What are probiotics and how do they help

[mymama]

I have been lurking for a couple of months and have not posted before.

I have a 23 month old with severe allergies to fish, eggs and nuts and intolerance to wheat and dairy (used to be severe allergy but is growing out of rapidly - he had his first severe reactions to nuts through my breast milk). I have noticed a few of you talk about probiotics and I was wondering what they are and do they help with food allergies??? I am very fortunate that he only has food allergies and does not suffer from eczema or asthma etc or environmental allergies such as grasses.

hausfrau you can get dairy free probiotics, reuteri drops [made in sweden] have been tested in hospitals with tiny babies and proven safe and no side effects. mu ds had severe gastric problems and i think the probiotics have helped.
Mymama, the steroids may have played a role but you can still get your baby back to 100% - give it time, good nutrition etc. And very annoying about that doctor, i agree - you have to sometimes trust your instinct with these things.

i would also say change your doctor, as prescribing steroids for a viral cough at 3 months old is very strange! He/She should have suspected whooping cough. they often don;t if a child is immunized as they assume the vaccine always works. It doesn't always.

Just normal poo - but as it occured regularly about 3 hours later I didn't want to give them at night for obvious reasons.

mymama,this is some information that I got when I did a search under my friend's name

are you in germany hausfrau? I had to ring someone in sweden and they sent them to me - they speak good English. But they are expensive. I think i got the number by ringing a main number on webiste and asking. Now i just stick to solgar dairy free probiotic - less complicated!

Thanks for the link jabberwocky. I have started the Inner Health this morning and staying in (in case of poo). I don't get a lot of additional info with my allergist as she is hectic (her wait is one year) MN is turning out to be very helpful

Oh I shouldn't imagine that the poo will bulk up that quickly - go out and enjoy yourself.

hausfaru are you sure you're not dairy or wheat intolerant? "IBS" is often one or both but only an exclusion diet will tell you for sure. We have Quest acidophillus plus, bought in a local health food store, as they are a non-dairy probiotic. Cost £7.99. Also have a centrum multivit (that was a free sample, not available any more I'm afriad) with probiotics but I don't know if that's dairy free, probably not.

Hausfrau - I haven't read the whole of this thread but just reading your last post re allergy to so many things reminds me of a friend I had at Uni with very similar restrictions to her diet. After every allergy test under the sun her diet was so narrow that she finally went back to the doctor. Thankfully there was a new doc at the uni surgery who simply asked her if she had ever been abroad - yes she had been to India three years before, and strangely enough the dates tied with the start of her problems. After all sorts of gut tests he diagnosed some amoeba and after strong ABs (OK I know we don't like them) she could eat anything she wanted. This was 20 yrs ago.
I know this is only one story but thought i'd share it.

poor old you hausfrau - that must make life difficult. I heard of someone who had great results with acupuncture, but again, i suppose this doesn;t work for everyone.

bobbybob - now that I have the probiotics what flaxseed oil do I get. Chemist had capsules or health food section had a bottle (like an olive oil bottle) and what do I do with it (on food???) Do I give at same time or it doesn't matter??

I went through extensive allergy testing about 10 years ago. To my dismay, I reacted to virtually everything! Food, trees, grasses, molds, you name it. They gave me an article about leaky gut syndrome . As it turned out, I did take a lot of ibuprofen. I tried to cut down, but it wasn't until I got pregnant with ds and cut out all OTC meds that things improved. I still have a few problems, but nothing like before.

Oh, dear, let's see

my ds was diagnosed with leaky gut after blood in his stools at 3 months old, breastfeeding only. Don't know what caused it. But he is recovering well on a gluten free dairy free diet and probiotics. all very strange.

Get flax seed oil only from someone who keeps it in the fridge as it is a very delicate oil. Buying a bottle is less trouble and probably cheaper than capsules. Keep the oil in the fridge, use it up within 3 months and do not mix with warm food.

I just mix up a tablespoon of oil (not precise) with a teaspoon of probiotics, his antihistamine and some pureed fruit in an expresso cup. I do it before breakfast.

I may have to go for a bit of a search - both places I have looked at don't keep the flaxseed oil in the fridge only the probiotics.

Interesting about the leaky gut syndrome jabberwocky. I have a friend with a 5 month old who has blood in his stools constantly and has seen endless specialists who are putting it down to food allergies through her breast milk but he tests negative to skin prick tests. I will pass this on to her.

If it's in a black container and not on a shelf with lots of lighting then it will be okay.

I hope it helps her poor little ds, mymama.

I bought my flax seed oil in the pharmacy/vitamin section of a discount store. It is in a black bottle and does say to refrigerate after opening.