranes.
They also had lower levels of two fatty acids that are especially interesting to our discussion:
Arachidonic acid (AA)
and
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).[2]
Remember:
AA is an omega-6 fatty acid.
DHA is an omega-3 fatty acid.
The researchers concluded that their findings supported further investigation into altered fatty-acid metabolism in autism.[2]
Pause there for a moment.
This study did not prove that fatty-acid differences cause autism.
It did not prove that changing those fatty acids will treat autism.
And it did not test BalanceOil+.
But it demonstrated something very important:
Some autistic children can have measurable differences in the fatty acids contained in their red blood cell membranes.
They didn’t guess.
They measured it.
And that is very relevant to the question I am asking in this article.
Could some autistic children have a measurable fatty-acid imbalance that deserves our attention?
The published research tells us that this is a reasonable question to investigate.
And another study adds another piece to the puzzle.
Researchers Have Also Looked at AA and EPA
Another study examined plasma and red blood cell fatty acids in autistic children and comparison groups.[3]
Researchers reported differences involving the AA-to-EPA ratio.
Let’s translate that.
AA is an omega-6 fatty acid.
EPA is an omega-3 fatty acid.
So researchers were once again looking at the relationship between an omega-6 fatty acid and an omega-3 fatty acid.
That brings us right back to the concept we discussed at the beginning:
Balance.
And this is an important place to slow down again.
The takeaway is not:
“Autistic children need more fish oil.”
The takeaway is that fatty-acid relationships can be measured, and in some studies, those relationships have been different in autistic children compared with children without autism.
That is a much more precise statement.
Not Every Study Finds the Same Thing
Science is rarely as simple as a social media headline.
Another study examined red blood cell fatty-acid profiles and asked whether those profiles could accurately identify which children had autism and which did not.[4]
They could not.
That matters.
It tells us:
A fatty-acid test is not an autism test.
I am not using it to diagnose autism.
That’s not what the test does.
The question I am asking is different:
Could an autistic child also have a measurable nutritional imbalance that is worth knowing about?
Those are two completely different ideas.
And that distinction becomes even more important when we look at omega-3 supplementation studies.
“But Haven’t They Already Studied Omega-3 and Autism?”
You may be thinking:
“If omega-3 is important to the brain, surely researchers have already given omega-3 to autistic children to see what happens.”
They have.
And this is where I want to be very transparent.
The research is mixed.
A systematic review and meta-analysis published in 2017 looked at randomized controlled trials of omega-3 supplementation in autistic children and concluded that the evidence did not establish a meaningful overall benefit for autism spectrum disorder.[5]
Another meta-analysis published that same year found a more complicated picture.
Researchers reported improvements in certain areas, including hyperactivity, lethargy, and stereotyped behavior, but they did not find improvements in every outcome that was measured.[6]
A later systematic review and meta-analysis again found that omega-3 supplementation did not produce consistent effects across autism symptoms.[7]
And a 2025 meta-analysis examining 11 randomized trials also found only a small overall effect that did not reach statistical significance.[8]
So I am not going to tell you:
“Omega-3 has been proven to treat autism.”
It hasn’t.
But I also want you to notice something.
Those studies are mainly asking about omega-3 supplementation.
That is not exactly the question I am asking.
This Is About the Ratio—Not Simply Taking More Omega-3
This may be the most important section in the article.
I am not simply asking:
“What happens if we give autistic children more omega-3?”
I am asking:
“What happens when a child begins with a documented omega-6 to omega-3 imbalance and that measured ratio improves?”
Those are different questions.
Think about blood pressure.
Imagine researchers study 100 people.
Some have normal blood pressure.
Some have mildly elevated blood pressure.
Some have extremely high blood pressure.
If researchers give all 100 people the same intervention and then average everyone’s results, that does not necessarily tell us exactly what happened to the people who started with very high blood pressure.
Starting point matters.
The same idea may matter here.
A child could take fish oil every day and still have an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio that is far from balanced.
Another child could have a very different starting ratio.
If you never measure the starting point, you do not know whether the child was mildly imbalanced, severely imbalanced, or not particularly imbalanced at all.
And if you never retest, you do not know whether the ratio actually changed.
That is why I keep emphasizing:
This is not about taking more. It is about becoming more balanced.
Are We Asking the Right Question?
Let me give you another analogy.
Imagine researchers wanted to know whether iron improves energy.
They recruited 200 children.
Some had excellent iron levels.
Some had slightly low iron.
Some were severely iron deficient.
Now imagine researchers gave everyone iron and averaged their results together.
Suppose the average improvement was small.
Could we conclude:
“Correcting iron deficiency doesn’t help an iron-deficient child?”
Not necessarily.
Because there is another question researchers could ask:
What happens specifically to children who begin with a documented iron deficiency when that deficiency is corrected?
Do you see the difference?
That is why I think we need more precise research involving fatty acids and autism.
One question is:
“What happens when we give omega-3 to a group of autistic children?”
Another is:
“What happens when an autistic child with a documented substantial omega-6 to omega-3 imbalance improves that ratio?”
Those are not necessarily the same experiment.
And after working with these 13 families, I am very interested in the second question.
Supplementing and Balancing Are Not the Same Thing
This distinction matters.
Taking omega-3 is an action.
Improving an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is a measurable outcome.
Those are not the same thing.
You can take a supplement and still not know whether your ratio improved.
You can increase omega-3 intake without knowing your starting ratio.
You can change someone’s diet without knowing whether the fatty acids measured in the red blood cells actually changed.
That is why I am talking about a process:
Test. Identify. Address. Retest.
If we are concerned about blood sugar, we measure blood sugar.
If we are concerned about cholesterol, we measure it.
If we are concerned about thyroid function, we test it.
If we are concerned about iron status, we can test that too.
So if we are interested in fatty-acid balance, wouldn’t it be helpful to first know where the child is starting?
That is the question I keep coming back to.
The Bottle Doesn’t Tell You the Ratio
A parent may tell me:
“My child already takes an omega-3 supplement.”
That’s helpful to know.
But it does not tell me the child’s omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.
Think about watering your lawn.
You can tell me:
“I ran the sprinklers for 20 minutes.”
But that does not tell me whether every part of the lawn received the amount of water it needed.
Maybe one sprinkler was broken.
Maybe one area received plenty.
Maybe another stayed dry.
Knowing what went in does not always tell us the result.
The supplement tells us what was provided.
The test tells us something about the balance that exists in the body.
And the retest tells us whether that balance changed.
That is a very different conversation from simply saying:
“Take fish oil.”
Our Food Supply Has Changed
At this point, you may be wondering:
“Why would someone’s omega-6 and omega-3 balance become so different in the first place?”
There isn’t one answer.
But diet can influence fatty-acid status.
Omega-6 fatty acids aren’t new.
Humans have always consumed them.
One important dietary omega-6 fatty acid is linoleic acid.
That’s another scientific term, so let’s make it simple.
Linoleic acid is an essential omega-6 fat found naturally in foods and in high amounts in several commonly used oils.
These include soybean oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, and grapeseed oil.
These oils are common in today’s food supply.
They can be found in salad dressings, mayonnaise, chips, crackers, sauces, frozen foods, restaurant meals, fast food, packaged snacks, and many other foods.
At the same time, many children eat relatively little fatty fish and other marine foods that provide EPA and DHA.
But I want to be careful here too.
I cannot look at a child’s grocery cart and tell you what that child’s blood fatty-acid profile will be.
That’s why we test.
Parents Shouldn’t Have to Guess
Parents of autistic children are already asked to make an enormous number of decisions.
Which therapy?
Which doctor?
Which school?
Which specialist?
Should we try this?
Should we stop that?
Is this helping?
Is that hurting?
Parents can become surrounded by opinions.
What they often need is information.
A parent might tell me:
“My child eats pretty healthy.”
That’s useful.
Another might say:
“My child already takes fish oil.”
That’s useful too.
But neither statement answers:
“What is my child’s actual omega-6 to omega-3 ratio?”
Think about vitamin D.
Someone can take vitamin D every day.
But if we want to know the person’s vitamin D level, we measure it.
What goes into the mouth and what we eventually measure in the body are not necessarily the same thing.
That principle applies here too.
Why Look at Red Blood Cells?
Earlier, I told you that researchers—and the testing I use—look at fatty acids in red blood cells.
Let’s explain why.
Red blood cells, sometimes shortened to RBCs, are the cells that carry oxygen through your bloodstream.
Their outer membranes contain fatty acids.
By examining those fatty acids, we can get information about the fats that have become incorporated into those cell membranes over time.
Think about your bank account.
If I ask what you spent money on today, I learn something.
But if I look at months of transactions, I get a broader picture of your spending pattern.
Looking at red blood cell fatty acids can give us a broader view of fatty-acid status than simply asking what someone ate yesterday.
That brings us right back to the nine-year-old boy.
We didn’t simply know what his mother was giving him.
We had measurements.
Before: 45:1
After: 2.3:1
And during that same period, his mother was reporting significant changes in her child.
Again, that does not prove cause and effect.
But it gives me a reason to keep asking questions.
Autism Does Not Explain Everything Happening in a Child’s Body
This may be one of the most important things I want parents to hear.
When a child receives a diagnosis, it can become easy for everything that happens afterward to be viewed through that diagnosis.
Poor sleep?
Autism.
Constipation?
Autism.
Difficulty focusing?
Autism.
Behavioral changes?
Autism.
But an autistic child is still a whole human being.
That child still has a brain.
A digestive system.
An immune system.
A metabolism.
Hormones.
Cell membranes.
Nutritional needs.
Sleep needs.
And thousands of biological processes happening every second.
If an autistic child has an iron deficiency, we should care about the iron deficiency.
If the child has constipation, we should care about the constipation.
If the child isn’t sleeping, we should care about the sleep.
And if a child has a significant fatty-acid imbalance, I believe parents deserve to know about that too.
Not because it explains autism.
Because it may matter to the child.
Think About the Dashboard in Your Car
Imagine the check-engine light comes on in your car.
You wouldn’t say:
“Well, it’s a Toyota. I guess that’s just part of being a Toyota.”
You would investigate.
The problem may have nothing to do with how the car was originally built.
It may simply be something affecting how the car is operating today.
I think about health similarly.
We do not need to prove that poor sleep caused autism before helping a child sleep better.
We do not need to prove that constipation caused autism before helping a child have comfortable and regular bowel movements.
We don’t need to prove that an iron deficiency caused autism before correcting an iron deficiency.
And we don’t have to claim that fatty-acid imbalance causes autism before asking whether a substantial imbalance deserves attention.
Sleep Matters
Several parents I have worked with have reported that their children began sleeping better, including sleeping through the night.
To someone who has never raised a child with serious sleep problems, that might not sound as dramatic as beginning to speak.
But I imagine many mothers reading this understand exactly how big that can be.
Sleep affects attention.
Learning.
Mood.
Memory.
Behavior.
And the health of the entire family.
Sleep difficulties are commonly reported in autistic children.[9]
Now imagine a child who has difficulty communicating and is also chronically sleep deprived.
That child may not be able to say:
“Mom, I’m exhausted.”
Instead, you may see it through behavior, attention, mood, learning, or emotional regulation.
If that child begins sleeping through the night, that matters.
Even if the child remains autistic.
Bowel Movements Matter Too
Parents have also reported better and more consistent bowel movements.
Gastrointestinal problems are commonly reported among autistic children.[10]
Again, improving bowel function does not mean bowel problems caused autism.
It means the child may feel better.
Imagine being constipated.
Imagine experiencing abdominal discomfort.
Now imagine not being able to clearly explain what hurts.
Could that affect behavior?
Focus?
Mood?
Sleep?
Of course.
This is why I keep coming back to a very simple idea:
Look at the whole child.
More Children Are Being Identified with Autism
This conversation matters to more families than ever.
The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, monitoring data found that approximately 1 in 31 eight-year-old children, or 3.2%, were identified with autism across 16 monitored U.S. communities in 2022.[11]
That does not mean we know exactly why more children are being identified.
Screening has changed.
Awareness has changed.
Diagnostic and identification practices have changed.
Access to evaluation and services differs from one community to another.[11]
So, I am not presenting the increase as proof of one cause.
I am mentioning it for a simpler reason.
Many mothers and fathers are searching for answers.
Many are asking:
“What else can I do to help my child?”
Those parents deserve evidence.
They deserve honesty.
They deserve compassion.
And I believe they deserve to know what can actually be measured.
I Am Not Here to Tell a Mother What to Do
I want to return to where we started.
I don’t have an autistic child.
I don’t wake up every morning facing the decisions these mothers and fathers face.
So I am not here to say:
“You need to do this.”
I am not here to say:
“You shouldn’t do that.”
That isn’t my place.
What I can do is share information.
I can share what researchers have found.
I can share what I have measured.
I can share what parents have reported to me.
And then parents, together with the healthcare professionals they trust, can decide what information is meaningful for their child.
That is where I believe respect for parents begins.
Give them information.
Don’t scare them.
Don’t shame them.
Don’t make promises.
And don’t talk down to them.
Most importantly, don’t assume that because something hasn’t been discussed with them, they should somehow already know about it.
You cannot ask a question you didn’t know existed.
That is why I am writing this article.
This Is Not About “Curing” a Child
I also want to be sensitive to another part of this conversation.
Autistic people are not problems that need to be erased.
I am not talking about changing who a child is.
I am talking about health and function.
If a child sleeps better, that matters.
If a child experiences less gastrointestinal discomfort, that matters.
If a child becomes better able to focus, communicate, use a pencil, learn, or interact with the world, that matters.
Those improvements do not require us to say:
“We cured autism.”
Think about growing a plant.
Water doesn’t change what kind of plant it is.
Healthy soil doesn’t rewrite the plant’s genetics.
Sunlight doesn’t turn one species into another.
But those things can influence how well that plant functions and grows.
Children are obviously far more complex than plants.
But the principle helps explain what I mean.
Supporting a child’s health is not the same as trying to change who that child is.
Parents Don’t Need Another Miracle Promise
Parents looking for answers can be vulnerable to people who offer certainty.
I don’t want to add to that.
If someone says:
“This cures autism,”
ask for the evidence.
If someone says:
“Every autistic child has this problem,”
ask for the evidence.
If someone tells you that one food, chemical, nutrient, medication, or exposure explains every case of autism, ask for the evidence.
But I don’t believe the alternative should be:
“There is nothing else worth investigating.”
There is a much more responsible place between those two extremes.
Curiosity. Measurement. Evidence. Compassion.
Measure what can be measured.
Address what can appropriately be addressed.
Continue therapies that are helping.
Work with qualified healthcare professionals.
And pay attention to the child.
Not only the diagnosis.
What These 13 Families Do—and Do Not—Tell Us
Thirteen children do not prove that improving omega-6 to omega-3 balance will improve speech, sleep, bowel function, attention, behavior, or motor skills in every autistic child.
There was no placebo group.
There was no randomization.
There was no blinding.
There are many things happening in a child’s life at the same time.
Those are real scientific limitations.
But here is what I also know.
Thirteen parents have reported meaningful changes.
Those reports occurred during periods when their children’s measured fatty-acid balance was improving.
That pattern makes me believe this question deserves formal scientific investigation.
Then there is the nine-year-old boy.
His measured ratio changed from:
45:1 to 2.3:1
During that same period, his mother watched her non-verbal child begin talking.
She watched him learn to hold a pencil.
She watched him progress to coloring inside the lines.
I cannot look at those two blood tests and tell you they prove what caused those changes.
But I also cannot look at his mother and tell her that what she witnessed doesn’t matter.
Her experience is an observation.
The blood tests are measurements.
Together, they raise a question.
And questions are where research begins.
What Most Parents Do Not Know
This brings me back to the title of this article.
Autism: What Most Parents Do Not Know.
I did not choose that title because I think parents are uninformed.
Quite the opposite.
Many parents of autistic children have become incredibly knowledgeable because they have had to be.
They research.
They ask questions.
They learn medical terms they never expected to learn.
They become advocates.
They fight for services.
They search for ways to help their children every day.
What I mean is that there is information many parents simply were never given.
Many know about speech therapy.
Occupational therapy.
Behavioral therapy.
Educational programs.
Medications.
Special diets.
But many parents I have encountered have never been told that fatty-acid status can be measured in red blood cells.
They may never have been told that DHA and other fatty acids are important parts of brain biology.
They may never have been told that researchers have actually measured fatty acids in the red blood cells of autistic children and found differences between autistic and non-autistic groups.[2,3]
And they may never have considered this very important distinction:
Taking an omega-3 supplement and improving the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio are not the same thing.
One tells you what was consumed.
The other tells you about a measured relationship between two families of fatty acids.
Most importantly, they may never have been given the opportunity to ask:
“What is my child’s omega-6 to omega-3 ratio?”
I believe parents deserve to know that question exists.
What they choose to do with that information belongs to them.
If It Were My Child
I cannot tell the mother of an autistic child:
“I know exactly how you feel.”
Because I don’t.
But I can tell you what I would want if it were my child.
I would want information.
I would want someone to tell me what could be measured.
I would want to know my child’s fatty-acid status.
I would want to understand my child’s sleep.
Bowel function.
Nutrition.
Metabolic health.
And anything else that could be affecting how well my child’s brain and body function.
I would want someone to look at my child as a whole person.
And if we discovered a substantial nutritional or biological imbalance, I would want to know whether there was an appropriate and safe way to improve it.
Then I would want to measure again.
Maybe my child would improve dramatically.
Maybe the improvement would be modest.
Maybe nothing would change in the area I hoped would change.
I wouldn’t know.
But at least I would have information.
And information gives parents choices.
“Okay, Robert. Where Do I Start?”
If you’ve made it this far, this may be the question you’re asking.
And I want my answer to be consistent with everything I have told you.
I’m not going to tell you:
“Start giving your child omega-3.”
I’m not going to tell you:
“Go buy fish oil.”
And I’m not going to promise that your child will have the same experience as another child.
I don’t know that.
Instead, I believe there is a much simpler place to begin.
Get a baseline.
Before trying to improve a ratio, find out what the ratio is.
Think about the baseline as the first photograph in a before-and-after picture.
If you only have the after picture, you don’t really know how much changed.
The baseline gives you the starting picture.
That is why I recommend beginning with the BalanceTest.
The BalanceTest measures fatty acids in red blood cells and provides information about omega-6 and omega-3 fatty-acid balance.
It allows you to answer the question this entire article has been building toward:
“What does my child’s omega-6 to omega-3 balance look like right now?”
You may discover a substantial imbalance.
You may not.
That’s the point.
Don’t assume. Find out.
Get the Baseline First
If you are a parent who wants to investigate this for your child, the product I recommend is the BalanceTest Basic AquaX.
It provides a way to establish the baseline we have been discussing and begin understanding your child’s fatty-acid status.
You can learn more and get the BalanceTest Basic AquaX here:
https://www.zinzino.com/shop/2015067525/us/en-us/products/premier-kits/910574
I am not recommending the test because I can promise that changing your child’s ratio will produce the same changes reported by the families I have worked with.
I cannot make that promise.
I am recommending testing because without a baseline, you don’t know where your child is starting.
And remember:
This is not about simply adding more omega-3.
The goal is to understand the omega-6 to omega-3 relationship.
Get the baseline.
Know the ratio.
Then ask questions.
Discuss the results with your child’s appropriate healthcare professionals.
And make informed decisions about what comes next.
If you have questions, you are also welcome to contact me directly.
You can email me at: robert@dietfreelife.com
Or, if you would prefer to talk with me, you can schedule a free consultation here:
https://calendly.com/dietfreelife/free-consultation
There is no pressure.
My goal is simply to help you understand what the test measures, what the results may mean, and what questions may be worth asking next.
Start with information.
Get the baseline. Know the ratio. Then decide what comes next.
Test. Don’t Guess.
We need more research.
In particular, I would like to see researchers identify autistic children who have documented substantial omega-6 to omega-3 imbalances before an intervention, work to improve those ratios, retest them, and then carefully measure what happens to speech, communication, focus, sleep, motor function, gastrointestinal function, behavior, and other areas of everyday life.
That is different from simply giving the same omega-3 supplement to a group of children and averaging the results.
I want to know:
Where did each child start?
How much did the ratio change?
Which children achieved a more balanced ratio?
And what happened to those children as the ratio changed?
That is the research question these 13 families have raised for me.
Until then, we should not turn observations into promises.
But we should not turn unanswered questions into closed doors either.
Science moves forward because someone eventually asks:
“What are we missing?”
For me, 13 families have made that question impossible to ignore.
And the nine-year-old boy whose measured ratio changed from 45:1 to 2.3:1 made it even harder to ignore.
His story does not prove that fatty-acid balance is the answer to autism.
I am not claiming that.
But perhaps his experience—and the experiences of these other families—tell us that omega-6 to omega-3 balance is one of the questions worth asking.
If you are the mother or father of an autistic child, I am not asking you to believe me.
I am not telling you what to do.
I simply want you to know.
Know what omega-6 is.
Know what omega-3 is.
Know that we need both.
Know what the two numbers in the ratio represent.
Know that the goal is not simply more omega-3.
Know that the goal is balance.
Know that fatty-acid balance can be measured.
Know that researchers have found measurable fatty-acid differences in some autistic children.
Know that omega-3 supplementation studies have produced mixed results.
Know that supplementing and balancing are not the same thing.
Know that the research is not finished.
And know that your child’s health involves much more than a diagnosis.
From there, the decision belongs to you.
Ask questions.
Talk with the healthcare professionals you trust.
And decide what is right for your child.
My role in writing this article is simply to make sure you know there is another question you can ask:
“What is my child’s omega-6 to omega-3 ratio?”
Because when something can be measured, we don’t always have to guess.
Get the baseline. Know the ratio. Improve the balance. Retest.
Test. Don’t Guess.
Disclosure: I am a Zinzino partner and serve on the Zinzino Health & Product Advisory Board. I may benefit financially from purchases made through the link provided in this article. BalanceTest and BalanceOil+ AquaX are not tests or treatments for autism. Parents should discuss nutritional interventions and supplements for children with an appropriate healthcare professional.
References
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- Bazinet, R. P., & Layé, S. (2014). Polyunsaturated fatty acids and their metabolites in brain function and disease. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 15(12), 771–785. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3820
- Brigandi, S. A., Shao, H., Qian, S. Y., Shen, Y., Wu, B. L., & Kang, J. X. (2015). Autistic children exhibit decreased levels of essential fatty acids in red blood cells. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 16(5), 10061–10076. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms160510061
- Bell, J. G., MacKinlay, E. E., Dick, J. R., MacDonald, D. J., Boyle, R. M., & Glen, A. C. A. (2010). Essential fatty acids and phospholipase A2 in autistic spectrum disorders. Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids, 83(4–6), 201–204.
- Howsmon, D. P., Adams, J. B., Kruger, U., Geis, E., Gehn, E., & Hahn, J. (2018). Erythrocyte fatty acid profiles in children are not predictive of autism spectrum disorder status: A case control study. Biomarker Research, 6, 12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40364-018-0125-z
- Horvath, A., Łukasik, J., & Szajewska, H. (2017). Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation does not affect autism spectrum disorder in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis. The Journal of Nutrition, 147(3), 367–376. https://doi.org/10.3945/jn.116.242354
- Cheng, Y. S., Tseng, P. T., Chen, Y. W., Stubbs, B., Yang, W. C., Chen, T. Y., Wu, C. K., & Lin, P. Y. (2017). Supplementation of omega-3 fatty acids may improve hyperactivity, lethargy, and stereotypy in children with autism spectrum disorders: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 13, 2531–2543. https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S147305
- Wobido, K. A., Cunha, M. S. B., Miranda, S. S., Santana, J. M., Silva, D. C. G., & Pereira, M. (2022). Non-specific effect of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on autistic spectrum disorder: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutritional Neuroscience, 25(9).
- Jia, S. J., Jing, J. Q., Yi, L. X., & Yang, C. J. (2025). The effect of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on autism spectrum disorder: A meta-analysis. Research in Autism, 126, 202642. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reia.2025.202642
- Díaz-Román, A., Zhang, J., Delorme, R., Beggiato, A., & Cortese, S. (2018). Sleep in youth with autism spectrum disorders: Systematic review and meta-analysis of subjective and objective studies. Evidence-Based Mental Health, 21(4), 146–154.
- Leader, G., Abberton, C., Cunningham, S., Gilmartin, K., Grudzien, M., Higgins, E., Joshi, L., Whelan, S., & Mannion, A. (2022). Gastrointestinal symptoms in autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review. Nutrients, 14(7), 1471.
- Shaw, K. A., Williams, S., Patrick, M. E., et al. (2025). Prevalence and early identification of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 4 and 8 years—Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 16 sites, United States, 2022.
__________
Robert Ferguson is a California- and Florida-based single father of two daughters, clinical nutritionist, Omega Balancing Coach™, researcher, best-selling author, speaker, podcast and television host, health advisor, NAACP Image Award Nominee, creator of the Diet Free Life methodology, and Chief Nutrition Officer for iCoura Health. He also serves on the Presidential Task Force on Obesity for the National Medical Association and the Health and Product Advisory Board for Zinzino, Inc.
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