My son came into the world with quite a few health problems. I discussed these in detail in my article called “My Son Has Reflux” and I also mentioned one the remedies that we adopted way back then, a probiotic called Culturelle. At 2 months of age we had my son diagnosed with severe reflux, but with our first visit to the Pediatric Gastroenterologist, before he was diagnosed, we were urged to put little Lex on probiotics immediately for treatment for his colic. This particular practice in Houston during early 2007 was actually conducting a study on the use of probiotics to treat colic in infants.
Probiotic: A Definition
Translated means “for life”, billions of bacteria living inside mammals that have a positive effect on the health and digestion of their host
The Science of Culturelle’s Probiotic
The doctor highly recommended the Culturelle brand of probiotic because of its exclusive probiotic strain, Lactobacillus GG. Culturelle’s doctors and scientists spent years studying the health benefits of ingesting the many strains of the “good” bacteria called lactobacillus which is commonly found in various dairy products. The found that most of the strains were unable to survive the harsh conditions of the human digestive system. However, after much searching they found a resilient strain that could survive and even grow there and they named it Lactobacillius GG.
The All-Natural Winner
Culturelle’s probiotic is the most studies strain of probiotic. It is much more sticky and potent than the lesser probiotics found in yogurts. Culturelle packages their probiotic in foil-sealed capsules and they guarantee 10 billion live cells at the time that each capsule is used. Delivery through capsules makes the Lactobacillus GG easy to swallow; however, it can also be sprinkled over food or drinks.
Real-life Experience with Culturelle
My son has been on Culturelle since he was 3 months old (it took us a little while to convince ourselves that Culturelle was better than the probiotic we were getting at Wholefoods). His colic started to disappear within weeks of starting the daily treatment (sprinkle one capsule in Lex’s bottle which he was most likely to finish-off each day. At 8 months old Lex ran out of Probiotic, we were moving, and there were lots of changes to keep track of. One month later Lex began a month-long spree of diarrhea that ended with a diagnosed milk-allergy and our starting his daily Culturelle dosage again. I am not saying that I know for sure that he would have been fine had we kept-up on giving him Culturelle, but there is no way to be certain that this circumstantial evidence doesn’t have some significance.
A year later and Lex still get’s his daily dosage of 10 billion live cells of Lactobacillus GG. For a time we gave it to him sprinkled over fruit and applesauce, but now he gets it with his fresh sippy cup of 1 part juice and 4 parts water. Most mornings he drinks it down, but if he doesn’t then he usually finishes of the top-off sippy cup before lunch. He also has had no new symptoms. His reflux is MUCH better and his milk allergy seems to ignore foods with trace amounts of cow’s milk now. Lex is a very regular little guys and as long as we don’t start feeding him dairy products his stomach never seems to bother him.
The Proof is in the Results
I am not a scientist, but I can say that Lex’s health is better than it was at the times he was not taking Culturelle. In fact, now that I think of it, his scrapes and scratches seem to heal faster than normal (no infections) and he rarely, compared to his peers, gets a cold or stomach bug (maybe once every 6 months). He seems happier all-around and so we have no plans to take him off of the best probiotic that we know of, Culturelle’s Lactobacillus GG.