Anyone out there who has used Florastor to help with diarrhea---how long does it take to have an effect? Using this product with infant twins, hoping there is light at the end of this poopy tunnel :) :)
2 days in and Florastor has firmed the bms a bit. Running tests on poo now---they have finally had diarrhea long enough to warrant the tests. Keeping on the product. At this point it seems to be helping oh so little. :) Makes me feel better since I was concerned that keeping fluids in them was going to be difficult. I have found something that they will drink and am continuing to add the florastor. Thanks for your support
You should use caution with anti-diarrheals, especially with small children. If the cause is infectious it can potentially lead to complications to artificially stop the diarrhea, thus retaining the bacteria in the gut. I would talk with their health care provider about it first and perhaps testing for cause. Hope you are poop-free soon.
Yes, probiotics are excellent to use to help rebuild the intestinal bacteria after a bout of diarrhea. When you have diarreha, it cleans out the good stuff, therefore, you need to replenish it by a good round of probiotics. If you do not rebuild it, it makes you more prone to further viruses and infections since 80% of our immune system is in our digestive track. I give my 17m old FloraBaby by Renew Life, daily, it is great to take during cold and flu season and began giving her them when she was 4wks old. It will not hurt and there was a study just published about how the antibiotics use in our foods is hurting our own immunity. Hence, it helps to rebuild it with probiotics. Florastor is a good brand too.
Good Luck,
J. W. MPH
Wellness Educator/Lifestyle and Wellness Coach
Our Pediatrician instructed us to use the Florastor for two weeks when my 18-month old son had some severe diarrhea. (All the tests run on his stool turned-up negative, so we still don't know the source of his diarrhea). However, I did not see any direct impact from using this product. The diarrhea went away when it had simply run it's course. When I questioned my Ped., he said that it would not necessarily have a direct impact -- it was just "good to use" in general. It seems to be the current fad for "healthy living," but I'm not convinced it did very much for my son. Due to its high cost, I'm not sure I'll use it again unless the kids are on antibiotics.
I have used it a couple of times over the last 2 years when my kids have a bout of a stomach virus. While I can't say if it helped dramatically, it did seem to quicken the recovery back to normal. Typically without the probiotics, it seems to take a true 5 days before they would want to eat and could digest without issues. With the probiotics, it was 2 days before they seemed to be back to normal.
I give it to my daughter whenever she is on antibiotics. If I am vigilant about it, and about cutting out juice, she usually does not get diarrhea. When she had a nasty stomach virus, it did nothing...
We used it with my 1 year old when he had diarrhea from the Roto virus. It seemed to thicken his poop and make it a lot more plentiful (even more than the actual diarrhea). It did seem to help him get over it faster. Good luck!
Florastor helped my 4 year old last summer. She had diarrhea & belly pain for more than a month. We went to several doctors, had TONS of tests and everything came back normal. After 3 or 4 days of putting the Florastor in her applesauce, her BMs were back to normal.
That was the only time I've used it, so I don't know if the results are different with younger kids. Good luck!
