Episode 85: Geeking Out Over Kids’ Gut Health

Episode 85: Geeking Out Over Kids’ Gut Health

Gut health is one of my favourite topics, and today I’m fully leaning into it. In this episode, I’m geeking out over kids’ gut health and why it plays such a powerful role in your child’s mood, immunity, digestion and long-term wellbeing.

If you’ve ever wondered why gut health is discussed so much online, or what it actually means for your child, this episode breaks it down in simple, practical terms. I explain how the gut microbiome works, why those trillions of microbes matter, and how small daily changes can make a meaningful difference to your child’s health.

As a paediatric dietitian working closely with families, I also talk honestly about the reality many parents face — especially if you have a picky eater or fussy eater at home. Improving your child’s gut health doesn’t mean perfection. It starts with small, doable shifts that help support better children's nutrition over time.

If you’re looking for practical guidance around nutrition for fussy eaters, improving fibre intake, and supporting a healthy diet for fussy eaters without pressure or guilt, this episode will give you a clear place to start.

Links:
https://nourishwithkarina.com/feedingbabies
https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Highlights:

Why Gut Health Matters for Your Whole Family (00:00.16)
Why Those First Thousand Days Matter for Gut Health (02:25.912)
The Gut Brain Connection and Why Fiber Matters (04:46.978)
The 30 Plant Rule and Diversity in the Gut (07:05.226)
Serotonin and the Gut Connection (09:26.124)
Why Fiber is the Ultimate Brain Food (11:46.99)
How Fiber Protects the Gut Lining (14:09.036)
Easy Ways to Boost Your Family’s Fiber(16:25.376)
Geeking Out Over Kids' Gut Health (18:43.266)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

In this episode we discuss:

What Gut Health Actually Means
A simple explanation of the gut microbiome and how bacterial communities influence your child’s overall health.
The Gut–Brain Connection
Why gut health affects mood, anxiety, behaviour, sleep and emotional regulation in children.
The Fibre Gap in Children’s Diets
The surprising statistics around fibre intake, vegetables and ultra-processed foods in modern childrens nutrition.
Why Fibre Feeds the Microbiome
How nutritious foods rich in fibre help beneficial gut bacteria thrive and improve immunity and wellbeing.
One Small Change That Makes a Big Difference
Practical ways to support your child’s gut health today, even if you’re dealing with a fussy eater.

Helpful Resources

Healthy recipes and ideas for quick easy food that support childrens nutrition:
https://nourishwithkarina.com/healthy-recipes-for-kids

https://nourishwithkarina.com/nourishingkids

If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a quick review or star rating. It helps more parents find evidence-based advice from a children's nutritionist and paediatric dietitian supporting families with picky eaters.

Why Gut Health Matters for Your Whole Family (00:00.16)
You're listening to the Easy Feed Podcast, episode number 85, Geeking Out Over Kids' Gut Health. Hi there, I'm Karina Savage. And with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learnt all the secrets that busy mums need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed Podcast.

Hello and welcome back. Today I'm talking about one of my most loved topics and I always want to talk about gut health between you and me, but I tried to make sure that I temper my enthusiasm and include other podcast episodes that are not on gut health, but it's so important and it's such the center of our systemic health that I just wanted to geek out over gut health this episode because I realized that

in my attempts to not discuss it all the time. I haven't discussed it for a while. So apologies in advance, but not really. Sorry, but not sorry, because it's so good to know about gut health and to know everything about gut health for your child, for your family, because it really makes a difference to our overall health. So let's dive in. To start off with today, I want to talk about why gut health matters. And you hear a lot about gut health.
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online, you know, there might be gut health workshops, gut health this, gut health that, but what does gut health actually mean? So gut health really relates to the bacterial communities in your gut. Really. It really relates to how that ecosystem is working and whether it's working together well or whether it's really unhappy because there's trillions and trillions of bacteria, microbes, all sorts of little organisms that are

doing things for us, even now, as you're listening to me, they're doing things for us, mostly, well, hopefully mostly to help us, sometimes to harm us without us even realising. And that's when I guess you get into that whole inflammation world, you know, unhealthy, you become more unhealthy when things aren't working well. And it really all relates back to these little microbes and the messages that are being sent to the brain and all around the body based on how happy these microbes are in our gut.

Why Those First Thousand Days Matter for Gut Health (02:25.912)
So gut health really relates to the ecosystem, the microbiome in your gut and the bacteria and whether or not they're happy and whether they're sending good messages or not. Really, that's the bottom line. That's the simple definition of it. And that's why I really wanted to just break it down into simple terms that make sense. And if you think about it that way, the ultimate goal then is for all of us to improve.

how our microbes are feeling on a daily basis, and basically the messages in the chat that they send around to the rest of our body. We know that our child's gut health and how our child's gut develops over the first thousand days, how it is colonised, the microbes, the types of bugs, bacteria that develop and grow in populations will influence their risk of developing food allergies, will influence their risk of developing other sicknesses.

also influence their risk of whether they become overweight or obese. So much data around that early colonisation and the types of bugs that colonise in greater or fewer quantities and long-term health outcomes. Really that first thousand days creates a health stamp on your child for the rest of their life. And it doesn't mean that we can't change or improve their gut health past, you know, that first thousand days.

Absolutely not. There's things that we can do all the time to improve their gut health. And they talk about this all the time with my members inside Nourish with karina, because often it feels like you've got to do so much to improve their gut health. But really at the end of the day, one small change done consistently will make a big difference. And then you just gain momentum from there. And yes, look, probiotics can be beneficial at times and, you know, supplements can be beneficial at times, but we need to really strip it back to basics and go, right. Okay. Well, what's, where do we start from?

Where are things at? How do we make intentional small changes that will make a difference today? So that's what I'm going to share with you a bit later on. But to start off with, I just really wanted to explain why we need to focus so much on it because there's all this data around gut health and links to anxiety and depression, links to concentration, focus, learning, nutrient absorption. Okay. So if your gut is in a better place, if it's in a healthier place, if the

The Gut Brain Connection and Why Fiber Matters (04:46.978)
microbiome are happier and the ecosystem is functioning well, you are going to absorb nutrients better. And given that three quarters of our immune system is in the gastrointestinal tract, you are absolutely going to reduce risk of sickness and infection when you have better gut health. So the gut and the brain talk all of the time. They are literally best friends. There is direct communication between the gut and the brain at all times. It's called the gut brain access.

It's via the vagal nerve that's part of the enteric nervous system. And there's this super highway that is communicating. Our gut microbes produce messages that travel to our brain. And there's millions of these messages being carried by neurotransmitters that travel between the gut and the brain all the time. And that is why our gut health directly impacts mood, behavior, anxiety, mental health, everything. Okay. I'm going to give you some stats now, because again, this really helps to drive home the

The message and the importance of gut health and why we need to focus on it a little more for our kids. 39 % of children, to be precise, aged two to 18 years in Australia, failed to meet the adequate intake for dietary fiber. So that's not the RDI, which is the recommended dietary intake. The adequate intake is actually below that. That is the amount that they deemed necessary to actually be healthy. Not necessarily the pie in the sky.

goal to aim for that's even higher, but the actual adequate intake needed. And 40 % basically failed to meet that intake. And that says something that really says that our children are at increased risk of poor immune system, increased risk of mental health problems because their gut health isn't as good as it could be. Increased risk of autoimmune conditions, increased risk of allergies. There's a whole host of...

conditions that have been linked to poorer gut health, increased risk of obesity. So we need to start by really focusing on our children's gut health, which will then have that real ripple effect and improve long-term health outcomes. Only 6 % of Australian children aged 2 to 17 years eat the recommended number of vegetables per day. That means 94 % aren't getting enough. Now,

The 30 Plant Rule and Diversity in the Gut (07:05.226)
I know that vegetables are a hard food group to get into our kids. And that's why I often will talk again inside Narcissist Corine and my membership with parents about how we can be more strategic around getting these nutrients in if they're not from vegetables. Okay. So where can we pull these nutrients from in other food groups? Because we really need to sometimes be quite crafty around that, especially if kids are very defiantly refusing vegetables. So it's important that we are.

Being smart about how we can nourish our child's gut health, especially if they're not doing well with vegetables, because I'm never here to make parents feel guilty about their child not eating vegetables because I know it's damn hard. I've got kids too. So it's about how, well, how do we either sneak them in or get kids eating more vegetables? And certainly I talk a lot about that inside my feeding kids reset program, but otherwise, how do we alternatively get more fiber and nutrients in other ways? Okay. Statistic number three.

Children who consume more than four serves of ultra-processed food daily have 25 % lower gut microbiota diversity. So what that means is that kids who consume a lot of processed foods have a poorer ecosystem, a poorer microbial balance. We want diversity in the gut. We want a good variety of healthy bugs in our gut and kids who have ultra-processed foods in large amounts.

don't have as good diversity of their microbes and that contributes to a poorer gut microbiome, a poorer ecosystem and therefore poorer messages that go to the rest of our body, including our brain. Stat number four, children who eat more than 30 plant foods per week have significantly healthier gut bacteria. Now, this again is not always possible, especially if you've got real fussy eaters or

neurodivergent children that are really opposed to trying new foods. It's not always possible. And this is why I always like to keep it real. I always work with families where they're at, in my online consults or inside my membership, because it's really important to not shame parents or make parents feel bad about the fact that their child's not doing well. Because parents feel guilty enough. They don't need more guilt around the fact that their child's not eating 30 plant foods a week. So it's about what, right, what do we do? What can we do to improve?

Serotonin and the Gut Connection (09:26.124)
the situation of our child's gut, even if they're not hitting the 35 foods per week, because we know that even an extra one or two can bring more bacteria diversity to the gut. it's like, okay, let's start there. Another stat, did you know that 90 % of serotonin is produced in the gut and serotonin is the feel-good hormone is a key neurotransmitter that regulates mood, sleep, behaviour. How many kids now are on melatonin to help them sleep?

Okay. Well, why don't we just focus a little bit more on gut health rather than just prescribing melatonin. Now I'm not saying that parents shouldn't give their child melatonin if it's needed. Absolutely. Again, I'm never here to shame parents into feeling bad about what they're prescribing or giving to their child. But I just feel like sometimes we need to talk a bit more about getting stripping it back and getting to the basics of gut health. Because if you understand the direct link between gut health and serotonin and sleep.

then that may negate the need for other supplements. So serotonin is produced mostly in the gut. If we can improve our child's gut health, then perhaps we can improve a lot of other things and lessen the need for medication. So it just highlights how gut health directly influences a child's emotional regulation and resilience. now the stat. Children with poorer gut diversity show more symptoms of anxiety and depression.

So this one was from Michels in 2019, brain behavior and immunity. And they found that lower gut microbial diversity in children is associated with increased symptoms of anxiety, sadness, and emotional dysregulation. So it fits with the previous study that I talked about in relation to serotonin and the feel-good hormone. Again, if we can improve our children's gut health, we can improve their tantrums, we can improve mood and a whole host of things that...

Often will again be medic head for, you go and see a psychologist or you, and then don't get me wrong, I highly value psychologists and all allied health professionals in the medical field. But sometimes if we focus a bit more on the basics and gut health, we can actually really make a change and lessen the need for medications and other medical treatment. Okay. I've got one more for you. I've got this one, which is really interesting. It's around mood score. So children who consume high fibre diets.

Why Fiber is the Ultimate Brain Food (11:46.99)
have better mood scores. Higher dietary fiber intake in children is correlated with better emotional wellbeing and reduced risk of behavioral issues. And this was published in Nutrients in 2021. And again, it just highlights that direct relationship between gut health and brain health. So there's some really cool geeky stats for you around gut health and brain health and emotions and mood and sleep. And I just hope it firms up for you.

the value of really intentionally trying to find one way to improve your child's gut health this week. And as I said, it starts when we're babies, but you can make all the difference by making changes now because any change you can do now will directly impact your child for the better. They've studied adults, they've studied, you know, all different ages and within weeks you can make significant improvements to gut health.

by dietary change. So that's the most important thing we can do is to feed our gut good food. Because at the end of the day, our gut health will be good if we feed it good food. And what is it's good food? It's good food is fiber. Okay. You'll hear sexy names for it called prebiotics and you'll see prebiotic this and prebiotic that and they'll put all sorts of prebiotics and phos and goss and inulin and everything into foods and say it's prebiotic and great for gut health.

the of the day, it's just a sexy name for dietary fiber. Just give your child more dietary fiber. It will feed the bugs. It will feed the good bugs. It means that the good bugs grow in popularity and it means that there's more positive messages going to your brain, better mood, better stability in terms of regulation and emotional control, less tantrums, better concentration, better focus, better health, better immune health. You know, everything will be better if we can start to feed the good microbes.

more yummy food and they munch on fiber for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And if you don't feed the gut microbes fiber, they will find food in the gut mucosal lining. And that's when you get a patchy gut because leaky gut and patchy guts come from the microbes having to find their own breakfast, lunch and dinner in the gut mucosal lining of the gastrointestinal tract in the gut. basically if I stopped eating all fiber,

How Fiber Protects the Gut Lining (14:09.036)
My gut microbes would start munching on food in my gut lining. And that's why it becomes leaky and patchy. And then that directly increases your chances of getting sick because that is one of the best ways that your body actually keeps all the bugs out. It has tight cell junctions. It has a thick mucous layer. So bugs can't get through the cells into the circulation and make you sick. You just poo them out, right? But if you've got a leaky gut and

Bugs are getting through the cracks into the circulation. You get sick more often. You also have increased risk of allergies and all sorts of diseases because your gut is not working as well as it could be or should be to protect you. And that's because your microbes are having to eat bits of your gut because you're not feeding it properly. Now this isn't the situation in every individual, but very often.

leaky gut can occur because of poor diet and you get more inflammation and then you get a vicious cycle. And that's why fiber is important. That's why you see books about fiber. That's why you see people talking about fiber. Now fiber is boring, right? I met a muscle and all those things. They're boring, but they help you poop better. But most importantly, we'll know that is very important. If you don't poop, you're not happy. But as importantly, fiber feeds our microbes and that keeps us happy and healthy.

Literally happy because it affects our brain and healthy because it's our immune system. So what are you going to do for your child this week? What are you going do for yourself this week? Focus on one thing. One thing that you can do to improve fibre today, this week, next week, start today if you can. Right. Whether it's you put some fruit next to breakfast, whether or not you swap to wholemeal bread instead of white bread. know, inside my membership, we talk about this all the time. I've got the power of fibre.

guide, like we've got everything that you need to boost your child's fiber intake. You've got all sorts of things in there to help you create a healthier child straight away. So if you want to find more information about that, just head to nourishwithkarina.com and you'll see it right there. But whilst you're doing that, I want you to think about one thing that you are doing today to increase your child's fiber intake. And while you're at it, do it to yourself as well, because it's going to help.

Easy Ways to Boost Your Family’s Fiber(16:25.376)
your fiber intake and it's going to help your gut health too. Now, if you've got a constipated child, then you need to be a little more intentional with the type of fiber. And again, I go into all of this detail inside my membership and my programs, which is all in the same place, because sometimes increasing insoluble fiber in someone who's constipated will make more concrete. Okay. You need enough fluid in there as well. So you have to sometimes be specific.

with the types of fiber that you're adding. Now I do still offer online consultations and help families who have children with constipation that they just can't shake. Like it's just going on and on and on. And so if you have a child like that, then head to my website, nourishedwithkarina.com, click on the consult button, and you could find out more information there. But, just send me a message online on Instagram or send me the email hello at nourishedwithkarina.com because sometimes private consultations can be very helpful.

to really dial in on what's going on and make a clear path forward that will actually make a difference and get them off bowel medication. But otherwise, if you're wanting to know how you can make a real difference to your child and your family's health, as I said, that's all they're waiting for. You just have to head to my website, nursewithkarina.com and you'll see how to access my platform there, which has got my programs, my guides.

You know, me in their private Q and A, we've got a very supportive set up there for you just to know exactly what to do. So whether you're driving the car at the moment or walking the dog or, you know, washing the dishes, have a think about one thing that you're going to do today. Is it adding fruit at breakfast? Is it changing the bread? Is it popping in a teaspoon of chia into a smoothie? Is it adding lentils to a pasta? Is it putting in an extra bit of capsicum on the dinner plate or into the lunchbox? Have a think about one thing that will be

doable for you today. don't want you think, yeah, it'd be great to get Karina's recipe book and start making your recipes. Yeah, that'd be great too. But do something that's easy today. Okay. Crack open a tin of peas at dinner time or baked beans and pop them on the dinner plate. Anything that you can do that's really easy. It has to be easy. When you're trying to change things, make new habits or make better habits, it's got to be easy and doable. So think about the easiest thing that will

Geeking Out Over Kids' Gut Health (18:43.266)
Be possible for you to do today or tomorrow, ideally today, to improve fibre intake in your household and start there. And that's my little gift from you today. And know that that will start the journey towards better gut health because any increase in fibre feeds those microbes, keeps the microbiome happier. And that means that the messages that go to the brain and the body are even better and happier. And the whole system works better.

which means less doctors visits for you. So there you have it. There's my little geeky gut episode. I could talk for days on this topic. So you're lucky I've captured it that amount of time. But yeah, look, if you ever want to talk about gut health with me, yeah, send me a message and I'd love to chat more. I wish you a beautiful week and I can't wait to chat with you again soon. and please leave me a review. If you're loving these podcasts, just please hit the star rating and leave me a quick review. It just helps to get this podcast out to more parents. Take care. Bye for now.