Episode 27: Gut Health in Kids

Episode 27: Gut Health in Kids

Welcome to The Easy Feed Podcast, Episode 27, where we dive deep into the fascinating world of Gut Health in Kids. Today's topic is close to my heart as a gut health enthusiast!

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Links
https://nourishwithkarina.com/feedingbabies
https://nourishwithkarina.com/3-week-feeding-kids-reset

Highlights:

Introduction (00:00.462)
Gut Geek's Passion and Interest (00:29.518)
Gut Health Importance and Importance (02:47.054)
Understanding the Importance of Gut Microbiome in Infants (04:51.502)
Gut Microbiome and Infant Health (07:11.246)
Understanding Gut Health in Children (09:35.31)
Understanding and Addressing Child Tummy Problems (11:59.214)
Improving Children's Gut Health (14:21.038)
Understanding Gut Health and Fiber (16:44.142)
Increasing Fiber and Prebiotics in Children's Lunchboxes (18:43.726)
Nutritional Benefits of Herbs and Probiotics (20:57.006)
Gut Health in Babies and Children (23:16.91)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

Welcome to The Easy Feed Podcast, Episode 27, where we dive deep into the fascinating world of Gut Health in Kids. Today's topic is close to my heart as a gut health enthusiast!

In this episode, we'll explore
1. The Gut as the Center of Health: Understanding why gut health is crucial for overall well-being, including digestion, immunity, and even mood regulation.

2. Factors Influencing Baby's Gut: This section delves into the critical first 1,000 days of a child's life and how factors like birth mode, feeding choices, and environmental influences shape their gut microbiome.

3. Recognizing Symptoms of Poor Gut Health: Learning to identify signs such as colic, reflux, constipation, and food allergies that indicate potential gut issues in children.

4. Strategies for Improving Gut Health: Practical tips and dietary approaches to boost children's gut health, including incorporating fiber-rich foods, probiotics, herbs, and spices into their diet.

5. Addressing Concerns and Seeking Support: Empowering parents to seek professional advice and navigate through potential gut health challenges their children may face.

If you're a mum navigating the intricacies of your child's health or simply curious about fostering a healthier gut environment for your little ones, this episode is for you.

Learn more about my membership program, head over to: https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Introduction (00:00.078)
You're listening to the Easy Feed Podcast, episode number 27, Gut Health in Kids.

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.

Gut Geek's Passion and Interest (00:29.518)
Welcome back everybody. So good to have you here. I am loving this topic today because well, I love all my topics, but I love this one in particular because it's all about the gut and I am a gut geek. I always have been ever since year nine biology. I remember just being in complete awe of the gastrointestinal tract. I remember sitting there. I still remember the room I was in sitting there with a picture, a diagram of

the small intestine in front of me. This sounds so geeky, but it was a picture of the small intestine and it was all the different nutrients and hearts of the intestine where different nutrients were absorbed, adjusted and absorbed. And yeah, I don't know. I've just always loved it. It's so interesting. And I did a sports science degree to start with, and then I went on to do nutrition, but to...

get into the nutrition degree, nutrition diatetics, I had to do extra biochemistry. And I loved it because again, it was all to do with, you know, the chemistry around biology and the, and a lot of it was to do with, you know, the gut. Well, a lot of it applies to the gut. So anyway, I'm excited about today's topic. I hope you are. And it's a really, really important thing to discuss because...

All of us, our gut health is the centre of our systemic health. It really is the centre of our universe in terms of how we feel, whether we're going to get sick more often or less often, how we metabolise things, the messages that go from our gut to our brain. Did you know that we share 40 % of the same

neurotransmitters in the gut as our brain. So that whole trust your gut, it's not just, you know, an old wives thing. It's actually legitimate. Trusting your gut. Your gut is like your second brain and the more and more, look, I started being fanatical about the gut. Yeah. Many years ago, I'm not even going to tell you my age right now. But anyway, I've been working now for, I think it's my 22nd year and

Gut Health Importance and Importance (02:47.054)
My first 10 years was in the Women's and Children's Hospital and I was the gastro dietician, I was the gut dietician because the gut is so important. And anyway, I think you get my drift, but the gut is truly phenomenal because it plays that critical role in digesting and absorbing food. But more than that, it's the microbial balance. It's the bacteria, the populations of bacteria.

will make or break our health. Like if we've got heaps of bad bacteria in our gut, we feel terrible. We're bloating, we've constipation, we feel yuck. If we have good balance of bacteria and good bacteria in our gut, we feel amazing. We digest food, we're a healthier weight. There's so much linked between our gut health and our overall health, our weight, our mood. It's phenomenal. So it plays a huge role in our immunity, up to 70 % of our immune system.

And our immune function is in our gut. So if you've ever heard of leaky gut, and I'm kind of jumping ahead at the moment, but that's okay. If you've ever heard of leaky gut, it's where the cells in the gut are not joined together tightly. We don't have tight cell junctions in the gut. And then we get leaky gut. So stuff gets through into our system. And that leaky gut then means we get sick more often. So most of our immune function is in our gut, which is why we always...

which is why we need to be focusing on our gut and gut health so much, and especially for our children, because we want our little gems to be healthy. We don't want to have to take days off work, taking them to the doctor or having them home sick. And we don't want them to feel yuck. Like we don't want them to be sick and we don't want to be having sleepless nights, shoving Pananol and Neurofin into them either because they're sick. So for a whole host of reasons, we want everyone in the family to be healthy.

and it all comes back to our gut.

Understanding the Importance of Gut Microbiome in Infants (04:51.502)
So if we start with the first 1000 days, because you might've heard this around the traps, you might've heard, you know, the first 1000 days is so important. It really is because that first couple of years when the baby's gut is developing and the microbial kind of communities are consolidating, that is crucial. That really puts a health stamp on your baby for life.

That's a pretty big, you know, call, but it's the truth. Okay. So how your baby is born, you know, how your baby is fed. There's so many different things. I mean, we can go into the different factors that influence your baby's gut microbiome now, but there's so many things that influence about how your baby ends up at around the age of three in terms of their gut microbiome. Cause about by the age of three, your

child's gut becomes a bit more adult -like and the microbial communities are kind of a lot more established and stabilized. So where they end up at the age of three will really then dictate their future health outcomes. 100 % their risk of allergies, their risk of bowel disease, their risk of all sorts of conditions, including obesity. So the first thousand days is crucial. It starts when your baby is in utero. So

The mum's diet, the mum's health, the mum's gut microbiome and genetics will influence the baby's gut microbiome. Then when the baby's born, whether you're born cesarean, out of the sun roof, we say, versus normal vaginal delivery. Well, I shouldn't say normal because look, I was a C -section baby. As long as your baby comes out healthy, that's the most important thing, right? Sometimes you can't help. There's so many emergency C -sections, so there's no judgment whatsoever. As I said, I'm a C -section baby. As long as they come out healthy, that's important.

most important thing, but it does influence their gut microbiome and definitely C -section babies do have an increased risk of allergies and whatnot. So it plays a role. I've just got to say it. Then whether they're breastfed or formula fed will influence how much the good bacteria is growing in their gut. Breastfed babies tend to have more bifidobacteria, which is a good thing. It's protective. Then antibiotic exposure will have a massive influence on your baby's gut microbiome. Now I see lots and lots of babies with

Gut Microbiome and Infant Health (07:11.246)
Colic reflux calves, I studied them when I was, I worked as a research dietician for a while up in the gastro department, I worked with the allergist and we studied babies with gut issues and yeah, they've got different balance of good and bad bacteria and often they have a poorer gut microbiome. A colicky, so we know that colicky, irritable babies often have what we call a dysbiosis, an imbalance of good and bad bugs. So it really starts early on in life and

When there's other factors that influence a child's gut microbiome, so whether they have a sibling or not, if they've got siblings, they tend to have a better gut microbiome. If they are on a farm, they have a better gut microbiome. If they're around poo, they have a better gut microbiome. If they have dogs, they have a better gut microbiome. So there's all these different factors, environmental factors, genetic factors, mode of birth, milk feeds.

All of these different factors that can influence the development of a baby's gut and immune function. And really, as I said, put a health stamp on them for later on in life. So it's really, you know, if you're listening to me and you're pregnant, then try to tick some boxes. And I'm not saying you need to go out and buy a dog or move to the farm, but you know, there are certain factors that can improve your baby's gut microbiome and breastfeeding definitely helps that if you can breastfeed.

reducing or avoiding antibiotics. Again, sometimes you've just got to have them if, you know, it's, you'd rather keep your baby healthy and alive and give them antibiotics, but if they don't need to have them, then keep them away. And when you start solids, giving them healthy foods that are fiber rich, that are nutritious, is also going to support good gut health and gut growth and development of those good bacteria. I'll talk a bit more about probiotics later, but there's certainly a case for probiotics in babies that are perhaps...

born by a caesarean section that are developing gut issues or colicky irritability issues or reflux issues or that have a pre -existing allergy. It's definitely a role for certain probiotics in that situation. So we'll talk about that a little more later. But let's start off with what are some of the symptoms of poor gut health in children? Well, as I just said, with babies, poor gut health will definitely increase irritability.

Understanding Gut Health in Children (09:35.31)
prioncolic, and they usually have weaker immune systems so they can often get sick more often, develop food allergies. Also, eczema can also come with that food allergy profile. And then as they move into toddlerhood, we often see sore tummies. So we will often see a runny poo, often sometimes called, I should say, in the olden days when I was starting my career. Probably it's still...

called this sometimes, a toddler diarrhea, otherwise now known as carbohydrate malabsorption or intolerance. But yeah, very, very common in little ones. We see a lot of food allergies and children will either suffer pain, discomfort, bloating, irritability, their sleep is affected, their behavior is affected. Sometimes they're super constipated. I've seen heaps of little ones that are constipated. So we can see a whole lot of

symptoms of poor gut health and they can range from explosive loose bowel actions in babies and get blood in the poo. There's a whole range of gut issues in children and then teenagers we have IBS kind of creeping in there which includes bloating, tummy pain, reflux, lethargy, brain fog, causing. Some also experience urgent loose bowel actions which can be quite debilitating because you know they're trying to go to school.

So there's some of the symptoms and sometimes it's hard because, you know, when you're anxious or nervous, you can get a funny tummy as well and, you know, have to run to the toilet. So sometimes it is hard to differentiate between what is, you know, just perhaps a food intolerance or, you know, a true gut issue compared to an anxious child. Which leads me on to my next question. How do I know if my child has tummy problems?

Well, if you suspect something is up, it could be because one in five young children experience gut issues. And it can be the sloppier poos, it can be the little ones with, you know, bloating and potbellies, and it can be those that get completely clogged up. Or it can be those that just get tummy pain. And it's, as I said, hard to work out what's going on, but really you've just got to work through a process of elimination.

Understanding and Addressing Child Tummy Problems (11:59.214)
And we need to really be smart about how we do it because you don't really want to be taking out whole food groups unless you really have to. A cleverly designed, targeted dietary approach will usually provide the best outcomes there because you want to tailor the plan according to what you think the actual problem is. And so this plan could be increasing fibre and fluid in a constipated child.

It could be reducing particular types of carbohydrates or fruits that may be causing the runs, or it might be avoiding particular food proteins in the case of allergy or blood in the poo in a baby, or it might be trialing specific probiotics. So the solution will really be specific to what we think the underlying cause is. And sometimes it's really hard to work out the underlying cause. And sometimes doctors

find it tricky because doctors are jack of all trades. They've got to be knowledgeable in all these different areas to do with from, you know, the head to the toe basically. And sometimes they're not specialized enough in gut issues in children to be able to truly help a parent whose child really has tummy problems. So if you suspect your child has tummy problems and

you know, just the standard, you know, increasing fruit, vegetables and water isn't helping. Then I would seek more professional advice because, you know, I see so many parents and they're like, I got fobbed off for so many years from doctors or other specialists just saying they'll go out of it. They'll be right here. Have some laxatives, but that's just a band -aid treatment. So if you can truly get to that, and I'm going to say, pardon the pun here, but bottom of it and have an actual fixed.

to addresses the root underlying cause of the issues, then you're going to be home and home and you're not going to be reliant on medications for years and years and years. So if you're thinking that, so if this is resonating with you, then please reach out to me, send me a message on Instagram, send me an email because I specialize in gut. I already work out how to specialize in kids with gut issues.

Improving Children's Gut Health (14:21.038)
changing the way that your child's gut is and improving their gut health and getting rid of pain and like they're debilitating sort of running to the toilet or excruciating pain when they try to do a poop. You can get rid of that for a child and the stress relief that you see in that family and the parents is massive. So if you need some help, please reach out. So another question that I commonly get asked or write blogs about

is what are your top tips for improving children's gut health? So my answer to start off with is that we can boost our children's immune system and gut health by making sure that they eat plenty of plant foods on a daily basis. So this is the number one. If you want to do something today for your child's gut health, let's try and increase their intake of plant foods because what that does is that feeds the gut microbes.

It populates, it grows the communities of good bacteria, which keeps their system healthy, which keeps their brains healthy, which keeps everything working well. So if you want to do one thing today, then you add extra veggies or extra fruits or extra nuts or extra oats into their day to try and boost their fibre. If we're regularly including foods such as fruits, vegetables, oats,

rainy things, nuts, seeds, and legumes. So if you can add lentils into a bolognese, if you can add in chickpeas or mash chickpeas into something, or, you know, if you're a member of mine using my black bean brownie recipe, if you can get those into your child's day more often, then you will be feeding their gut bugs. And that in turn, as I said, makes those cell junctions in the gut nice and tight. And when cell junctions are nice and tight, it's like...

two houses that have been built on the fence line, but basically jammed together, right? So they're jammed together. So there's actually no fence. They're jammed together. Nothing can get through. Viruses can't get through. Nothing can get through those two brick walls that have been jammed together. Whereas if they've been built, say on the fence line and you've got, you know, a bit of daylight that you can see between those two walls, then stuff can get through. It can get through between those cells.

Understanding Gut Health and Fiber (16:44.142)
They can get into the circulation and it can make you sick. And that's what a leaky gut is. I hope that's been a good analogy. I sort of literally just made it up then, but I hope that made sense. So you really want the walls jammed together. You don't want them apart. And that's where fiber comes in because fiber feeds the gut microbes and it keeps those cells nice and tight. What it also does is it helps produce a thick mucus layer.

over those cells. And again, that adds as another layer of protection. Okay, so we want to feed them fiber rich food. A sexy name for this fiber rich food is prebiotics. So if you ever hear prebiotics or you see a food or you're paying a squillion dollars for something that's got prebiotics in it, it's just a sexy name for fiber, right? So feeding your kids plenty of different colored fruits and vegetables, not only give them these prebiotics, but

Plants provide a powerful source of nutrition through antioxidants, polyphenols, biochemicals and other bioactive compounds. So these nutrients are often found just under the skin, such as in an apple. And what biochemicals are is that they're actually the plant's natural immune defense against its own disease. So plants have biochemicals to keep them alive as their own immune system and immune defense.

But when we eat them, then we get a benefit from them as well. So that's awesome, right? So it's like mother nature looking after mother nature. So plants looking after us. So if we eat more plants, we're going to get all these valuable nutrients, phytochemicals, polyphenols. And really it's going to then nurture our insides more than just feeding the microbiome. It's going to give us valuable nutrition. If you can choose whole grains more often, so

breads and cereals going for a higher wholemeal or wholegrain content, that's going to offer more fiber.

Increasing Fiber and Prebiotics in Children's Lunchboxes (18:43.726)
Nuts and seeds are a brilliant way to increase fiber. So whether you use peanut butter or cashew nut butter at home, or whether you can use nuts like crushed nuts that we sprinkled on Pad Thai last night, or whether you can, I put a couple of big dollops of peanut butter into my saute sauce that I make, or adding nuts into a stir fry, like throwing in some cashews or just giving kids a bowl of mixed nuts.

or seeds, you can send seeds to school. So you can also put them in like bars and whatnot and send them to school. Again, I've got heaps of recipes in my membership for increasing fiber and increasing prebiotics in your child's lunchbox because the more we can add it in throughout the day, the more their overall daily average increases. And that's only going to help them. Not only are nuts and seeds loaded with fiber and protein,

They're also loaded with healthy fats and other valuable nutrients such as zinc and iron, which often kids are missing. Okay. So the next thing that's beneficial to our children is herbs and spices. So these are underrated gems. Herbs are loaded with antioxidants. So you can add them into anything. You could add some top parsley onto scrambled eggs. You can get a pizza base and put some pizza sauce on there.

sprinkle extra oregano on. You could do fresh or dried. I think dried is probably easier to hide. And then put the cheese on if they're like a plain cheese pizza kind of kid. You can do cinnamon in porridge. You can make cheese and herbs scones. You can put rosemary on roast potatoes. So I will chop up the potatoes, leave the skin on and then do lots of extra virgin olive oil, rosemary and a little bit of salt if you want.

You can do oregano and basil in pasta sauce. So that's another great tip is just to finely chop it up and chuck it in the pasta sauce and let it sort of dissolve in. You can make pizza scrolls with herbs. So you just get puff pastry with tomato paste, herbs, cheese, roll them up, cut them into scrolls. Another really great snack or lunch, depending on the age of your child, but they love those types of foods. And again, you're adding valuable nutrition through herbs.

Nutritional Benefits of Herbs and Probiotics (20:57.006)
Herbs are really high in antioxidants and they're very good for you as are spices. So adding in cumin or paprika wherever possible just to add some extra flavour, but also lots of nutrition. If your little one's a bit unwell and you want to boost their immune system, then chicken soup or broth has been shown to have anti -inflammatory properties. And there are other foods that have been shown to reduce inflammation alongside of, you know, fruit and veg, such as turmeric, garlic, ginger.

and vitamin C rich fruits such as citrus oranges and whatnot. So those foods have also been shown to have extra immune benefits. Okay, moving on to probiotics. So when I was talking earlier about babies with food allergies, there is good evidence for babies with food allergies or babies born by cesarean section.

to have the LGG probiotic and what that is, is the Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG. Okay, so it's just written as LGG. So in a six month old, about five to 10 billion is a good dose. In a five year old, 10 billion is still a good dose, but you could go 10 to 15 billion. In a teenager, again, 10 to 15, perhaps 20, but

Really around that 10 billion, you could say is fine for most children sort of not teenagers around 10 billion. So if you want just a number in your head about 10 billion is good of the LGG probiotic. And that would be the number one probiotic of choice for pretty much any issue with children's guts, but pretty much any issue with your child's guts. So if.

For example, your child has a food allergy and they're a baby, then I would look at giving only around that 5 billion LGG per day. But if they were four and they were getting sick a lot and they're at childcare, there's definitely studies suggesting that the LGG probiotic given to children going to daycare or childcare helps reduce the frequency and duration of sickness. And so you would aim for about the 10 billion LGG there.

Gut Health in Babies and Children (23:16.91)
So it definitely can boost gut health in those who get sick a lot and definitely in those that have gut issues or have been hit by lots of antibiotics. So if your child has to have antibiotics, you would generally double the dose of the probiotic that you're giving them. And again, that LGG probiotic has been shown to be one of the best ones to prevent the negative associated effects of antibiotics, which could be nausea, can be runny poos.

The other probiotic that's also been shown to be beneficial is called Sb, floor active, so Saccharomyces boulardii is its full name. And that's another good one for antibiotics. But yeah, the LGG is a good one to keep it simple. You can also get probiotics in other forms. So you can get it in the form of yogurt or yogurt drinks, kombucha, you've got sauerkraut. So you do have other food forms, but in terms of

helping outgrow allergies and whatnot, the studies are showing that you really need a higher dose of a specific strain and that's when you would take the supplement. Okay, if you've got other gut related questions for me, please send me a message, give me your gut related health question and I will certainly include it on the list for my next podcast when I talk about gut issues next. I do have a awesome bonus module inside my membership.

all about gut health, microbiome, nutrients. And that's just a bonus module that I give to moms inside my membership. So if you're interested in joining, it's $29 a month. It's open now. And I would love to welcome you. You can, once you're in for the first month, you can actually cancel at any time if it's not for you. But I think you'll find that it's super beneficial. We catch up regularly every month. We chat in the Facebook group pretty much daily. It's a, it's an awesome support for feeding kids.

So if you're interested, then head to my website, nourishwithkarina .com forward slash membership, or check out the link in the show notes. So I will wrap it up there. I hope that's been a helpful little 101 on gut health in babies and children. And as I said, if you've got any concerns about your child, please reach out. If you've got anything you want me to discuss in future episodes, please let me know. I wish you a beautiful week and take care. Bye for now.