Sunday, October 19, 2008

Probiotics and Third World Travel

OK, so I haven't blogged in quite some time. In fact, it was right before we went our our month-long trip to Egypt. And since we got back I've been super busy and really neglectful of blogging.

I was nervous to go to Egypt with our baby. I used to live there, but with kids it's different. You worry about them getting sick or you getting sick and not being able to take care of them. Egypt is kind of like Mexico- you're abt to get "Mummy Tummy". Or whatever the cute catch name is for the nasty stomach virus third world countries are famous for.

So I decided to exclusively nurse my son the whole time- and he did fabulously. Could I have bought organic baby food from the US and fed him that. Yes. Could I have bought organic veggies from Egypt and made his food. Yes. But I thought bringing tons of jars wasn't the best idea and I was too busy to make food. And come to find out, my son didn't really care. He was happy with breast milk. Clean, always available- worked perfectly.

I was afraid though, that I would get sick and it would be hard to care for and nurse my son. So a friend recommended that I take probiotics leading up to the trip and during. I thought it couldn't hurt. So I bought some Culturelle, which doesn't require refrigeration and took them a month before the trip and all throughout- amazingly I never got sick. I didn't drink the water, but I did eat out plenty (and I did eat raw fruits and vegetables, but only at home). Could it have been coincidental- sure. But every time I've been away from Egypt for awhile and come back I get a nasty stomach bug. And this time not even so much as diarrhea. Also on the plane ride back my husband's stomach wasn't feeling great, so he took two and felt better an hour or so later.

At home I get my probiotics from natural sources. I culture yogurt and kefir. I also lacto-ferment sauerkraut. But for travel, there's no way to take that kind of thing with you, so probiotics were the perfect solution. I recommend you try them on your next trip- especially to a third world country.

For reference, if you do not know what probiotics are. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/probiotics/AN00389