Infants and children need a healthy balanced digestive system if they are to grow and flourish at every stage of their development. Growth and development during infancy and childhood occurs at a very rapid rate so it’s important to make sure that your child maintains the right balance of digestive flora. Your digestive tract has the greatest area of contact with your environment so getting the balance right for your children’s digestive health is central to their health and wellbeing.

Digestive flora

Before birth, your digestive system is more or less sterile ie: it contains little or no digestive flora. Flora populations shift and change a lot during early childhood, and by around the age of three, your child’s digestive flora looks very much like yours. Digestive disturbances are usually discovered when symptoms such as bloating, abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhoea, nausea or flatulence appear. Fever, antibiotics or even new foods can lead to sudden shifts in digestive flora with effects that may last for years or even a lifetime. An imbalance between healthy and unhealthy digestive flora leads to poor digestion generally and problems with unwanted food particles entering your bloodstream, leading to low grade inflammation and immune activation. Alterations to digestive flora along with digestive disturbances are very common in children with behavioural problems and allergies.

The power of probiotics

Probiotics help maintain balanced, healthy digestive flora and digestive function by reducing the growth of unhealthy digestive flora and helping to re-establish healthy digestive flora. Probiotics can also help to modify digestive inflammation and some probiotics even produce antibiotic-like substances that prevent the growth of pathogens such as bacteria and viruses, so help to support healthy immune function. When supplementing with probiotics, it’s a good idea to take a mixture of both lactobacillus and bifidobacteria to ensure that the whole digestive system gets the benefit of balanced digestive flora. The lactobacillus family produce lactic acid and are the dominant flora found in the upper digestive tract. Lactobacillus is not generally recommended for children under 1-2 years of age due to the risk (low) of infection and increased acidity in the body combined with their immature immune system, premature metabolism and the developing digestive flora. Bifidobacteria is the dominant probiotic found in breast-fed babies and also in the lower digestive tract, another reason why bifidobacteria is usually recommended for children under 1-2 years of age.

Role of probiotics for healthy digestive function

• Maintain a healthy balance of digestive flora
• Improve the composition of digestive flora
• Support immune health – 80% of your immune system is found in your digestive tract
• Provide a healthy response to allergens
• Maintain healthy digestive function
• Improve and maintain effective digestive barrier function
• Inhibit, displace and compete with pathogens
• Produce antimicrobial compounds eg: lactic acid, hydrogen peroxide
• Produce beneficial compounds eg: enzymes, vitamins
• Reduce digestive inflammation

Digestive disturbances provide a clue that all is not well and if left untreated, tend to accumulate and may lead to a number of health problems including nutritional deficiencies, poor immunity, low energy, failure to thrive and a tendency to allergies.

Mr Vitamins Recommends

Herbs of Gold Products for Children's Digestive Health

• Children’s Probiotic Care
• Children’s Immune Care
• Children’s Multi Care

Find out about Herbs of Gold Products for Children's Digestive Health here