Infant Nutrition: The Role Of Probiotics In Supporting Gut Health
Everybody has heard of probiotics, but not everyone understands what they are, which is often due to the lack of guidelines that would break down their importance. Now is the right time to fix it, and introduce probiotics into your parenting routine.
Probiotics are what can be called good bacteria, which can help make the baby’s immune system stronger and improve their gut health. But how can it be possible? In this guide, we’ll tell you a bit more about why and how probiotics can be beneficial for your baby’s health.
Providing antibiotics aftercare
Even though antibiotics are one of the best ways to destroy harmful bacteria from any organism, they can cause some harm as well. When antibiotics are taken, they don’t only destroy bad bacteria, but they also eliminate the good ones. Probiotics will help the baby’s organism deal with the lack of good bacteria, which is important for the child’s immune system. Even if the child didn’t take antibiotics, but the breastfeeding mom did, it’s still important to add probiotics into the kid’s diet.
Addressing colics and other health concerns
It might be a little early to say that probiotics are always helpful when dealing with colics, but some studies have shown that probiotics can reduce crying time and discomfort. Baby’s stomachs are super sensitive, meaning that even something completely safe and healthy can irritate them. Probiotics will help you solve this problem too by soothing your baby and decreasing the amount of discomfort your baby is experiencing.
Helping with lactose intolerance
Even the safest infant formula can cause lactose intolerance if it contains just a tiny bit of it. Of course, probiotics won’t make lactose intolerance go away, but they will definitely make the reaction to lactose less severe. Moreover, breastfeeding moms can also take some probiotics to improve the microbial diversity of their milk.
Boosting an immune system
One of the reasons why your baby’s immune system might not be in the best condition is high levels of unhealthy bacteria. Babies just love to put things into their mouths that cannot be eaten — it’s dangerous to leave any sort of item around them, since they might attempt to try it out. To return the balance and provide your baby with good bacteria, consider giving probiotics to your little one.
A few last things to consider
Yes, probiotics are great in a million ways, however, they are not a panacea. Only your doctor can say for sure if you should give them to your baby, so talk to a professional before making any changes. Wishing you lots of luck — things can be hard sometimes for parents of a newborn, but you got this!
