Antibiotic, acidophilis, yougart question

eweejoe · 06-25-2001, 07:55 PM

My little girl recently ran a very high fever and the doctor found infection in BOTH of her ears. She's almost 3 and this is her first....when she does something, she does it right.

Everytime I've had to take antibiotics (twice in the last 15 years-KNOCK WOOD) I get a yeast infection. I had issues when I was pregnant with her and could eat yougart at the first 'twinge' and the 'twinge' would go away. I ate the fruity kind. So...in order to spare her any ill effect, I started her on yougart the first day I started her on anti-biotics. The fruit flavored kind for kids. I also started her on acidophilis tabs. The recommended dosage for adults was two tabs 3xday. I give her one tab a day. She's almost 3 and weighs 30 lbs. I am not an expert by any means, but I had read a lot on here about the adverse effects of anti-biotics on the 'good bacteria' in our bodies. (Intestines & vagina-if you're a woman that is) I felt like I was combatting both with the yougart for the vaginal yeast and aciophilis for the intestinal. I just read a post where Copper said that the fruity kind of yougart can lead to worse problems in the intestine. So far she sees fine. I did miss one day of the acidophilis and honestly she was fussy and whiney all day and I can't help but wonder if it didn't have something to do with her mood. Anyway, could someone please lead me in the right direction here. I know that it would probably be impossible to get her to eat plain yougart, as the fruity kind is sometimes a struggle.

Thanks in advance for any input anyone can give me.

Sherri.

Copper · 06-29-2001, 06:28 PM

Hi eweejoe, sorry about your little one's ear infection. Poor baby! The reason why it is best to wait until you FINISH the antibiotic run is because the antibiotics kill EVERYTHING in the intestine. You replace the good guys with the yogurt, but yeast ALSO finds it's way back in there, mostly from fermented and/or yeast foods. With the sterile environment the anti-b's created, AND the sugar added, make it a perfect environment for them to take over. Of course, they die off agiain soon if the anti-b's are still coming, but if sweetened cultures are the source, those yeasties build up again, and the cycle continues. If you wait until the anti-b's are ALL done, then introduce ALL the live cultures (not just the acidophilus) WITHOUT the sugar, they can take better hold and help keep the yeasties at bay.

http://www.healthboards.com/ubb/idea.gif try to find some organic "Stoneyridge Farm" or "Stoneyhill Farm" [i can never remember the name!] whole milk plain yogurt. This is the creamiest yogurt i've ever tasted, little to none of the sourness with most yogurts. She is so young, she really doesn't need much at all. A teaspoon 2x's a day, really. This stuff is so wonderfully benign in flavor, that you could probably mix it in her milk (but don't heat it).

Signs of intestinal yeast are not very easy to pick up on. You probably would not notice for quite some time if there was a problem. But, vaginal becomes apparent ALL too quickly! miserable little buggers!

anyhoo, i hope everything works out ok for you!

[This message has been edited by Copper (edited 06-29-2001).]

eweejoe · 06-29-2001, 07:41 PM

Thank You so much for your help. I am not familiar with a lot to do with the intestinal problems anit-b's can cause, I just read on her medicine insert that acidophilis could be given along with the anti-biotic to help keep the imbalance from happening in her intestines. I will try the yougart (unflavored) with the next round. Just took her for a re-check today. Ears are fine, but her nose and left eye are buggin' up again. She needs two rounds instead of one. She has had a stopped up tear duct since birth in her left eye and it has continued to cause infection after infection in her eye, but because of my hesitation to use the anti-biotic ointment in her eye every day as suggested by her ped, I just used it when needed and she still seems to have built up a resistance to it, thus the current round of problems she's having. I've always heard if the duct doesn't open up or isn't surgically probed that as they age it just gets worse and worse. I guess that's what we're now seeing. As much as I hate to go through the thoughts of anethesia again (surgery for her being tongue tied was recently put off until age 5) I will do that before I'll feed her anti-b's for the next 2 years. I'm just praying this second round will knock it all out and we can start fresh with natural tears and massaging of the tear duct.

I appreciate your feedback and I'll try to keep her yeasties under control. I am going to give the yougart along with the anti-b's since I do NOT want her to get a yeast infection. I will get the plain and see how she does. She wasn't terribly fond of the fruity yougart so I told her it was 'medicine' and she took it for me. Thanks for the dosage suggestion too, I was honestly wondering about that.

Take Care!

Sherri.