Should You Give Probiotics To Children?

Supplements aren’t as important as they’re made out to be in the media today. The fact is that they can do a lot more harm than good. We only need certain amounts of vitamins and minerals and while it’s dangerous to have less than that amount it can also be dangerous to have more than it. The only difference between a medicine and a poison is dosage and though too much of a certain mineral and vitamin isn’t going to kill you, it could do you some serious damage. An example of this would be selenium which in the right amounts will help to protect you from heart disease but which in the wrong quantities could cause diabetes. Balance is imperative in all aspects of our diets and you can get everything you need to survive by eating right.

Probiotics are the good bacteria which are most commonly found within our intestines. They work to assist in the digestive processes and make sure we get the very most out of what they eat. More importantly however, is their protective qualities. Probiotics naturally defend us from bad bacteria which are constantly looking to infest our digestive systems and make us ill. Without probiotics we’d suffer some gut infections much more frequently.

It has recently been shown that feeding children probiotic yoghurts can be beneficial for their overall health. The benefit isn’t huge but it’s enough. Children who’d eaten these probiotic rich foods regularly showed a lessened risk of intestinal infections and diarrhoea. Any additional defences when it comes to children’s digestion are important as kids are at higher risk of infection or poisoning than adults are, simply because they’re small.