Gut Health in Kids: Antibiotics, Parasites, Microbiome Red Flags & What Parents Can Do with Dr. Song | Ep. 135

0:00The gut microbiome is the foundation of pretty much everything that's going on with your kids, no matter how old they are. Whether we're dealing with a health concern or whether our kids are doing great and we're just thinking ahead to, how do I make sure that they continue to thrive and optimize their health? So, for instance, we know that any disruption to the gut microbiome very early in life could increase your child's risk of developing things like eczema, asthma, food allergies, which are so common these days, or disruption to the gut microbiome early in life or even later in life can increase the risk of things like anxiety or ADHD symptoms.

0:36Constant cold in the earaches gets kind of replaced by some of the more behavioral, socio-emotional attention and focus concerns. But all of that relates to the health of the gut microbiome, which is why I love talking about this.

0:54Learning To Mom:Hi, it's Layla, your official mom friend. Welcome back to the best podcast on motherhood because you get to be encouraged and supported on hard topics with actual tangible tips without being overwhelmed. I'm so dang glad you found us mom friend. This podcast does tend to lean a little bit on the crunchy and holistic side. We love screen-free play, barefoot outside adventures, and always questioning the status quo, asking ourselves if something is truly the best choice for our families or if it's just today's cultural norm. So if that sounds like your vibe, you're going to love it here. Welcome in.

1:29Learning To Mom:Each expert guest comes with their own perspective and background, so please note that the content presented in this podcast is designed for general educational purposes only and is not a substitute for personalized professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Dr. Song, welcome to the Learning to Mom podcast. Thanks so much for having me. I'm really excited. As I talked about, we have hinted about gut microbiome before on previous episodes. So I'm really excited for an episode dedicated to this. But before we get into all of that, can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and what Helping Kids Happy Kids is all about?

2:04So I am an integrated pediatrician. What that means is that I have a conventional pediatric educational background and training. I trained at, well, I did my undergrad at Stanford, trained at NYU Medical School and did my pediatrics residency at UCSF. So that was my foundation. But I've always, from the time I was in medical school, really been drawn to a more holistic way of looking at kids' health and overall kids thriving. And so after residency, I actually went and did a whole ton of additional education in functional medicine, homeopathy, nutrition, essential oils, herbal medicine, acupuncture.

2:46And so I integrate all of that into my practice and how I approach kids because there is no one size fits all approach to our kids. We all know, even if we have multiple kids, they are so unique and different and whatever is going on with them and how we can help them thrive into amazing adult is going to be a different path. So I love being able to offer that to the Healthy Kids, Happy Kids audience. and to moms everywhere. So neat.

3:12Learning To Mom:Okay, let's talk about the gut microbiome. What is it, first of all, and then we'll get into why it's important. So the gut microbiome to me is the foundation of pretty much everything that's going on with your kids, no matter how old they are, whether we're dealing with the health concern or whether our kids are doing great and we're just thinking ahead to how do I make sure that they continue to thrive and optimize their health. So the gut microbiome is this ecosystem. It's a microscopic ecosystem inside of your gut, and it is comprised of trillions and trillions of microscopic organisms. Many of them are bacteria, and we know a lot of these if you take probiotics or give probiotics to your baby.

3:56They can be called lactobacillus or bifidobacteria, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. We have so many different bacteria. We even have some amounts of yeast and viruses, maybe even some parasites that all make up this microbiome. Now, the health of your microbiome really determines how your baby's immune system develops, how their gut-brain connection develops when they're older. And we're thinking about our preteen tweens who are going through puberty, even how they're experiencing these hormonal shifts. So for instance, we know that any disruption to the gut microbiome very early in life could increase your child's risk of developing things like eczema, asthma, food allergies, which are so common these days.

4:42Or disruption to the gut microbiome early in life or even later in life can increase the risk of things like anxiety or ADHD symptoms. Constant cold in the earaches gets kind of replaced by some of the more behavioral, socio-emotional, attention and focus concerns. But all of that relates to the health of the gut microbiome, which is why I love talking about this.

5:06Learning To Mom:So what impacts the gut microbiome? Is it only diet? So that's such a great question. When our babies are born, a lot of the influence of their early gut microbiome has to do with the health of our own as moms, our gut and vaginal microbiomes when they're born, how they're born. So if they were born by C-section or vaginal delivery or how they were fed in those very early days, whether they were breastfed or formula fed. Now, we know that babies who were born by C-section or who were formula fed early on, that shifts how their microbiome develops and might lead to an increased risk of certain later health conditions.

5:47I'm going to step back because some of that we don't have any control over, right? I mean, we may not have had control over whether we received antibiotics when we were pregnant or whether we needed a C-section birth. So yes, we know that that can increase the risk early on. However, after our babies are born, pretty much the rest of how their microbiome gets shaped is under our control and under our child's control as they get older. So we have so much power. Diet plays a huge role. Once babies are born and they start solid, diet can influence up to 25 to even almost close to 50 % of your child's gut microbiome.

6:25So even if they had a lot of antibiotics, which we're going to talk about, or a lot of factors that maybe disrupted their gut microbiome, we can shift their gut microbiome to a more resilient, healthy one. We also know that the microbiome of those around us who we live with can really influence It's about maybe 25 % of our microbiome. So even once we're older, I'm always about the family, like moms, dads, primary caretakers. If grandma's in the house and going to be the one primarily watching the kids during the day, we want to make sure it's a family fair and everyone's microbiomes are healthy because then we all thrive together.

7:06Learning To Mom:So then as the adults, as the mom, the dad, the grandmas, the caretakers, how do you know if your gut microbiome is healthy or not? Well, so that points to how do you even know if your kid's microbiome is healthy or not, right? Because oftentimes when we have a microbiome issue or a gut health issue, oftentimes there's no gut symptoms. Now, if your child is struggling with constipation, chronic diarrhea, frequent tummy aches, or reflux, or if you have those as an adult, I can assume that your microbiome is disrupted, right? But that's if you have gut symptoms. If there's not, like if your babies have perfect poops, then what we're looking at are other signs that the microbiome is affecting different organ systems.

7:57The health of your microbiome has ripple effects on virtually every single organ system in our body. So if your kiddo has really rough, you know, kind of that chicken skin keratosis pilaris, right, or eczema, or let's say they're starting to wheeze every time they have a cold. They're starting to develop signs of allergies. Or maybe they were really colicky as a baby, and now they're just kind of more fussy, hard to settle down. or as they become toddlers, you're noticing, oh, wow, are these behaviors normal toddler behaviors? Or is this something that I have to just watch for and learn how to support them better?

8:35All of that we know, behaviors, your likelihood of catching colds and recovering quickly from colds, skin health, all of that is related to the gut microbiome.

8:48Learning To Mom:Wow. Wow. If you're the kind of mom who likes to understand the why behind what you do, this is for you. Because the mom club on Patreon isn't only about giving you extra content, even though holy cow, there's a lot of it that the mom club members have access to. But it's also a place to really learn, grow, and feel more confident in your decisions. You get the full, uncut Learning to Mom podcast episodes. That's 15 to 30 more minutes every week. Plus, an extra exclusive episode every month. You get access to our monthly book club and the absolute sweetest community of like-minded moms who love learning together.

9:29Learning To Mom:So come join me at learningtomompodcast.com slash join. The links in the show notes below. We'll grab our coffee, sit down on the couch just like we would do if we were together and dig deeper. I love you and I can't wait to become real mom friends with you inside the Learning to Mom Podcast, Mom Club on Patreon. The link's in the show notes below. So how do we, yeah, how do we improve? Let's say one or multiple of those symptoms really resonate with us listening. What do we do? Yeah. Well, one of the things that I like to do is if you have the opportunity, I actually do like to test the gut microbiome.

10:09Is that just by a stool test? A poop test. Yeah. It's a simple poop test because I can suspect that there's an imbalance going on, whether it's in mom or baby. Now, if babies are nursing, I'd love to also test mama's microbiome. I mean, not just for baby's sake, but also I want to make sure moms are as healthy as possible, right? Now, with a simple swab of a poop sample, I can then look inside your baby's poop. I mean, not me literally, but the lab, right? And identify, are there enough of the good bacteria? Or are they missing some very important bacteria? Are there too much of the not such good bacteria?

10:51Or do they have things like too much yeast or parasites? And also, how is their microbiome functioning? Are they creating? You know, what a lot of people don't realize is your microbiota. So these are the bacteria in your gut. But the good guys actually make so many compounds for our health, including many of our B vitamins, vitamin K, many of our neurotransmitters or, quote, brain chemicals are actually gut chemicals like serotonin that helps us feel calm and is stressed, relaxed. In a baby, it can help them feel just a little bit more, you know, not be as kind of wired all the time. melatonin.

11:33Our gut makes 400 times the melatonin than our brain does. And so that relies on having a healthy gut microbiome, which is why when we're thinking about brain health or behavioral issues or even immune issues, those are gut health issues. Those are times where we have to look at the gut. Now, that being said, not everyone is going to have access to a gut health test, But what we can do is change, for instance, how we're feeding them, right? That's really important. I mean, diet plays such a huge role. If in the early stages, your baby is needing some formula, whether it's exclusively formula or supplemented with formula, one thing that formula tends to have less of than in breast milk is something called HMOs or human milk oligosaccharides.

12:23These are the sugars found in breast milk that exclusively feed the beneficial bifidobacteria species. Because we've also seen with microbiome testing over the decades and even over this past century, we know that even adults are gradually losing the amount of bifidobacteria that they have. This bifidobacteria is really important for brain and immune health. So that's one thing, right? This is like, let's go through the age span, right? So now we're talking about from the moment that you're born. Now, what about when they're starting solids, right? That's a whole new world, right? It can be super fun, super messy, all the things, right?

13:00And one of the things that we really want to focus on as we're introducing solids to babies, first of all, I can't emphasize enough the importance of variety. Okay, we know that variety in the first two years of life can significantly decrease the risk of food allergies from developing. And the problem of anaphylactic food allergies has really – I trained in medical school in the late 90s, finished my residency in 2000. So I've been at this for a really long time. And it's astonishing to me how much anaphylactic food allergies and the need for EpiPens has increased in our babies, right? Yes. And it's scary, right?

13:42It's so scary as a parent and for that child growing up. So we know now that introduction of a wide variety of foods, even allergenic foods early on in the first 12 to 24 months of life decreases the risk of your child developing food allergies. So lots of variety. That's one thing. But when it comes to their microbiome, we want to make sure that they're getting a variety of plant-based foods. Your microbiome, all the beneficial bugs in your gut, they feed on plants. They feed on fiber, right? So a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds. Of course, you guys have toddler kids.

14:22We're making sure we're not doing any choking hazards. But those have the fibers, all the different kinds of fibers that the different beneficial bacteria in your gut need. Phytonutrients is color. And each of the different colors, it actually really makes a difference, the colors. And then fermented foods. I don't want to forget about fermented foods because that is something that a lot of families don't get enough of. And in almost every culture around the world, I'm not going to say every because I don't know every culture, but, you know, any culture that I can think of, there's a fermented food that's really, you know, historically a foundational food.

15:02So I mean, I'm Korean, there's kimchi, right? There's, you know, in Germany, there's sauerkraut and there's yogurt, which actually, interestingly, you know, where yogurt originated from is up for debate, right? But, you know, but there's so many different kinds of fermented foods and fermented foods have been found to actually support a wide variety and growth of your microbiome, maybe even a little better than fiber. So we need all of it. And so your baby, you know, just giving a little tiny spoonful of sauerkraut juice or, you know, getting some coconut kefir and giving them a little bit of kefir to drink or, you know, chopping up sauerkraut really fine and mixing it in with their ground turkey and their zucchini or whatever you're feeding them for dinner.

15:50It's going to go such a long way in supporting their microbiome. So it's thinking about the foods we want to really try to get in. And then as they get older, it really goes to what foods do we want to keep out, which we can talk about separately. But that's, you know, it's right around the corner. I know it seems like it's so far away, but, you know, it's right around the corner for toddler parents when your kids are going to be out and about with, you know, at their friends' homes or even buying their own foods, making their own food choices where you're not in control anymore. So it's educating them on how to continue to feed their microbiomes.

16:24Learning To Mom:Interrupting this week's episode real quick for this week's segment of MomMail. If you're new here, this is the part of the show where I answer a listener submitted situation or scenario. Basically, you write in your tricky situation and I give you advice only a real mom friend would give. Here's the email we're answering today. Hi, Layla. Thanks for being my mom friend. And on that, I'm needing advice about a friend. Long story short, I have a very close friend who I used to talk to all the time. But since I've had kids, things feel off. She's been distant, doesn't ask to hang out very much anymore, and I often find out she's hanging out with other people but never invites me.

17:03Learning To Mom:She still doesn't have kids, so maybe she thinks I'm just too busy to hang out anymore, but I really miss her. She hasn't done anything mean, but I feel excluded and kind of replaced. Any advice? Thank you for everything. I'm a huge fan. Ah, friend. My heart hurts. friendships are so tricky and so hard and then I feel like you enter parenthood and they just kind of get they get even harder so I'm so sorry honestly I think you should just have an open and honest conversation like if this is a close friend of yours I think you should just literally like plan a Saturday don't bring the kids so you can have your undivided attention grab coffee with her and just be like here's the situation I'm a mom and I don't have as much time as I used to for social things but this is a friendship that I still really want to prioritize I love you I miss you I've been feeling left out I just I think that this this sounds like a friendship that you're willing to fight for and I do think you bring up a good point of her not having kids.

18:14Learning To Mom:So she might just feel like, you know, you might not want to hang out anymore. Or maybe she just is kind of like, I don't know if we have anything to talk to about anymore. So I think just having an open and honest conversation about it is going to make you feel a lot better. And I know it would suck for her to be like, you know, actually, I just don't want to hear anything kid related. And I know that's like, you're a mom now, and it's probably not going to be possible when it's like, yeah, well, this kid is my whole freaking world and I'm going to do a lot of talking. So then it might end up being like a friendship breakup, which would suck.

18:49Learning To Mom:I'm not going to lie. But I also think that if you don't have an intervention and have a conversation that comes from a place of grace, then the friendship is headed towards a breakup anyway. So like it's right now it's there's going to be a friendship breakup, even if it's not official. But if you don't at least have that conversation, then that's what's definitely going to happen, but you can help save it by having that conversation. And who knows, like maybe she's just in a phase or maybe she's actually really hungry to be like, maybe she's begging God for a kid and he's not giving it to her.

19:29Learning To Mom:And so maybe seeing you as just triggering or really hard, like I would just have an open, honest conversation because maybe it's really not about you. And maybe she's just really, she just really needs a friend right now, or just doesn't want to be reminded of motherhood all the time because that's really painful for her. You just never know. But I would say that I think this is a friendship worth fighting for. So rooting for you for that conversation. Good luck. Now, if you're looking for advice, email me at learningtomompodcast.mommail at gmail.com with the subject line, Mom Mail. And then keep your ears open because we might just answer it on an upcoming episode.

20:06Learning To Mom:Well, now I have to ask, what are the foods that we need to kick to the curb? Oh, well, so I mean, I think most people listening to this podcast and now, I mean, recognize, okay, we don't want the artificial dyes and the colors and the preservatives. Let's be a hero for our gut microbiome. And I talk about creating microbiome magic every day with not just food, but how we're living too, all the different things that we have in our control every day, because that then gives us the power to say, okay, maybe, I mean, let's take, for instance, maybe there's anxiety that runs in the family. Or maybe, you know, there's, you know, everyone in the family has asthma or everyone in the family gets diabetes, you know, type two diabetes.

20:47Yeah. Well, that's only part of the picture, right? Your genes don't set your destiny in stone. And now I have the power to affect my microbiome so that I can reduce those risks. So I want to get, make sure that parents and kids feel empowered. So, I mean, all the fake stuff, I mean, kids can learn early on anything that says artificial, just put it back. Like that's a hard pass. No, right. We don't want to be eating, you know, whatever microplastics and all the different chemicals that really don't belong in a human body, right? The sneaky thing that I really talk to parents and kids about anytime we can is really this kind of really insidious increase in the level of sugar that we have consumed, right?

21:31Oh, my gosh.

21:31Learning To Mom:It's like in the pasta sauce. In the pasta sauce, in almost anything you can think of. And, you know, it's not that sugar is outright a bad thing. It's just, but to put it into context, the American Heart Association recommends that two to 18-year-old children have no more than about 25 grams of added sugar in a day. Okay. Most people can't really picture what that means. I'm waiting for the mic drop. That's right. I'm nervous. So 25 grams is about six teaspoons of added sugar. Okay. That's no more than that. Okay. That even you're saying, oh my gosh, that's a lot. I don't, six teaspoons of white sugar.

22:11No, I'm saying that's nothing. Oh yeah. That is nothing. So, so now.

22:16Learning To Mom:Less than in the pasta sauce. Well, yes. So now think about the most recent kind of surveys have found, I mean, guess how many teaspoons on average of sugar a teenager has today. It's 34 teaspoons. 34 teaspoons is actually about 150 grams of added sugar. 150 grams of added sugar compared to 25 grams of added sugar. That's way more than they should be having. And now this is the same thing for adults too. And it sneaks in. The other thing too, that babies zero to two should have zero grams of added sugar, like zero, right? So then if you take a look and I was floored because until I started reading every single food label before I picked it up and put it in my cart, you know, I would not have known.

23:03And this is even for me, I was already a holistic pediatrician, you know, shopping for my kids and, oh, the organic Yo Baby yogurt. Yeah. I mean, number one pediatrician recommended. Of course I'm going to get that, right? All right. I actually finally looked. One serving actually has almost a teaspoon of added sugar for your baby, right? Baby should have zero, zero. Okay, a teaspoon is about four and a half grams of added sugar, right? So that's the yogurt, which should not say pediatrician recommended because, I mean, any pediatrician who really is knowledgeable about infant nutrition should say, no, this is absolutely not pediatrician recommended.

23:43And then you want to look at your puffs. And then the sneaky thing that food companies do is the FDA requires food companies to write down how many grams of added sugar are in a package, but they don't have to count fruit puree as an added sugar. Okay. But we really have to be aware that, I mean, our kids from a very early stage in life, their taste buds are being trained to want sugar. And so we have to be savvy and know, like you mentioned the pasta sauces, pasta sauces, ketchup, they have the natural sweetness of tomatoes. There's no need for them to have added sugar, right? or things like peanut butter and nut butters, they don't need added sugars.

24:24They taste delicious on their own. So you want to just look at that. And then yogurts. I mean, yogurts are really one of the biggest culprits. Even the organic, like the phaye, the Greek yogurt with, I mean, vanilla Greek yogurt actually is one of the biggest culprits. I mean, Vanilla Greek yogurt can actually have upwards of like 25 grams or almost six teaspoons of added sugar. And so what do you do then, right? Because it's not just enough to say, all right, we're not going to put these in my shopping cart, because then you have to know, what do I put in my shopping cart? I mean, you need to feed your kids something and your family.