With the many health benefits, probiotics can be a critical nutrient for children to take in supplement form.

Parents everywhere will be happy to know that there are probiotic acidophilus pearls that are ideal for children. I have been able to give these probiotics to toddlers as young as eighteen months. Whenever they are consuming soft table food, they can take this supplement. These pearls are quite small and do, in fact, look like small pearls (the jewel variety). They are small white beads that enterprising parents can get most any child to take. There are a few tricks to the trade, and in the interest of healthy children, I am more than happy to share them.

First of all, these little acidophilus pills or pearls are easy to swallow, and can be swallowed with a spoonful of applesauce or even baby food with ease. Now, I know there are some tykes who eat with glee and are not terribly discriminating. I also know there are others who detect even the smallest lump in their food and would resist the smallest intrusion into their culinary routine. With this kind, a parent has to be even more clever. A small pearl embedded in a piece of banana has gone down many a wee throat. And, for those suspicious little ones who balk at even that, a crunchier alternative is called for. While the propriety of cookies is a whole other subject, it does work to sneak an acidophilus pill or pearl into the creamy filling of a sandwich cookie. With the hard texture and crunching of the outer sides of the cookie, it is quite easy to camouflage the pearl and get it past the most finicky of eaters.

When a child is old enough to drink from a straw another tactic is to place the pearl at the very tip of the straw and encourage the child to drink his or her beverage through the straw (always a treat) just like a queen bee drinking her nectar (OK, this might work better for a little girl and only if the child isn’t old enough to know that queen bees don’t gather nectar!). A slight alternative to this option is to have the child place the acidophilus pill or pearl on the back of their tongue and then take a mighty draw on the straw. The force of the liquid headed down the hatch takes the pearl with it lickety split. Supplement taken and child no worse for the wear.

Some probiotics are marketed specifically for consumption by kids, but are in forms (such as liquid) that do not maintain the integrity or usefulness of the supplement. They may be in kid-friendly forms, but they don’t allow the full strength of the probiotics to reach their intended destination, and the efficacy is therefore severely diminished. This may not be as much of a concern with babies and infants who may not have sufficient levels of stomach acid to kill the probiotics that pass through in unprotected forms. If you already have acidophilus pearls, they can also be slightly dissolved in warm water and added to a little bit of breast milk or formula for safe, easy infant consumption.

Best of luck to you as you wisely incorporate probiotics into the nutritional support program of your child!

Acidophilus pills are a foundational part of a nutritional supplement program. They offer many health benefits and the patented triple encapsulated variety will ensure, if live delivery to the intestines is guaranteed, that you will have access to those benefits. And with a form of acidophilus pills that is super easy to swallow, there really is no excuse for not including them in your self-care program. The easiest to swallow are actually acidophilus pearls, tiny beads that do in fact look like pearls. Pills like pearls for a healthy you!

So, you’ve been learning about the difference between good bacteria and bad bacteria. Perhaps you’ve seen some of the many studies done on bacteria that sound like they’re from outer space: lactobacillis acidophilus and bifidobacterium longum. You may have read about the health benefits of these guys with weird names.

The natural outcome of this kind of discovery is to determine that you will pay attention to getting these good bacteria everyday. You arm yourself with a supply of yogurt. You cautiously decide to try something called sweet acidophilus milk. You commit to choking down some kefir every day. Maybe you’re even one of those people who likes the taste of kefir! You’re all set, right? Well, if the goal is to get the good guy bacteria to the place in your body where it will actually do some good, while your efforts are well-intended, they are far short of meeting the goal. How can that be? These foods contain lactobacillis acidophilus and bifidobacterium longum, don’t they?

The answer to that question is a qualified yes. What that means is that, while the food source itself does contain the good bacteria these little guys are surprisingly fragile. They are actually destroyed by exposure to air! So, when the container is taken off the food products, the good bacteria content starts to dissipate. (Don’t you wish the bad bacteria that make us sick were this delicate?!)

Then what happens? Well, you eat the foods, right? Therein, the good bacteria meet an even stronger foe – your stomach acid. That’s right. The stomach acid that we need to properly digest our food kills the good bacteria. Sure, some gets through to its intended destination – the colon – but there are many, many casualties along the way. So is it impossible to get a healthy serving of lactobacillis acidophilus and bifidobacterium longum every day?

Thankfully, no. It is possible to get full power lactobacillis acidophilus and bifidobacterium longum through what is commonly referred to as acidophilus capsules. OK, I know what  you’re thinking. Capsules might provide protection against air, but doesn’t the stomach acid still get to the good guys when the capsules are swallowed? With many acidophilus capsules, the answer is yes. And in fact, even exposure to air can decrease the number of live good bacteria in those capsules. So those are no more effective than the food sources at supplying the wanted good bacteria to the colon.

But there are patented acidophilus capsules that have medical technology to enable them to withstand the offenders and reach the colon alive and well, ready for action. These advanced acidophilus capsules have a triple coating, protecting the contents from air, moisture and stomach acid. You can meet your goal! Go ahead and have your yogurt and even kefir if you’d like, but don’t rely on them for your daily supply of lactobacillis acidophilus and bifidobacterium longum.