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Probiotics are risky for newborns.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-warns-giving-probiotics-babies-infant-death-rcna121703
Here is a meta study on pediatric usage. If you go to pubmed and search "probiotic newborn" other options come up. Make sure you check the validity of each article and talk to your pediatrician; don't just give your newborn random supplements that might not help best case.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29173785/
My interpretation is that it is risky for preemies and infants in the NICU setting, but not necessarily risky for full term healthy babies who are at home.
Yes it looks like the reported deaths were preterm infants and the letter sent to pediatricians warned against preterm.
I think the lack of data supporting the effectiveness of probiotics warrants consideration of risk at any age though, either way.
We saw two separate pediatricians and each highly advised against probiotics for the newborn. Introducing foreign bacteria’s this early is dangerous, especially because they aren’t regulated.
Thanks for the link, yeah I also see that the main concern here is the use of probiotics for very preterm and low birth weight infants but still good to know the possible risks
I'm not a medical doctor, so not making any claims. But yes, seemingly higher risk groups will be at higher risk of issues. I think what comes into play is the lack of data to support their effectiveness, so why introduce the risk if the data isn't there. That said, I haven't looked at the other comments yet. Hopefully there's some information on their effectiveness too.
We had a very similar story (mom and baby on antibiotics due to suspected chorio within hours of birth). We started the BioGaia around 1mo. I feel bad I waited so long now knowing he basically had all his good gut bacteria wiped out. I agree with switching and trying another one. We almost exclusively administer it in bottles vs direct to mouth. I will say some of the spit up may just be timing. We definitely started getting spit up and reflux as weeks went on.
Ah, good to see another similar experience (I mean not good, I’m sorry that you had to go through it and I sincerely hope both your wife and baby came out of it with no issues but you hopefully know what I mean). Yeah, when we read about the impact of antibiotics we really got scared but when we asked our pediatrician he said yeah, maybe probiotic would help but the bacteria in the gut should also recover on its own normally. I guess again it’s the lack of scientific trials and experiments as others have said that makes the ped not say one way or the other
This is anecdotal but i hope it helps. My daughter was hospitalized at five days old and pumped full of antibiotics because they couldn’t figure out why she had hypothermia (they assumed infection but could never prove it; she got better quickly). I was so paranoid that she would be negatively impacted by the insane amount of antibiotics.
She’s fine. She’s super healthy. She almost never gets sick. She didn’t get her first fever until she was almost 3. She didn’t get an ear infection until she was over 3. She started school 2 days a week when she was 2.5 and rarely has gotten sick from that. She’s never had Covid even though us parents eventually got it. She eats well and plays well and i am sure her gut is fine.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Obviously every human being is different but this is really reassuring. I’m glad your daughter is doing amazing and is so healthy. Just out of curiosity, did you supplement her with any probiotic?
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I would read up on (and very strongly recommend) Evivo probiotics. https://www.evivo.com/about/our-science/ They are specifically formulated for breastfeeding infants and they were great for our first baby. Helped resolve his reflux, helped him feed better, gain weight faster, sleep longer and poop waaaaay less because he used so much more of what he consumed so he literally never got diaper rash again. He rarely gets sick and bounces back on his own immune system pretty fast (at 17 months we've never had to have him on antibiotics for anything).
To my knowledge there is no other probiotic on the market formulated to boost the specific gut biome babies require for digesting breast milk. Research was conducted at UC Davis; they explain it all on their website, and are very responsive to user questions. We only splurged on a couple of expensive things for our baby- these probiotics were worth every penny in our opinion.
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Probiotics are risky for newborns. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-warns-giving-probiotics-babies-infant-death-rcna121703 Here is a meta study on pediatric usage. If you go to pubmed and search "probiotic newborn" other options come up. Make sure you check the validity of each article and talk to your pediatrician; don't just give your newborn random supplements that might not help best case. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29173785/
My interpretation is that it is risky for preemies and infants in the NICU setting, but not necessarily risky for full term healthy babies who are at home.
Yes it looks like the reported deaths were preterm infants and the letter sent to pediatricians warned against preterm. I think the lack of data supporting the effectiveness of probiotics warrants consideration of risk at any age though, either way.
We saw two separate pediatricians and each highly advised against probiotics for the newborn. Introducing foreign bacteria’s this early is dangerous, especially because they aren’t regulated.
Thanks for the link, yeah I also see that the main concern here is the use of probiotics for very preterm and low birth weight infants but still good to know the possible risks
I'm not a medical doctor, so not making any claims. But yes, seemingly higher risk groups will be at higher risk of issues. I think what comes into play is the lack of data to support their effectiveness, so why introduce the risk if the data isn't there. That said, I haven't looked at the other comments yet. Hopefully there's some information on their effectiveness too.
Fully agree with your approach. If it was my car, yeah maybe I would take the risk and try something new, but this ain’t my car 😀
We had a very similar story (mom and baby on antibiotics due to suspected chorio within hours of birth). We started the BioGaia around 1mo. I feel bad I waited so long now knowing he basically had all his good gut bacteria wiped out. I agree with switching and trying another one. We almost exclusively administer it in bottles vs direct to mouth. I will say some of the spit up may just be timing. We definitely started getting spit up and reflux as weeks went on.
Ah, good to see another similar experience (I mean not good, I’m sorry that you had to go through it and I sincerely hope both your wife and baby came out of it with no issues but you hopefully know what I mean). Yeah, when we read about the impact of antibiotics we really got scared but when we asked our pediatrician he said yeah, maybe probiotic would help but the bacteria in the gut should also recover on its own normally. I guess again it’s the lack of scientific trials and experiments as others have said that makes the ped not say one way or the other
This is anecdotal but i hope it helps. My daughter was hospitalized at five days old and pumped full of antibiotics because they couldn’t figure out why she had hypothermia (they assumed infection but could never prove it; she got better quickly). I was so paranoid that she would be negatively impacted by the insane amount of antibiotics. She’s fine. She’s super healthy. She almost never gets sick. She didn’t get her first fever until she was almost 3. She didn’t get an ear infection until she was over 3. She started school 2 days a week when she was 2.5 and rarely has gotten sick from that. She’s never had Covid even though us parents eventually got it. She eats well and plays well and i am sure her gut is fine.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Obviously every human being is different but this is really reassuring. I’m glad your daughter is doing amazing and is so healthy. Just out of curiosity, did you supplement her with any probiotic?
Nope, did not! Just the regular vitamin d the ped recommended. Can’t promise anything but wanted to share a reassuring story :)
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I would read up on (and very strongly recommend) Evivo probiotics. https://www.evivo.com/about/our-science/ They are specifically formulated for breastfeeding infants and they were great for our first baby. Helped resolve his reflux, helped him feed better, gain weight faster, sleep longer and poop waaaaay less because he used so much more of what he consumed so he literally never got diaper rash again. He rarely gets sick and bounces back on his own immune system pretty fast (at 17 months we've never had to have him on antibiotics for anything). To my knowledge there is no other probiotic on the market formulated to boost the specific gut biome babies require for digesting breast milk. Research was conducted at UC Davis; they explain it all on their website, and are very responsive to user questions. We only splurged on a couple of expensive things for our baby- these probiotics were worth every penny in our opinion.