Mary,

I don't have a great answer about replenishing intestinal flora myself,
and that post was originally directed to Sylvia - since I am not
convinced a pill can supply a live culture, and since yogurt doesn't
agree with everyone.  There are a few supplements that appear to be live
supplements in our local health food store's fridge case that are
non-dairy and it those I'd trust most.

In practical terms, the most important thing -after antibiotics are
given- is to focus on helping a person's immune system, since if s/he
had been more normal the initial infection initiating antibiotic drugs
wouldn't have grown out of control to start with.  The real problem
after antibiotics is the overgrowth of candida, which can be controlled
by avoiding sweets and grains for a brief period.

I often see patients who have been on antibiotics for months on end
(unsuccessfully) who then seek me to find an answer.  Of course I
haven't seen your son.  But for my patients I always find that at the
first sign of infection, going onto a diet of fresh, raw fruit and
vegetables (consumed room temp not cold) helps, and if the person
doesn't object, they should try small amounts of fresh onion or crushed
garlic (strong taste tho) as the allicin usually helps the body control
both bacterial and candida infections. It is my observation that ALL
processed foods, and most cooked foods, but certainly any grains, meat
and poultry aren't great for someone who has this type of problem, at
least until they return to normal.

At the end here, below, is the stuff that got confusing.

regards,
r

/Mary wrote:
> Great question. My son was on a ton of antibiotics for ear infections, it
> ruined his intestinal flora, {the ear infections came after his natural
> immunity was destroyed by vaccines) Anyway, he is now allergic to dairy, the
> non dairy acidophilus seems to contain starches or sugars which may feed the
> "bad' bacteria. For yogurt, I fear that since it is also a dairy product, it
> will aggravate his allergies. So, what to do?

Roberta J Leong, LAc wrote:
> Sylvia,
> thanks, actually, I was wondering what you recommend because I always
> have new patients who come to se me, because they recently take (usually
> many) antibiotics, and they "fail".  Then they search for alternative
> remedies, but by then they need to replenish their intestinal flora, but
> many of these same patients are intolerant to dairy.  Then I wonder
> about pills, because how can you have a live culture in a pill - how
> long can something be alive in a pill??

 Roberta wrote:
> > > OK, suppose you do that, but you want to avoid pills and want to consume
> > > food.  What foods contain bifidus?

Sylvia:
> > I don't want to be picky but if one is afraid of pills it would have
> > been better to avoid antibiotics in the first place.
> > Bifidobacterium  cultures are (like Lactobacillus) used for yoghurt and sour
> > milk production so you can get them with these foods.
> > Here in Germany the cultures used for yoghurt are indicated on the
> > label.