Overwhelmed by Probiotics Choices

[MomWithOCDSon]

When I was studying to spend time in Hungary, my professor wanted to impress on me that as a culture, Hungarians are known for being strong-headed. The joke is "put 4 Hungarians in a room and you'll get 5 opinions." I think Pandas parents must have a little Hungarian in us.

 

I hesitated to post to this because I figured everyone would have different opinions (including me). One of the most confusing decisions for me was how much to give. I'm amazed that some people are able to get so many billions of CFUs into their kids. But since my son is following a lyme protocol and already takes a dozen pills a day, I need something that 1) gets the job done in as few pills as possible ans 2) is affordable. We used to use Culturelle but it's only 10 Billion per pill. We'd also add PB8 and Sach Boulardi to get additional strains but that meant 3 pills that only gave us 23 Bill CFUs. And even on that, DS had loose stools.

 

Our doctor switched us to 1 Theralac Master Supplement/day @ 30 billion CFUs (5 strains of probiotics and 2 prebiotics). It's @$1/pill but we only need one. I asked about needing to give more than 30 and he said he didn't think it was necessary as long as we were getting the desired "outcome". And even tho he's now on multiple abx, DS's stools are firm and Candida tests are negative. My daughter, who used to get yeast infections every few months and has been on abx for a month, takes 1 Theralac/day 5 days/week and 1 Theralac TruFlora two times/week to ward off yeast. So far so good in the yeast dept.

 

I think once you find something that works for your circumstances, you stick with it. I know plenty of the options mentioned are equally good. I just toss Theralac out there because it gives a pretty good bang for the buck.

 

LLM -- Is Theralac available over the counter, or do you order it? We've also, from time to time, used Norwegian Gold probiotics that we get at The Vitamin Shoppe. They vary in strength but come in 20 billion to 80 billion units per pill, and the culture mix is pretty broad, too. Those, too, tend to run from about $0.50 to $1.00 per pill, depending on the size (units). Any idea how those compare to Theralac in terms of efficacy?

[LNN]

I get the Theralac from our LLMD, but you can order it online from plenty of places, including Vitamin Shoppe (which has a super saver shipping for only $3). No idea about efficacy, other than the proof being in the pudding, so to speak.

 

Lynn- on the Theralac website, there's a Q&A that does mention a herx reaction. You might be able to find additional info there

http://www.theralac.com/Questions.aspx

 

Like I said, not trying to say this stuff is the only or best thing out there. I'd just never heard of it before and it seems to do a good job so far, even with the kid(s) on multiple abx.