WANT YOUR CHILD TO SURVIVE A HOSPITAL STAY? You’ve all heard me tout the benefits of probiotics, and the research has been around for well over a decade. But pediatricians STILL are not recommending (and when they do, it seems to be for S. boulardi, which does NOT restore normal flora) the use of probiotics and still overuse antibiotics. It’s frustrating, especially when we see studies like this. Hospitals are dangerous places. The chance of picking up an infection in the hospital is high (called nosocomial).
Probiotic supplementation decimated the risks for most types of infections (diarrhea reduced by 76%!!). This obviously means that we should make sure all of our children have the right bacteria in their gut (vaginal birth, nursing w/ mom NOT having had antibiotics, antibiotics ONLY when absolutely necessary) and supplement to make sure they have a healthy GI flora.