Probiotics...

[enfuego23]

Do you take them?  


School me on this:) 

[mainewifey]

I was taking a probiotic and noticed a huge improvement in my indigestion. I took them for probably 6 months, and I've since stopped taking them and for the most part my issues haven't returned.

I was taking natures bounty advanced probiotic 10.

[CrazyLucky]

I haven't taken them myself, but DD takes them every time she has an antibiotic. Otherwise she has serious digestion problems. Once she's off the antibiotics, we take her off the probiotics too.

[kams]

I'm really interested to hear @vtcupcake 's knowledge about this - I've never heard that and I like to hear all of the info.

I take one regularly. I apparently have low levels of stomach acid. My DD hasn't been diagnosed with anything, but she gets really constipated and has painful bowel movements sometimes (it is the saddest thing), and so I give her a children's probiotic that regulates her and she can now poop pain free! Her Dr said that it is perfectly fine to give it to her, especially if it makes a noticeable difference. He didn't say this explicitly, but I definitely got the vibe of "it can't hurt." Maybe I read those cues wrong.

We may just have weird digestive systems, but they make a big difference in my house! Bowel movements are a great indicator of health, aren't they?

[hannahb]

Apr 25, 2014 8:12:12 GMT -5 @vtcupcake said:

So, probiotics are basically a dose of live culture bacteria that will assumedly take up residence in your normal gut flora when you've consumed them. People are generally encouraged to take them when they've been on courses of antibiotics that have wrecked their normal gut flora, or have been sick with a gut ailment, or something. But, most like everything else that's hip and trendy, unless there's a legit reason to take them (like I mentioned above), there's no sense in taking them. It's like, why would the developer of a neighborhood tear down houses or build apartment complexes on top of the existing houses? That's what you'd be doing with just taking probiotics because someone said they were cool.

Nothing to add except that I love that you are on this board and can answer all this science stuff.

[CallingAllAngels]

Apr 25, 2014 8:44:56 GMT -5 kams said:

I'm really interested to hear @vtcupcake 's knowledge about this - I've never heard that and I like to hear all of the info.

I take one regularly. I apparently have low levels of stomach acid. My DD hasn't been diagnosed with anything, but she gets really constipated and has painful bowel movements sometimes (it is the saddest thing), and so I give her a children's probiotic that regulates her and she can now poop pain free! Her Dr said that it is perfectly fine to give it to her, especially if it makes a noticeable difference. He didn't say this explicitly, but I definitely got the vibe of "it can't hurt." Maybe I read those cues wrong.

We may just have weird digestive systems, but they make a big difference in my house! Bowel movements are a great indicator of health, aren't they?

My daughter has similar issues.   I feel like a labor coach every time she poops.  She doesn't take a probiotic, but she is obsessed with kefir smoothies.  I've noticed a huge improvement when she drinks them regularly.  

[kams]

Apr 25, 2014 9:02:26 GMT -5 CallingAllAngels said:

Apr 25, 2014 8:44:56 GMT -5 kams said:

I'm really interested to hear @vtcupcake 's knowledge about this - I've never heard that and I like to hear all of the info.

I take one regularly. I apparently have low levels of stomach acid. My DD hasn't been diagnosed with anything, but she gets really constipated and has painful bowel movements sometimes (it is the saddest thing), and so I give her a children's probiotic that regulates her and she can now poop pain free! Her Dr said that it is perfectly fine to give it to her, especially if it makes a noticeable difference. He didn't say this explicitly, but I definitely got the vibe of "it can't hurt." Maybe I read those cues wrong.

We may just have weird digestive systems, but they make a big difference in my house! Bowel movements are a great indicator of health, aren't they?

My daughter has similar issues.   I feel like a labor coach every time she poops.  She doesn't take a probiotic, but she is obsessed with kefir smoothies.  I've noticed a huge improvement when she drinks them regularly.  

Yes!! Isn't it awful? I just wish I could take that pain away She has developed really good breathing patterns to relax her body, which is beneficial I guess. The whole thing is shitty (no pun intended, geeze). Maybe we will try kefir smoothies - I'd love to get the same effect more naturally.

[wambam]

I am a big fan of probiotics. I take the Jarrow brand daily. There might not be any hard science but I wasn't having solid poops, then I took it and had solid poops so that's enough science for me.

[wambam]

Apr 25, 2014 8:44:56 GMT -5 kams said:

I'm really interested to hear @vtcupcake 's knowledge about this - I've never heard that and I like to hear all of the info.

I take one regularly. I apparently have low levels of stomach acid. My DD hasn't been diagnosed with anything, but she gets really constipated and has painful bowel movements sometimes (it is the saddest thing), and so I give her a children's probiotic that regulates her and she can now poop pain free! Her Dr said that it is perfectly fine to give it to her, especially if it makes a noticeable difference. He didn't say this explicitly, but I definitely got the vibe of "it can't hurt." Maybe I read those cues wrong.

We may just have weird digestive systems, but they make a big difference in my house! Bowel movements are a great indicator of health, aren't they?

Have you tried supplementing with HCl?

[kams]

Apr 25, 2014 9:20:10 GMT -5 wambam said:

Apr 25, 2014 8:44:56 GMT -5 kams said:

I'm really interested to hear @vtcupcake 's knowledge about this - I've never heard that and I like to hear all of the info.

I take one regularly. I apparently have low levels of stomach acid. My DD hasn't been diagnosed with anything, but she gets really constipated and has painful bowel movements sometimes (it is the saddest thing), and so I give her a children's probiotic that regulates her and she can now poop pain free! Her Dr said that it is perfectly fine to give it to her, especially if it makes a noticeable difference. He didn't say this explicitly, but I definitely got the vibe of "it can't hurt." Maybe I read those cues wrong.

We may just have weird digestive systems, but they make a big difference in my house! Bowel movements are a great indicator of health, aren't they?

Have you tried supplementing with HCl?

Yes! I take Panplex 2-Phase which are pancreatic enzymes + HCl

[CallingAllAngels]

Apr 25, 2014 9:07:17 GMT -5 kams said:

Apr 25, 2014 9:02:26 GMT -5 CallingAllAngels said:

My daughter has similar issues.   I feel like a labor coach every time she poops.  She doesn't take a probiotic, but she is obsessed with kefir smoothies.  I've noticed a huge improvement when she drinks them regularly.  

Yes!! Isn't it awful? I just wish I could take that pain away She has developed really good breathing patterns to relax her body, which is beneficial I guess. The whole thing is shitty (no pun intended, geeze). Maybe we will try kefir smoothies - I'd love to get the same effect more naturally.

It is terrible.  We got to the point where she was holding it because she was scared to go because it was painful- vicious cycle.  We started limiting her cheese intake and replaced her beloved cottage cheese with kefir and things are much better. 

[kams]

Apr 25, 2014 9:31:05 GMT -5 CallingAllAngels said:

Apr 25, 2014 9:07:17 GMT -5 kams said:

Yes!! Isn't it awful? I just wish I could take that pain away She has developed really good breathing patterns to relax her body, which is beneficial I guess. The whole thing is shitty (no pun intended, geeze). Maybe we will try kefir smoothies - I'd love to get the same effect more naturally.

It is terrible.  We got to the point where she was holding it because she was scared to go because it was painful- vicious cycle.  We started limiting her cheese intake and replaced her beloved cottage cheese with kefir and things are much better. 

I feel like our situations are so similar - the same cycle happens at our house. I have to really limit dairy. She's so funny now, when I tell her she can't have anymore milk/cheese/etc, she says "I'll have ice water so my poops won't hurt."  (heart) (heart)

[emilyj]

I have IBS, and I take one daily. For me, they make a big difference.

[breezy8407]

I take them. My kids get a powdered version in their milk. I feel better when I take them regularly. I have no science, just my anecdotal experience, but that's enough for me.

[runblondie26]

A couple off my family members have IBS-like issues and take probiotics. They say it helps them.

I don't have those issues and don't want to tinker with something if it's not broken. I eat my daily yogurt at breakfast and call it good.

[sadlebred]

I was diagnosed with mild IBS a few years ago. (very mild, thankfully). Probiotics and fiber seem to make a huge difference for me. I only have to take the prescription med. I was given a couple of times/year. I ran out of the probiotic I take last summer. After a week, I noticed the IBS symptoms coming back. I'll take them until they don't help anymore.

[vanillahip]

I take them successfully when I'm on antibiotics. A friend was recently raving about how much better he felt having started them so I took them for a couple of days on a "healthy" stomach (the same kind that have helped me while on antibiotics) and I was horribly sick! It hit me really quickly (a couple hours after the first pill?), and I thought "it must get worse before it gets better" but 2 days in I gave up, I was so so sick.

[labbie]

I have protein smoothies 5x a week for breakfast and DH includes powdered acidopholus in there, so I can't say how I'd be if I stopped.


I don't have human children, but i can say that when our dog has tummy issues from time to time (sadly she's a fan of random animal-poo eating on our hikes...so disgusting) we give her a vet formula one that is seriously a magic pill. One sign of loose stool and bam, it's cleared up.