best probiotics for kids
Food,  Health

The Absolute Best Probiotics for Kids

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In today’s world of online “google” research, social media opinions, and blogs (yes I said it) , there is A LOT of controversy when it comes to raising our kids, including what the best probiotics for kids may be.

There is a To-Do list for EVERYTHING! And Do’s and Dont’s for everything else. We are constantly bombarded with what our kids should or should not eat or drink, what vitamins are the best, when they should be potty trained, what type of schooling is best, what snacks are best, what kind of milk they should drink, how much sleep they should get, how much screen-time is okay, and so much.

I even devoted whole posts to organic foods for kids and getting our kids to eat veggies because we are all so worried about these things! 🙂

So I thought I would take some time to narrow down a really important issue so that you aren’t deciding between 25 different options. While probiotics are often touted as potentially beneficial for adults, researchers have also found that probiotics are beneficial for children as well.

Keep Toddlers Busy

probiotic microbes

We know that 70-80% of the immune system is located in the gut, and more research is emerging every day showing how important gut bacteria is for multiple aspects of our overall health.

Probiotics help to support a child’s digestive and immune health, and help with constipation and regularity issues. (I have seen the positive effects in my own children) Which probiotic to choose for your child can be a very important decision to make.

Are children are exposed to so much in the world today. It seems nearly impossible to guard them from every little things that we find in our air and foods. so probiotics are a great way to armour them from the inside!


Health Benefits of Probiotics

So what are some of the benefits that probiotics, and prebiotics, provide for our kids? Well for starters, a healthy digestive tract contributes to immune health as well as overall health. Take a look at some of the benefits below:

1.Helps to maintain a healthy digestive system while supporting immunity.

2. Boost the absorption of nutrients that are obtained from food and supplements.

3. Protects against occasional digestive problems.

4. Replenish good flora in our digestive tract

How To Choose The Right Probiotic

1. CFU – The Number of Living Microorganisms

Our babies’ bodies needs the right amount of the right strain.

CFU stands for Colony-Forming Units. This number represents an estimate of the number of living microorganisms in a sample. This is very important because probiotics are living organisms and would only be considered a probiotic if they enter the intestinal tract alive. However, just a higher CFU alone does not mean that the product is the best option.

2. The Expiration Date

The level of importance of the expiration date is right up there with CFU, believe it or not. Look at it this way: the CFU claim on the label is only important if the probiotics are still alive by the time they reach your intestinal system.

As a general rule, I only trust a product that at least has an expiration date. The best option is a product that reads “viable through end of shelf life” or “live cultures guaranteed”.

3. Species/Strain of Probiotics Present

Your child’s microbiome has thousands of diverse strains that are of benefit to their body, so the probiotics we give them should mirror that. Look for a probiotic supplement with a diverse combination of strains.

Probiotic supplements with one strain just will not do!

Select a combination of strains that are clinically proven to provide the desire benefits you seek as well. Some products have strains that are specifically geared towards helping children.

A list of common probiotic strains and what those starins can do for our bodies can be found here.

For more information on picking the right probiotic, make sure to take a few minutes to check out the video below!

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At A Glance: My 5 Picks for Kids Probiotics

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THE Best Probiotics For Kids

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1. Florify Top Pick

Melaleuca Florify Probiotic

Florify is my absolute Top Pick and the brand that I use for my kids after trying Everything! It has everything that a high quality probiotic should have, including high CFU and 7 strains of microbes.

This product is not sold in stores, but must be ordered as part of an online shopping membership along with other high quality products. Florify must be ordered and delivered to your door and it’s worth all its weight in gold!

Benefits: Each dose of Florify for Kids gives your kid

Florify Label

1. Strawberry flavor great for kids

2. Can be added to beverage

3. 5 billion active probiotic cultures—guaranteed

4. 7 diverse, beneficial probiotic strains. The greater the diversity, the better! Versus 1 strand in other leading products**

5. 3 of those probiotic strains are specifically for kids

6. Easy to take

7. Clinically Researched freiburg probiotic study

Why seven diverse strains? Because a gut microbiome is populated by trillions of microbes already. The more probiotic strains you give them, the more support your kids will have for a healthy, balanced microbiome.

Check out this info graph of Benefits!

florify vs other probiotics

2. Culturelle

Culturelle Probiotic Products are designed to promote ongoing digestive and immune health as well as everyday wellness for every member of the family. This is a number one recommended brand and many peoplehave been using this brand for many years.

Benefits:

culturelle kids

1.Contains naturally sourced ingredients that work with your body to support digestive health.

2. Ingredients like the proven probiotic strain, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG), are shown to help your digestive system work better.

3. Brand most recommended by Pediatricians.

4. Culturelle Baby products help promote your baby’s developing digestive and immune systems

5. Meets the FDA’s guidelines for gluten-free

6. Best Selling Brand

My Thoughts on Culturelle: I included Culturelle because they seem to work for many people and they are the “Number 1 Recommended probiotic by Pediatricians”. However, the fact that the supplement only includes 1 strain gives me pause.

Check out their full line of kids products!

culturelle products

3. Smarty Pants Probiotic

The Smarty Pants Kid’s chewable probiotic vitamin is a gummy that combines probiotics and prebiotics for a well rounded digestive and immune support.

For those that are not familiar with prebiotics, they are actually indigestible fiber that bypass our small intestine and go straight to the colon where they are fermented by the bacteria in our gut. This is according to Dr. Vincent Pedre, author of Happy Gut.

The best time to take prebiotics and probiotics is regularly. Both can be taken at the same time, daily.

Benefits:

1. 4 billion CFU per serving in

2. Probiotic comes in spore form – it has been stated that 99% will reach your lower digestive track alive

3. Two Strains, including: Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus coagulans

4. Prebiotics are included: beta-glucan is said to support the growth of probiotic bacteria

5. Non-GMO and Vegan. The labeling claims that there is no artificial flavors or sweeteners. It is free of allergens like the other probiotics.

My Take: Smarty Pants is a pretty good choice if you want an item that you just throw into your cart. I’m intrigued by the addition of the prebiotic and I and I’m definitely happy that it contains a pretty good CFU and more than one strain.

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4. Olly Kids Probiotic

I personally give my kids a separate multi vitamin (I will be making a post on the reason why soon), but if you would like to make life easier, here you go! (who doesn’t?). The CFU and strain count isn’t my first choice, but the combination of vitamins, prebiotics, and probiotics pushes this product up on the list.

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Benefits:

OLLY Multivitamin and Probiotic is a great combination for kids. These yummy gummy vitamins include vitamins A, C, D, E, Zinc, and all of the vitamin B’s. In additions to that, you have the live probiotics AND prebiotics.

  1. Olly Balanced Belly has 500 million CFU and comes in 1 strain.

2. The strain used is Bacillus coagulans.

3. This strain has been shown to help with bloating and stomach pain associated with patients who have bowel issues.

4. It’s also suggested to increase immune response, prevent diarrhea, and balance out bacteria levels in the body.

5. This probiotic also uses a prebiotic blend of Fructooligosaccharides, Xylitol, and Inulin.

5. RenewLife Ultimate Flora ProbioticSECOND PICK

Ultimate Flora Kids Probiotic is a Renew Life probiotic brand that was voted #1 in consumer satisfaction in 2018. I like this product because it has great numbers. It touts 6 strains which is awesome, certainly more than other products aside from Florify with 3 billion CFU. It’s great tasting and honestly would be my SECOND CHOICE.

Renew Life Kids probiotic
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1. This Probiotic is for kids aged 2 and older (most are 3-4)

2. Renew Life Ultimate Flora Kids Probiotic is made with 3 billion cultures

3. MULTI-STRAIN PROBIOTIC: Each kids chewable probiotic tablet contains a great blend of 6 different probiotic strains to reflect the natural diversity of your child’s gut. That’s 6 specially selected strains to ease occasional tummy trouble, irregularity, and also support the digestive balance.

4. It’s gluten free, dairy free, and soy free

5. BEST IF REFRIGERATED

6. Contains Xylitol, which is good for kid’s teeth (fights against teeth decaying bacteria)

7. HIGH-QUALITY GUARANTEE: Renew Life is the #1 probiotic brand in consumer satisfaction in 2018

8. SHELF STABLE PROBIOTIC: Refrigeration recommended but not required, so stick this probiotic for kids in the fridge only if you want to!

6. Digestive Advantage Kids Probiotics

Digestive Advantage Kids Probiotic Gummies is a fairly easy and tasty way to get your kids to take a probiotic, if you are okay with some sugar. ( I am lol)

They claim that these probiotics are made with no artificial flavors or colors and just like the other probiotics, they help support your child’s everyday digestive and overall health. Digestive Advantage contains BC30, a probiotic that is shown to survives 10X better than yogurt to deliver good bacteria where kids need it.

Benefits:

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1. Many probiotics don’t survive the acidic stomach environment to get to the intestines where they do their work. That’s why we must be careful that labels guarantee live bacteria, and not just live when it was packaged. The BC30 protein is said to be their method to remedy this issue.

2. 500 Million CFU and 1 Strain is in the product.

3. They are made with natural flavors and taste great so kids love them

4. These numbers are based on median % survivability of the digestive advantage probiotic vs. leading probiotis and yogurt in a simulated gastric PH.

My Thoughts on Digestive Advantage: This is a bonus probiotic that I included because of its popularity. I believe it’s important to talk about the popular products. This particular line has a great feature, in that it has a protein shell that helps deliver more live bacteria to the gut. However, like Culturelle, there is only one strain present and I don’t see and freshness or CFU guarantees.


What Ailments Can Probiotics Help Provide Relief For?

There has been a huge effort recently to increase the awareness of the use of probiotics, and much of it has been backed by great research. Take a look at some other common ailments that may benefit from the use of probiotics.

  • diarrhea.
  • irritable bowel syndrome.
  • ulcerative colitis.
  • Crohn’s disease.
  • H. pylori (the cause of ulcers)
  • vaginal infections.
  • urinary tract infections.
  • recurrence of bladder cancer.
  • Children’s colds.
  • Urinary tract and vaginal health.
  • Allergies and asthma.
  • Lactose intolerance.
  • Childhood stomach and lung infections.
  • Mouth health.
  • Joint stiffness.
  • Traveler’s diarrhea

Well there is my list! Narrowed down to the top six and hopefully narrowed down enough so that a decision can be made easily. It’s important to consider what we are allowing to go into our children’s body so the first step is getting the information!

Are you using another probiotic for your child? If so please let me know in the comment section! Also let me know if you enjoyed this post on the best probiotics for kids and what you would like to see next.

Also be sure to check out for more great information:

Parenting Journals – Promoting happy and healthy families. Tips, articles and resources for parents and children.

Lastly, one more request. If you enjoyed this post, please share it with someone else. There is an Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook button waiting for your click!

Are You Looking For The Absolute Best Probiotics for Kids? Well you have found them. I put together the best products in terms of probiotic benefits for your childs gut health and immune system. Take a look!

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20 Comments

  • riverdogg

    I babysit my little cousin several times a week and while at his mom’s house one of the tasks I have is making sure he took a Smarty Pants Probiotic gummy. He seems to like it well enough. I know his mom is seemingly happy with the probiotic product. By the way, I know this isn’t your normal scope but is there a probiotic gummy you could recommend to me for adults? Thank you and keep up the good work with your blog.

  • Mugalu Mansoor

    Thanks for this wonderful article about probiotics because for really I didn’t know how important are to kids or our children but by this article I have got to know the importance or benefits of probiotics and the tips on how to choose the right probiotic for our children and thanks for also providing to us some of the probiotics, am soon purchasing some for my children  

  • Henderson

    I think I learnt about probiotics from you and k decided to do some more research on the discourse. I have learnt so many things about it and I think the ones you have written here for kids are really cool. I think that smartpants will be a very good pick for me right now and that  is the choice that I will most definitely go for. Thank you for sharing.

  • Strahinja

    Thank you for this informative article. I was unaware that you could take probiotics as a way of nurturing your gut bacteria levels. The doctor always recommended using it as a help when the kid would take some antibiotic or had some digestion problems or stomach virus.

    I will definitely take your advice on these top 5 and will pick one for my daughter just in case. 

    Thank you for the effort.

    Strahinja.

  • Selenity Jade

    Excellent selection of probiotics for kids.  I’ve used probiotics for even a kitten with diarrhea issues and it did help!  Animals aren’t fooled by the placebo effect that people are sometimes, so that’s proof right there!  That said, the Olly one gives me some serious pause.  Xylitol is a sweetener substitute that is now used in a lot of different products instead of the previous artificial kinds because of health issues (like the fact old artificial sweeteners are known to be carcinogenic), so I’m leery of ANY new sweeteners.  But the rest of them, including Culturelle I’ve heard great things about.  Thanks again for the suggestions!

    • Kayla

      Thanks for your input! Xylitol actually has bacteria fighting qualities, so dentist recommend it for those who don’t want to use too much Flouride. But I completely understand the hesitancy to use sweeteners. I included labels on each product so you can see what the what is used to sweeten each product 🙂

  • Mahasin1

    So for children who take probiotics they can be sure to have a digestive system correct? It seems that it is a preventive supplement for anything that deals with the stomach? So by my kids taking probiotics it can stop them from getting allergies and asthma or it just fights against them from reoccurring?

    • Kayla

      I personally used it to help my kids stay regular and aid in digestion. But yes there has been plenty of research on positive affects on the immune system! 

  • Benson

    Hello there, thanks for sharing this wonderful post. The health of kids can be a very sensitive thing to keep up with and truly, all my experience trying to look after a kid doesn’t always end well due to some it crucial aspect. My sister is a young mother and i know she is finding it hard with dealing with her baby. I will share this post with her so she can benefit from it.

  • John

    Wow, I didn’t know that one can actually get some very good probiotics for kids as a very good way to make the best out of their health. I used to think that they were only meant for the adults. This is a very good discovery for me honestly. I like this post that you have shared here. I should get one for my little sister. Thanks

  • Melissa

    Helpful article! I give my daughter Florajen kids probiotics. Have you heard of that brand? It seems to work well for her but I always want to give her the best of everything.

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