As a parent, you want what’s best for your little one. This includes helping them to feel as healthy as possible as they learn and grow in this world. Eating healthy, drinking plenty of water, and getting physical activity are just some of the things you can do to help your little one thrive. What you might not realize is that adding something like probiotics and prebiotics for kids to your little one’s routine can make a big difference.
What Are the Benefits To Taking a Daily Probiotic?
There are a number of reasons that probiotics are healthy for your kids. Adding them to your child’s daily routine can help them to digest their food more easily, balance out bad bacteria so that they’re less likely to suffer from infections, help their guts better break down medications, and create vitamins they need to thrive. Probiotics create healthy gut bacteria that are known to help treat constipation, prevent diarrhea associated with taking antibiotics, and treat the stomach flu. Some evidence also suggests it can reduce the frequency of fevers, runny noses, coughs, and upper respiratory infections.
Probiotics vs. Prebiotics
There tends to be a lot of confusion surrounding understanding the difference between pre and probiotics for kids. Probiotics are live cultures that live in the gut and create healthy bacteria that ensure your child has a healthy gastrointestinal system. They aid in digestion by keeping food moving, clearing the colon, and softening the stool. They are also known to help strengthen the immune system, balance blood sugar, and may even relieve symptoms of eczema and colic.
So, what are prebiotics? Think of them as fertilizer. These carbohydrates are mostly non-digestible fibers that act as food for the probiotics, which makes it easier for them to do their job. In fact, considering how well they work together, it’s somewhat odd that prebiotics only recently began to come into the light. After all, probiotics won’t thrive without the help of their counterpart.
How To Give Your Kids Probiotics
Probiotics naturally occur in a variety of foods. Most commonly, you’ll find them in kefir, which is a fermented milk drink, and in yogurt. Other foods that have natural probiotics include kombucha, sauerkraut, kimchi, tempeh, sourdough bread, and pickles. While kefir and yogurt are typically a hit with kids, many of the other foods on this list aren’t.
Luckily, you can also buy probiotics in liquid, tablet, or powder form and add them to the foods that your kids already know and love. Applesauce, hot cereal, and other soft foods are best for mixing these products. Many of them are tasteless, so you can also consider adding them to water or other drinks. Keep in mind that kids are smart. As they get older, you’ll want to keep trying to get them to take it on their own rather than risk them catching you sneaking it into their meals.
When you want what’s best for your little one, you want prebiotics and probiotics. Always purchase a probiotic for a one-year-old from a reputable source and talk to your pediatrician about what’s best for your kids.
