So your child’s had Antibiotics? Three steps to recover their gut microbiome: Tips from a Nutritionist

Antibiotics are absolutely a life-saving tool that we can use to kill an infection. The problem is, when we take antibiotics, it wipes out not only the infection, but also our beneficial bacteria. This reduces our immunity, making us more susceptible to catching another infection requiring antibiotics, further reducing our immunity …. A vicious antibiotic cycle! So it is really important that we take these steps to support your child’s immune system and gut to recover from a course of antibiotics.

80% of your child’s immune system resides in their gut?!

Our microbiome are our “good” bacteria that live throughout most of our digestive tract, from our mouth to our colon. These bacteria perform lots of important, health-promoting roles for us, like helping us to digest nutrients from our food, and supporting our immune health. For optimal health, we really need a healthy population of these guys around. Dysbiosis of our gut microbiome has been linked with all manner of adverse health outcomes, from mental health to autoimmunity to diabetes.

Did you know that some predictions are that by 2050 antibiotic resistance is going to be a leading cause of death?

Most children that I see in clinic have had at least one course of antibiotics in their life & that is ok, but I think we are at the stage now that it’s important to ask your GP when they are recommending antibiotics: are these necessary. Research has shown that most ear infections resolve on their own in a couple of days without the use of antibiotics, and perhaps we should be asking for swabs on throats to ensure it is bacterial rather than viral when considering antibiotics for throat infections like tonsillitis.

So you asked your GP, is this script necessary, they said yes, so your child is on antibiotics: what next?

This is when we kick into gear with all the tools we have to support our microbiome population recovery - to avoid that vicious cycle of antibiotics that we can find ourselves on.

Step 1, Probiotics

Probiotics are the live bacteria that live throughout our gastrointestinal system and provide us with lots of benefits, including immune support. We can get probiotics in two main ways: a probiotic supplement and probiotic food, and I recommend using both to recover from a course of antibiotics.

The latest recommendation is to start the probiotics therapy AT THE SAME TIME as the antibiotics. We generally recommend taking ALL supplements at least two hours apart from any medication (although antibiotics and probiotics have different mechanisms of absorption, it is not considered a huge problem to take them together). There are quite a few brands of probiotics that are specifically designed to support microbiome recovery from antibiotics - the ones I use the most are by Activated Probiotics. Your local health food store or even chemist should be able to help you out with a good product, you’re looking for a supplement containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus LGG (LGG) and Saccharomyces boulardii (SB).

We also want to include lots of probiotic food. Probiotic foods are foods that contain live bacteria, like yoghurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kombucha. Did you know that kefir actually contains about 10x the amount of bacteria than you find in yoghurt, so it makes a terrific addition to smoothies or to add on top of a yoghurt bowl. (But as with anything you’re buying, read the label & make sure you’re buying the option without added sugars or gums, preservatives etc.)

Step 2, Prebiotic FIBRE

Fibre is food for our microbiome - we find fibre in all of our fruits, vegetables, legumes & wholegrains.

Prebiotic fibre is a particular type of fibre that passes through our gastrointestinal tract undigested and it stimulates a healthy microbiome population by providing food for our beneficial microbes that live in our large intestine.

We find prebiotic fibre in foods like garlic, leek, onion, oats, chia seeds.

We can also use simple techniques to turn some of our kids' favourite carbohydrate foods into resistant starch, which is a great type of prebiotic-like fibre, simply by changing the way we prepare them. When we cook starches like potatoes and rice and then leave them to cool down, they turn into resistant starch. So a simple tip for fussier eaters is to cook their favourite starches a day ahead, leave them in the fridge overnight, and then you can reheat them when needed & they will be providing essential food for the beneficial microbial population in your child’s gut!

Polyphenols are compounds found in some foods that also act like prebiotics in supporting our gut microbiome - growing evidence suggests that polyphenols even have antimicrobial activities against pathogenic gut bacteria. We find polyphenols in all of our richly pigmented fruits, vegetables & herbs like blueberries, cherries, dark leafy green vegetables, olives, nuts & seeds and herbs like rosemary & turmeric.

Step 3, Reduce Inflammation

Antibiotic-associated diarrhoea is common, but by supporting your child’s gut using the methods above, we can keep the population of their beneficial microbiome up, which may help to reduce diarrhoea. We can also support our gastrointestinal system by providing it with foods that are easy to digest & reduce inflammation. Here we’re talking about foods like slow & soups and stews, bone broth, stewed apples and pears.

One of the most important things we can do for our children is to support their overall immune resilience to reduce the occasions they may need antibiotics. Jump over HERE to get a ticket to my Immunity:101 next week.