Probiotics and child and infant immune systems
Children are very giving when it comes to giving germs and illness! No matter how hard a parent tries to avoid it, at some point their child is going to get sick. Prevention is the key to an illness-free household!
80% of the immune system is located in the digestive system, and keeping your child’s gut healthy will help keep them healthy all year long.
Most humans are exposed to healthy gut flora at birth. Babies develop in the womb with a squeaky clean digestive tract. This makes them very vulnerable to bad bacteria after birth. Through vaginal birth the baby is exposed to the mother’s good flora, which then takes up residence inside the baby and grows. This initial exposure to good bacteria helps baby develop a strong immune system and digestive system that can handle all the new bacteria baby will encounter.
However, probiotics are not permanent in the body. Frequent replenishment is crucial, especially during times when the body is most likely to encounter infectious bacteria, like during cold and flu season. A child’s best defense against harmful germs is a tough as nails immune system! Taking a probiotic like L. reuteri helps ward off these harmful germs and prevents children from passing illness around amongst themselves.
A major problem during cold and flu season is children passing sickness back and forth to each other at school and daycare. A study of healthy infants aged 4-10 months was conducted in child care centers. One group of infants was given formula supplemented with L. reuteri. This group had overwhelmingly positive results.
The probiotic L. reuteri group had reduced incidences of:
- Fever
- Diarrhea
- Doctor’s visits
- Antibiotic use
- Absences
163,000 children are hospitalized with acute diarrhea every year in America. A study of children 6-36 months was conducted while they were hospitalized with acute diarrhea. The group of children given L. reuteri got better faster. 74% of these children had no diarrhea by day 2. L. reuteri can reduce the time a child has diarrhea to only 17-30 hours.
The rotavirus is the most common reason for infant diarrhea. It is very contagious and nearly every child has had it by the age of 2. Almost 2/3 catches it more than once. The rotavirus is difficult to prevent because it cannot be killed by most disinfectants and cleaners.
A study of children with the rotavirus found that their sick time was shortened by 50% when the children were given L. reuteri.
