Baby Probiotics

[Chip196]

Hi Dr. Steve,

Our son just had his 4 month check up (everything is perfect). The only issue is that he sometimes will go 6-12 days without a BM, then for like a day before he's ready to, he's really uncomfortable. Our doc said that the time between BM's isn't a concern because we're exclusively breastfeeding. Since we're getting ready to introduce Rice or Barley cereal, she was concerned that this would affect his sensitive stomach poorly and recommended that we try using probiotics.

My main question is: Will adding probiotics stunt the growth of his own digestive system, the way that adding moisture drops to your eyes stunts your own tear ducts? From reading your previous responses on probiotics I get how they work basically, but all that was in a fully developed adult digestive track.

Any thoughts?
Chip

[Dr Steve]

Hi Dr. Steve,

Our son just had his 4 month check up (everything is perfect). The only issue is that he sometimes will go 6-12 days without a BM, then for like a day before he's ready to, he's really uncomfortable. Our doc said that the time between BM's isn't a concern because we're exclusively breastfeeding. Since we're getting ready to introduce Rice or Barley cereal, she was concerned that this would affect his sensitive stomach poorly and recommended that we try using probiotics.

My main question is: Will adding probiotics stunt the growth of his own digestive system, the way that adding moisture drops to your eyes stunts your own tear ducts? From reading your previous responses on probiotics I get how they work basically, but all that was in a fully developed adult digestive track.

Any thoughts?
Chip

Chip: I could have sworn I answered this question, but here it is...I swear I think I answered it in a dream. How bizarre is that?

Anyway, I pulled every article I could find on pediatrics and probiotics. The only downside I could find was in some kids with disordered immune systems.

Activia is a yogurt that contains bifidobacteria, one of the best studied probiotic bacteria. This should, in theory, only add to his beneficial bacteria, and not inhibit the growth of other beneficial bacteria. Honestly, there is some data on this stuff, but not a ton on long term use. In theory (again) they should be harmless at worst, and helpful at best. I'll keep combing the literature, and feel free to do so yourself. http://www.pubmed.org has every article printed in any medical journal worth a damn for decades. I tried "probiotic AND pediatrics" and a few other permutations. If you find anything interesting, let me know and I'll investigate with you.


your friend,



Steve

PS: my kid had this same problem and we just added some prune juice to his milk once a day. If you're breastfeeding, you can express one 4oz feeding and add a tablespoon of prune juice. We used to recommend adding Karo Syrup, but NO MORE...there are concerns of botulism in both honey and corn syrup for babies.

[Dudeman]

1. Your kid is breastfed, so his GI tract is already colonized by the normal intestinal flora. Adding probiotics is not likely to make a difference.

2. If your kid is constipated (a long time between poops, hard poops, straining with poops, streaks of blood in the poop), try increasing the volume of fluid, or adding a little prune juice to the diet.

[Dr Steve]

1. Your kid is breastfed, so his GI tract is already colonized by the normal intestinal flora. Adding probiotics is not likely to make a difference.

2. If your kid is constipated (a long time between poops, hard poops, straining with poops, streaks of blood in the poop), try increasing the volume of fluid, or adding a little prune juice to the diet.


what dudeman said.

I'm a little confused by the whole "barley may irritate his GI tract, so use probiotics" thing, honestly.

One thing we don't think about are PREbiotics...this is substrate (read: food) for the beneficial bacteria. Breast Milk is perfect prebiotic material for good bacteria. Now, if your baby has been on antibiotics, the good bacteria may all be dead or at least knocked back a peg or two.

Either way, let us know how the li'l gooberhead is doing!


steve

[razorboy]

Probiotic babies sound delicious.

[Ritalin]

Chip, we had the same problem with my son - 10 month old Miles aka Snoots - and I gave him White Castle and it fixed him right up.

No, it was prune juice. Bananas blocked him up a little and the prune juice whooshed it right out.

[~Katja~]

I can also recommend looking into what mom is eating, breast milk reflects the mother's diet and you will see for example if she eats a lot of citrus fruit, the baby often gets a rash on his bum.

Be prepared for baby chip not liking the cereal yet. My son did not like it at all and stayed solely breastfed until way after 6 months before he started eating fruit and veggies, the cereal he would only touch at daycare and I had them prepare it with breastmilk so he would eat it at all.

[Chip196]

Wow ... off the internet for 5 days and a lot to catch up on.

I think I was confused myself with writing the question Dr. Steve ... the Pediatrician recommended Barley rather than Rice (which was annoying to get because there's only one company that makes an organic version and we had to pay more in shipping than the cereal itself).

We decided to use them and the results have been stunning (or just an amazing coincidence). It's been 6 days and on the third day began a run of regular daily BM's, as well as sleeping much longer at night and a generally happy kid is now a really happy kid.

We have used Country Life - Maxi Baby-Dophilus

http://images.totalhealthvitamins.net/large/CL-3053.jpg

Katja - Mom's diet was the first thing we looked at and my poor wife cut everything good out of her diet for a month until the doc resorted to the pro-biotic discussion. Thankfully she's back to eating her normal diet ... cooking dinner without Dairy, greens, eggs, ect wasn't really fun.

Thanks for all of the advice ... I will continue to post the results ... and thanks for the link Dr. Steve ... I will do some searching myself and let you know if there's anything on there I need help with.