Tips To Improve Your Child’s Gut Health

Are your kids (newborns included) set up for a healthy start in life?

Gut health is going to be one of the big buzzword phrases of 2018, and for good reason. Establishing a healthy gut full of beneficial bacteria in newborns as well as older kids is super important for overall health. Did you know that the first three years of your baby’s life is a critical period for stabilising the microbiota? That means making sure your baby gets a lot of diverse beneficial gut bacteria during this time can help them later on in life. Akesi, which offers prebiotic and probiotic powders and super-charged tonics, is big on gut health research (they have a whole section on their website called ‘Your Gut’ cram-packed with info if you want to read up).

Research has shown that the infant gut microbiota has a big part to play in the body’s immune system and one’s overall metabolism. Making sure your child has a well-established and diverse group of microbes residing in their gut now will potentially lower their relative risk of developing an autoimmune disorder (like eczema), developing IBS or becoming obese later in life. So how exactly can you make sure your child’s microbiota is full of beneficial microbes (and a diverse amount of beneficial microbes at that)?

Tips on getting beneficial bacteria into your child’s gut

Eat & Drink well: What your child eats influences their microbiota (the same goes for you too, mama! Especially if you are breastfeeding your baby). So that means eating healthily and saying ‘no’ to sugary drinks. Try this instead: Akesi’s Bio-Fermented Berry Spritzer – a delicious probiotic spritzer that the whole family can drink instead of juice or sodas. It tastes better and is healthy, too, with berry antioxidants, papaya plant enzymes plus 6 billion colony forming units (CFU) of up to 9 probiotic strains to help restore and maintain the body’s diverse gut microbiota. All in all, it’s a much more convincing way of getting good bacteria into little ones who may turn their noses up at gut healthy sauerkraut or kimchi!

Probiotic powders are a simple, easy way to introduce beneficial bacterial. Akesi Baby and Child probiotic powders have an impressive 10 different bacterial strains at a strength of 10 billion CFU. Children especially love the taste of the delicious Akesi Child Probiotic+ Elderberry Boost that dissolves in the mouth.

Akesi Baby contains no secret nasties, and is vegan, gluten and sugar-free to boot. Even newborns can take this prebiotic and broad-spectrum probiotic to maintain a diverse gut microbiota, support the immune system, and help both digestion and bowel movements.

Antibiotics beware: A five-day course of antibiotics can take down as much as 1/3 of your gut bacteria! When you disrupt the delicate balance of gut microbes by taking antibiotics, this can cause long lasting changes to the microbiota. This is particularly important in babies when the microbiota is developing and believed to be playing a role in training the immune system.

Taking probiotics both during and 2 weeks after an antibiotic course for that dreaded ear infection is one way of trying to re-establish beneficial strains into the gut. Do space the probiotic dose 2-3 hours from the antibiotic dose.

Suffer from recurrent yeast infections, mama? See a doctor, but know that a no-sugar diet combined with taking probiotics is a solid way to resolve this recurring problem. Saccharomyces boulardii (one of the strains in the Akesi Tonics and Spritzer) has been shown to have anti-candida effects, too.

So mama, time to get your child’s gut microbes going!

Sassy Mama Reader Perk: Get 10% off Akesi products online and free shipping in Singapore! Just quote: SASSYGUTS

Shop online at www.akesiwellness.com or from Supernature in the Forum Shopping Mall.