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Overwhelmed by Probiotics Choices


VickyLH

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I know each child may respond differently to different probiotics (or at least I think so), but I'm not sure which one to start with. Any recommendations? What dose do you give?

 

Thanks,

Vicky

 

 

Well - we've been lucky as my son has not experienced any real GI issues. Most of his can be chalked up to a very limited diet of basically bread, meats and sweets.

 

We started on Align and Florister as that's what his doctor recommended. They were both pretty expensive. Right now we are giving him Custom Probiotics (CP-1) Acidophilus and Bifidus (50B) twice a day and Jarrow (non-dairy) Saccharomyces Boulardii+MOS (5B) three times a day.

 

No science for us other than I think these are the main strains recommended. I do not remember the cost of either but both significantly cheaper than Align or Florister.

 

Son is 12 and 85lbs.

 

bill

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Lactobillus GG has been recommended by everybody from our local pediatrician to Dr. Andrew Weil; you can get it most places in the brand name "Culturelle," and it comes in 10 mg. capsules.

 

Sach. boulardis (one well-known brand is "Florastor") is another favorite because it's resilient to antibiotics and therefore can be dosed at the same time if necessary, plus it is good for diarrhea prevention.

 

We also buy some mixed-culture brands, like Norwegian Gold and Nutrition Now's "PB8" (get 'em both at the Vitamin Shoppe), just trying to make sure his gut is populated with as many beneficial bacterium ilks as possible.

 

Overall, we're giving in the neighborhood of 60 to 80 billion units daily; we were trying to give more at one point in time, but we discovered that they were contributing to an excessive amount of gas for our DS. Every kid is different, but he seems to feel best at this level.

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We just switched from a probiotic with a strep strain to Custom Probiotic's D-Lactate Free. We give dd (5, 42lbs) half an adult-sized scoop twice a day, for total of 200 billion CFUs per day. We've been on abx for almost two weeks now and her gut seems to be in great shape, thanks to the probiotics.

 

The company is great and you can call them to get help on figuring out which of their products is best for your situation.

 

I like the idea Nancy had, too, about switching up the probiotics from time to time to keep the yeasties on their toes.

 

hth,

 

Malke

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We have had dd11 on Culterelle at the advice on our Ped... when we saw Dr. B last month, he told us to bump it up to twice daily - we give the adult capsule.

 

 

1. make sure it is high quality, many of the folks here have good ones.

2. Start slow- it may cause stomach problems if you ramp up too quickly. Build up to a hefty amount but don't just throw it at him.

 

Too many probiotics are prophylactic in nature, per Dr. Mcbride. You need to make sure you get high quality ones but bump up gradually as the gut flora needs to heal.

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Be careful. Many probiotics have strep bacteria in them. We use Culturelle twice daily. Abx with breakfast, probiotic with lunch, antibiotic with dinner, probiotic before bed. Also, we are gluten and dairy free, so using a GFCF probiotic (there are few) is important. Culturelle has a gluten/dairy free probiotic. Vitamin Shoppe has best price.

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We use Neurobiologix biotic boost (order online). Our doctor said to use it only 2-3 times a week. I concur with the recommendation to start slowly. We also use Super Greens (Neurobiologix, too) which has some probiotic in it as well. We use them in a daily smoothie and they have really helped my son regulate his digestive tract.

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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. :D

 

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.

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LLM, is Therelac something that you should ramp up slowly? I started DS on it and he had a lot of increased symptoms, but it occurred to me that adding 30 billion organisms at once might be a bit aggressive--did you have any experience like that? I'm planning to try again, but a bit more gradually.

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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.

 

The Custom probiotics (200billion CFUs, half in am, half in pm) we use come as a powder. Since my daughter can't swallow pills, this is perfect. I add it in with a little applesauce and it's tasteless. I do understand about too many pills though! She's got five supplement times a day -- pre-b'fast, b'fast, lunch, dinner, bedtime. Most of that is either in a little applesauce or in a drink, with some chewable tablets.

 

hth,

Malke

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We didn't have that experience, but DS was already on 23 Billion of culturelle+PB8+Sach Boulardi.

When we first started with my daughter, who hadn't been on any probiotics, we did 2 full weeks of nothing but truFlora to address any yeast issues. In the first week, we were told to empty half of the capsule (so fun trying to get the capsule put back together when it's half full). Then in week 2 we gave a full capsule. Then we went to theralac 5xweek and Truflora 2x week. We did see mood issues during this time, but the whole reason we took her to the LLMD was for Pandas-like or lyme-like symptoms, including lots of mood stuff. So can't really say if the Theralac was part of it.

 

Malke - my kids have a lot of food texture rebellion. They'd refuse to eat yogurt that had powered probiotics "hidden" in it. They'd detect it and it would end up down the drain. The day they learned to swallow pills was a happy day in my house :)

Edited by LLM
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