How to get probiotics into your kid!
As you probably know, healthy bacteria, also know as PROBIOTICS, are super important for our health.
In fact, we have 10x more bacteria than human cells!
And our body contains 100x more bacterial genes than human genes!
So what does this mean?
Well, probiotics (healthy bacteria) contribute significantly to what goes on in the human body.
THEY:
1 – Modulate our immune system
2 – Help with digestion
3 – Synthesize vitamins and other nutrients
4 – Protect us against harmful bacteria
5 – Have specific functions depending on where they are located (i.e body part)
It’s important to maintain a healthy balance of good bacteria vs bad bacteria, to better support our body as a whole.
Now often clients will ask me: “How do I get probiotics into my kid??”
That’s a great question!!
The first inoculation of healthy bacteria a child receives is from the birth canal. After this, it is whatever makes its way into a child’s mouth that provides the most bacteria.
Here are a few ideas:
1 – Provide raw milk
Unpasteurized milk, whether from a mother’s breast, a goat, a cow, or another animal, contains probiotics. It is important to find a trusted source of raw milk (breast milk is best!) as it is possible for milk to become contaminated with harmful bacteria if sanitary practices are not followed.
2 – Let them get dirty
Many of the healthy bacteria found in our body come from the soil. When we sanitize everything our kid touches, these bacteria don’t make their way into the child’s system. I wouldn’t allow a child to eat handfuls of dirt, per se, nor suck on a bottle they find at the park, but don’t fret over dirty hands or eating unwashed produce from your garden.
3 – Try fermented foods
Yogurt, milk kefir, water kefir, sauerkraut, kombucha, and other foods which have been fermented (and then left raw and unprocessed) contain probiotics. However, getting your kid to eat such acidic tasting substances may prove quite challenging. Plain yogurt mixed with berries seems widely accepted, as well as kefir or kombucha diluted in water (I personally make my own water kefir, and my son thinks it’s juice!).
I hope this provides you with a bit of inspiration for getting probiotics into your kids!
