When you are looking for natural ways to improve your little one’s health, probiotics are an interesting category to explore. There’s still lots that we don’t fully understand about the gut and how probiotic supplements can make an impact.

While they aren’t necessarily miracle workers (nothing is), there’s a lot of “maybe,” a lot of “possibly,” and a lot of “probably worth a try!”

I’m going to do my best to explain to you the way I approach probiotics for babies and toddlers. And hopefully that helps you figure out what to try for your kids! 

Everything you need to know about probiotics for babies and toddlers

Here’s the birds eye view

We have hundreds of TRILLIONS of different types of bacteria, made up of over 500 species, living inside our GI tract. Most of them have no real effect on us, positive or negative. But some of them do, or can, have a positive effect. 

The helpful bacteria are called probiotics. They have a couple known benefits! They can:

• help limit the growth of “bad” bacteria
• help us digest what we eat
• assist our immune system in fighting against pathogens
• potentially shorten the duration of symptoms from illness
• and overall just keep our gut healthy and moving! 

Probiotics are found in many foods and also in supplement form. There are a few differences between probiotic supplements and foods that contain probiotics. 

Foods that contain probiotics are good, healthy foods like yogurt, kefir, cottage cheese, sourdough, and other fermented foods. They’re great to include in the diet (learn about the best probiotic foods for kids here), but they aren’t going to treat illness/medical conditions. 

We do have some evidence on probiotic supplements treating certain medical conditions, but it’s important to look at the research to guide what type of probiotic (remember, there are over 500 different kinds) and the dosage.

Limitations on probiotics for toddlers and babies

While we do have some research about the use of probiotics for babies and toddlers, we don’t have a lot OR super strong research that probiotics actually do a ton for babies and toddlers.

There’s a lack of high-quality, large- scale studies that help us actually draw conclusions and make recommendations. I bookmark this topic under: needs more research! 

Some studies (with lower quality study designs) draw different conclusions about probiotics for babies and toddlers. Sometimes these studies have a sample size that’s too small to be able to generalize those results to the population. Sometimes it’s an observational study- which just means they sort of watch what happens instead of applying randomized, double-blind treatments to groups to compare what happens.

Basically what I’m saying is that we can’t take these sorts of small, non-gold-standard study conclusions and take them as 100% scientific fact. 

Their conclusions can also be a little bit all over the place on whether the probiotics were correlated with any positive outcomes in babies, etc. That’s why I say this field of study comes with a few asterisks! 

I also need to point out that probiotics fall under the “supplement” category. Supplements are not regulated by the FDA, so that means their claims aren’t regulated either. We’re best off looking at actual scientific studies rather than the marketing on supplement bottles! 

A few things we do know about probiotics for babies and toddlers

Probiotics might be helpful in certain situations, but they’re not a magic bullet. 

They aren’t medicine (meaning, they won’t heal you from a disease) and they won’t protect you at all costs. But, they may still have positive effects like potentially shortening the duration of illnesses, restoring the gut after illness, and a few other things. 

There are so many factors that contribute to the health (or unhealth) of the gut microbiome. Scientifically speaking, we are really only just recently scratching the surface of understanding the gut microbiome and all the roles it plays in our health and bodily functions.

Probiotics for babies

Probiotics for babies is one of the lesser studied subjects when it comes to probiotics. 

They’re pretty much universally not recommended for use in preterm infants, but are generally thought to be safe for healthy, full-term infants. 

Many are not suitable for babies under 6 months old. And I always, always recommend talking with your child’s pediatrician about any concerns you have and especially before adding any sort of supplement to their diet. 

We do have a few studies that suggest it may be beneficial to introduce a particular strain (b. infantis) of probiotics in infancy to promote gut colonization with “good” bacteria.

“A dysfunctional gut microbiome in breastfed infants is common in resource-rich nations and associated with an increased risk of immune diseases. Probiotics only transiently exist in the gut without persistent colonization or altering the gut microbiome. This is the first study to show that early probiotic supplementation with B. infantis with breast milk results in stable colonization of B. infantis and improvements to the gut microbiome 1 year postnatal.”

Worth mentioning! 

Probiotics for toddlers

Probiotics for toddlers are generally regarded as safe. However, there is limited information on what specific benefits probiotics can have for toddlers. We do have a little bit of research suggesting that probiotics could be helpful for toddlers with eczema. 

Probiotics are strain specific, which means they don’t all do the same thing. If you’re wanting to dig into the research on specific probiotics for specific issues in babies and toddlers, you’ve come to the right place. 

Potential benefits of probiotic supplements

Probiotics for common infectious diseases

One popular use of probiotics is for what we are called “common infectious diseases.” That category encompasses things like viruses, the common cold, upper respiratory infections, etc. They are really anything that is community-acquired. 

Probiotics for viruses are not for use in place of medicine. They aren’t medicinal, but they can possibly be supportive in dealing with common infectious diseases. 

So when my kids come down with a cold or upper respiratory infection, I usually reach for a few things. In addition to whatever medicine I need to keep them comfortable (or none if it’s mild), I usually start them on one of the probiotics that are thought to have positive effects on an immune system dealing with a common infectious disease. 

For babies, my favorite probiotics for colds are: 

• BioGaia Protectis drops with vitamin D
• BioGaia Protectis drops

For toddlers, you could also use the same ones as for babies, but you can also use a few more.

• Culturelle Immune Defense chewable
• Culturelle Kids Purely Probiotic chewable
• Culturelle Kids Purely Probiotics packet

This also feels like a good time to tell you that some recent exciting research suggests that using saline nasal spray is more likely to shorten the duration of colds! 

Probiotics for colic

Colic is a baby-specific ailment. And if you know what it is, I’m so sorry. 

Colic is such a challenging thing to deal with. We don’t know exactly what causes colic in newborns, but it usually leads to a baby who is inconsolable, uncomfortable, and cries for multiple hours a day. So tough for everyone. 

We don’t have a ton of studies on probiotics for colic. We do have one good randomized controlled trial where babies were given either the probiotic L. reuteri or a placebo. 

It was a smaller study, but it found that the babies given probiotics had an overall lower crying time than those who weren’t. In this study, the mothers also avoided cow’s milk and exclusively breastfed- so we probably can’t generalize these results to the entire population, but they’re very interesting nonetheless.

We also have another study from Italy that makes a case for prophylactic (preventative) L. reuteri use. This study found a lower incidence of colic/functional gastrointestinal disorders at 3 months of age after the prophylactic use of probiotics. 

Again, this area needs more research, but what we have so far shows that there may be some big upsides to introducing probiotics to infants with colic. 

Probiotics for diarrhea

Diarrhea can happen in childhood for several reasons. It can be part of an illness, it can be food-related, and it can be antibiotic-associated. Antibiotics, while amazing and life-saving, do have a few negative side effects. And they can wipe out the gut flora of good bacteria (while also doing their job of getting rid of the bad bacteria). This can lead to some GI disturbances and possibly diarrhea.

Some research suggests that coadministering probiotics with antibiotics can help reduce diarrhea as a side effect.

My favorite choices for probiotics for antibiotic-associated diarrhea are:

• BioGaia Protectis with vitamin D drops
• BioaGaia Protectis drops

Probiotics for Constipation

Probiotics can be useful in the treatment of constipation in toddlers and kids. In fact, I wrote an entire post on how they can help fight constipation!

As you probably know, I’m a big fan of a “food first” approach, meaning I’d recommend making sure you have things dialed on the diet front instead of only relying on supplements.

Studies suggesting that probiotics can be useful for treating constipation are promising, but that doesn’t make them a surefire solution.

If your child is constipated, they’ll likely need more than probiotics to get things moving. But pairing the right probiotics with the right dietary approach (read: enough water and enough fiber) can be a magical combo.

There isn’t one gold standard probiotic strain for the treatment of constipation, but strains that may help relieve it in children are:

• L. reuteri
• L. rhamnosus
• L. acidophilus
• B. lactis
• B. breve

The probiotic products I’d recommend for constipation in toddlers are:

• BioGaia Protectis tablet (only for older toddlers who can chew a tablet safely)
• BioGaia Protectis drops
• BioGaia Protectis with vitamin D drops 
• Seed pediatric probiotic

If you keep running into bouts of constipation with your kid, I’ve got a couple resources that might help! I did a deep dive on what causes constipation in toddlers and what foods help with constipation in toddlers. 

Prebiotics and constipation

While we’re on the topic of constipation, I also have a post about prebiotics and how they might help with constipation. I’ll be sticking mostly to probiotics for the sake of this post, but prebiotics are foods that can help probiotics work more effectively, so they’re worth mentioning in this conversation!

Probiotics for eczema/atopic dermatitis

Probiotic supplementation could have a positive effect on babies and children with eczema. I’ll link a study that showed an overall reduction in severity or eczema/atopic dermatitis symptoms correlated with probiotic use. Again, not a huge study (all these studies seem to have some limitations), but a promising find nonetheless. 

I recommend trying these for eczema. (In the same breath, make sure you talk to your doctor about any supplement or product you’re thinking about introducing!) 

Additional resources on probiotics for babies and toddlers

I like this US Probiotic Guide. They divide it by issue and it will tell you the probiotic strain that could help, the specific product name, link the scientific sources, and tell you the grade of evidence that they base the recommendation on (like whether it’s a strong or weak recommendation based on what the studies say). 

They also update it as information grows and studies advance! And I hope and plan to do the same. I absolutely love coming across new studies that give us a clearer picture into what’s happening in our microbiome. We’re only scratching the surface of understanding how everything works together!

I hope I can be a helpful resource on the journey of raising healthy, happy, nourished families!

Have a picky toddler in your house?