Explain probiotics...

[Lew Zealand]

Speedy wrote:
…Probiotics may help in replacing bacteria but only minimally. It is extremely unlikely that the antibiotic she was given earlier killed all her good intestinal bacteria. Maybe two weeks of vancomycin and tobramycin together would kill everything (except virurses) in her intestinal tract but only if she quit taking anything by mouth.…

This, right here. The problem with probiotics is that you have hundreds (if not 1000s) of different species in your gut and the probiotic stuff only gives you a few, which may not even be missing in your gut after antibiotics. The antibiotics have probably only killed off a few species and you will acquire them back the way you got them in the first place, from the people and environment around you.

The good thing is that probiotics won't do any harm and they may do some good. It would be nice to have a microbe screen of your gut for species before a course of antibiotics, right after, and then at time periods after that for people taking nothing and people taking probiotics or whatever else.

[mrbigstuff]

also: antibiotics can and do cause reflux, so you may want to be careful with anything too acidic (inc the kefir). some alkaline foods are good to counteract that effect, specifically I find carrot juice great for this.

[bazookaman]

mrbigstuff wrote:
also: antibiotics can and do cause reflux, so you may want to be careful with anything too acidic (inc the kefir). some alkaline foods are good to counteract that effect, specifically I find carrot juice great for this.

[bwicklander]

doesn't yogurt put those probiotics back into your system?

[Mike Johnson]

Just do what the elephants do, have her eat some of your poo.

[Dennis S]

bwicklander wrote:
doesn't yogurt put those probiotics back into your system?

Yes, but not as quickly as probiotic pills or liquid.

[Speedy]

This could work but very young children may not be immune to things like rotavirus whereas adults are. An old frozen sample of her own poo would be ideal. But who has that (except maybe for Jimmypoo.)

Mike Johnson wrote:
Just do what the elephants do, have her eat some of your poo.

[sekker]

You live in a complex and dynamic body that contains 10x as many foreign cells from naturally occurring co-habitant bacteria. Most of those friends are largely beneficial and generate a rich array of compounds you need to be happy and healthy.

Alas, when some of these internal flora or fauna are out of whack - or an outsider pathogen invades - you can be very unhealthy. Antibiotics are pretty non-specific, and they destroy both 'germs' as well as the local neighborhood.

The idea behind probiotics is to add back these healthy friends into your system. We have not yet found the best way to deliver such an inoculation via swallowing (some scientists ARE using fecal transplants with high success, but they are still considered experimental in nature). Some probiotics like Activia have shown clinical benefit - but only when taken 3 times a day for weeks.

I recently traveled to India and took pill-form probiotics to try to build up my system in case of foreign bugs and pathogens (I caught Shigella food poisoning my last trip). I came back and was only down for one day when I returned, so I will give this approach a cautious thumbs up.

For your daughter, I'd see if there is a form of yogurt like Activia she would like to eat and see if she will take it for 2 times a day (breakfast and dinner?) for a few weeks. All of the science suggests it would help her respond to the antibiotic treatment she just received.

[Dennis S]

For kids, they make chewable probiotics and health food stores have liquid probiotics that stay refrigerated. They are a cross between yogurt and milkshakes and come in strawberry and other flavors.

[N-OS X-tasy!]

...so what happens when a probiotic and an antibiotic come together?