NUTRITION
Our Children | Summer 2020
Does your child need a probiotic? Probiotics can be beneficial, if you use the right ones at the right time By Edwena Kennedy
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robiotics seem to be everywhere: your sister is taking one daily to treat her bloating, your doctor may have recommended one for your colicky baby, and the yogurt aisle in the grocery store is screaming about all the probiotics it contains. Is it worth giving your child one too? Probiotics are live microorganisms (AKA bacteria) that survive in the digestive tract and promote gut health. We have trillions of natural bacteria living in our guts. The good bacteria keep the bad ones at bay, strengthening the gut’s mucosal barrier so that foreign materials and germs cannot bind to it. They can also work by lowering the pH of the intestine (making it more acidic) so that it would be an inhospitable environment for unfavourable materials and germs to live. Having lots of good bacteria keeps us healthy. And even though the gut is constantly hosting new probiotics, it is important to ensure that the balance between the good and bad bacteria is not offset. We always want the ratio of good to bad to be very high. There are lots of different types of probiotics. It’s important to understand that each specific strain (or specific variety within a general family of bacteria) has a specific benefit. Some have no proven benefit. Research on all this is new so we don’t have the full picture yet, but there’s no use in taking any probiotic for the sake of it if you don’t understand which are clinically proven to have positive effects. Most research shows that Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, and
PHOTO: BIGSTOCK/SZEFEI
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Probiotics have many benefits, if you take the right ones for the right job.
Saccharomyces are a few general family groups of bacteria that are naturally occurring in the body and seem to have beneficial properties. But again, what’s important is the specific strain within each of these general categories. From birth, an infant’s gut will begin to populate with different bacteria (making up their “microflora” or specific population
of bacteria in their gut). Different factors, such as genetics, the type of delivery (caesarean or vaginal), the infant’s diet (breastmilk or formula), and other factors such as the environment and presence of antibiotics, influence the composition of gut microflora. For example, according to a study done in 2009, infants acquired different
