Intestinal health has a huge impact on our overall health and balance, yet it is not given the importance and respect it deserves. Today, many babies are born with an imbalance in their gut microflora. The baby’s gut is pretty much sterile until the actual birth when all kinds of body fluids from the mother containing good and bad microorganisms are mixed in with the baby’s. It is the health of the mother’s intestinal tract that determines the health of the baby’s microflora. Think about this! If mom has been on antibiotics, hormones, steroids or has been unduly stressed, her good bacteria levels are probably very low and odds are that Candida and other “bad” organism growth is extremely high.
A healthy intestinal tract has about 85% good guys and 15% bad guys. Most individuals have the reverse, 85% bad guys and 15% good guys. Baby doesn’t have a chance to get a good start in life in this scenario. We are seeing more and more digestive issues in babies, allergies and skin conditions such as eczema. All of these things are linked to poor intestinal health. My first choice for babies is breastfeeding along with probiotics (good bacteria) mixed in with the milk.
There are many safe probiotics for babies. Ideally we want to teach women how to get their gut microflora in good shape before getting pregnant. This would include, digestive enzymes if needed, a Candida cleanse or parasite cleanse if needed and probiotics. Learning to eat healthy fermented foods which contain lots of good bacteria such as kefir, greek yoghurt, miso, tempe, kimchi and sourkraut is also very important and can be continued with probiotics during pregnancy and nursing. All of this will help ensure a healthy gut for the baby. I recently read a great article from Dr. Mercola about how a British medical doctor is linking Autism to poor gut health in babies.
She has developed a protocol to reverse this condition and has done so with her own child. It must be caught early though, ages 1 – 5 with the best results at the younger ages. Here is the link for that article. http://articles. mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/07/31/dr-natasha-campbell-mcbride-on-gaps-nutritional-program. aspx If you would like to make sure your gut health is the best it can be contact me or Paige.
We help people all over the country get back their health and vitality. Here are links to our favorite probiotics.