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Probiotics for Kids: Benefits for Gut Health & the Immune System

By Dr. Josh Axe

May 20, 2022

If you already take probiotics yourself and have experienced benefits for digestive health and regularity, you might want to know: How can probiotics help my child?

Probiotics for kids offer many of the same benefits that probiotics offer for adults. For example, children's probiotics are great for kids who could use gut and digestive support, or who deal with occasional gas, bloating or constipation.

Should Children Take Probiotics? 

Do pediatricians recommend probiotics? Probiotics are considered generally safe for kids, and many pediatricians and experts in digestive health now recommend kids probiotics for children. Of course, you should always consult your child’s pediatrician before beginning any new dietary or lifestyle regimen, including the use of probiotics or other dietary supplements. 

Today, both adults and children eating “modern diets” often lack a diversity of healthy probiotics in their diets. This is a shame, considering probiotic health benefits include those related to a healthy gut microbiome, healthy digestive and immune system function — such as helping with proper nutrient absorption, assimilation of food through healthy digestion, and support for healthy immune responses.

Up to 80 percent of the immune system is housed in the gut microbiome, so considering probiotics are known to support general gut health, it makes sense that we’d want to arm our kids with these beneficial microbes.

Probiotics also help regulate children’s digestive systems, and we know that many children deal with occasional digestive upset, such as occasional diarrhea or constipation.

There are now a variety of probiotic supplements available for kids, including powders, capsules and gummies. There are also foods with added probiotics. 

Probiotic gummies can be full of benefits. Are gummy probiotics good for kids? Yes; they can be. As covered more below, certain types of probiotic gummies are great for children, as they have a fun, appealing taste that makes many kids happy to add them to their daily routine.

Of course, giving your child probiotic foods is also helpful, such as yogurt with active cultures, kefir or sauerkraut.

Probiotics for Kids Benefits

Ancient Nutrition’s SBO Probiotics Kids Gummies - Berry flavor packs similar benefits as the SBO Probiotics capsules intended for adults into fun-to-eat gummies that kids love.

What are probiotic gummies good for? Here are the benefits associated with our SBO Probiotics for kids.

1. Supports healthy gut function, healthy microbial balance and a healthy microbiome

Probiotics are essential to gut health, since they help populate the GI tract with “good guy bacteria” that assist in many functions, including nutrient absorption and elimination. 

Consuming more probiotics can also help crowd out “bad guy bacteria”  and can positively impact digestion and immune system function. 

2. Supports healthy digestion and elimination

Probiotics for kids can help keep them regular by supporting healthy elimination and by reducing occasional flatulence, abdominal distension and discomfort.

3. Reduces occasional constipation, gas and bloating 

SBO probiotics support healthy bowel transit time in children, digestive function and gut microflora while improving gut motility.

4. Supports a healthy immune response

The beneficial bacteria found in your child’s gut can play a powerful role in their immune system function and immune responses. Even your child’s overall outlook may benefit from enhanced gut support, due to the “gut-brain connection.” 

Probiotics for kids can help promote a generally healthy GI tract and a healthy inflammation response.

Best Probiotic for Kids  

Not all probiotics for kids are created equal. Some brands have a lower efficacy due to having a low colony-forming unit, or CFU, count (which represents the number of live cells contained in each serving), such as supplements that contain under 5 billion CFUs per serving.

We recommend a probiotic for kids that contains about 5 billion CFUs* (*at best by date) of clinically studied SBO probiotics, which is powerful enough for proven results but gentle enough for tiny stomachs.

Type

What is the best probiotic for a child? Probiotic gummies for kids are often recommended because they are super simple to take, considering they taste great and can be chewed instead of swallowed whole. 

Choosing gummies over capsules or powder can make it more likely that your child will be happy to take their daily supplement. 

Another thing to pay attention to when choosing gummy supplements for kids is the amount of added sugar. There are 2 grams of added sugar (from organic cane sugar) per serving for our kids probiotics gummies, helping to enhance the taste without including more than necessary.

Our kid-friendly gummies are also gluten-free, made without dairy, soy and artificial flavors, sweeteners or colors — plus, they’re vegan.

Why SBO Probiotics?

What are some of the best probiotics for kids? SBO (soil-based organisms) probiotics for both adults and children are beneficial because these are hardy microbes that actually survive the journey through the stomach to parts of the gastrointestinal tract where they have the most benefits. 

Within our SBO Probiotic Kids Gummies you’ll find the beneficial microbial strains called Bacillus coagulans and Bacillus subtilis. 

These SBO probiotics are the same types of valuable microbes found in dirt and soil, and therefore also on fresh produce. They’re generally well-tolerated, easy to absorb and also don’t need to be refrigerated, making our SBO Probiotics supplements easy to store.

Why again should kids take them? SBO probiotics for kids can help to ease your child’s digestive discomfort, such as by reducing occasional constipation and gas. Probiotics can also support healthy immune responses, considering the vast majority of the immune system is located inside the gut.

How to Use

Should children be taking probiotics every day? Or only during certain times?

It’s generally safe and beneficial for children ages 4 and up to take kids probiotic gummies every day, but be sure to consult your child’s pediatrician.. 

If giving our SBO Probiotics Kids Gummies to your child, have them thoroughly chew 1 gummy each day. 

Children can eat our gummies at any time of day, with or without food, depending on what works best for their routine. However, the most common way is to take probiotics on an empty stomach if possible, either when first waking up or right before bed, which assist in absorption.

Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DNM, CNS, is a doctor of chiropractic, doctor of natural medicine, clinical nutritionist and author with a passion to help people get well using food and nutrition. He operates leading natural health website DrAxe.com and is co-founder of Ancient Nutrition, a health supplement company. He’s also author of the books Eat Dirt, Essential OIls: Ancient Medicine, Keto Diet, Collagen Diet and Ancient Remedies.