# can probiotics CAUSE diarrhea?



## mavery (Jun 3, 2005)

My ds is on abx right now, so I bought a probiotic supplement for him. He's been taking it and yesterday had diarrhea, which I figured was from the abx. But I also decided to take the probiotic myself since I've been having IBS-like symptoms lately and thought it might help. Well today I have diarrhea too. It could just be coincidence, but has anyone experienced or heard of probiotics causing diarrhea? Should we try a different kind?


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## karlin (Apr 8, 2004)

I've heard taking too much can cause it...but I don't know. It's never happened to DS or I, and we take the recommended dosage.


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## UUMom (Nov 14, 2002)

It might at first--trying to get the good bacteria going. When my teen recently had surgery, he took all his antbx followed by a spoon of organic yogurt. Worked like a charm.


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## lauriem33 (Nov 9, 2005)

Make sure you are giving the probiotics at a different time than the abx, like if the abx are every 4 hours, do the probiotics two hours after/before you've given the abx. Also I've read that when you first start probiotics you can experience a "die-off" effect of your gut getting rid of an excess of the bad bugs which I would imagine could easily result in diarrhea. HTH


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## carrietorgc (Sep 16, 2003)

yep, i would stick it out for you and give ds a smaller dose. your bodies will adjust. they tend to work best on an empty tummy, so if you take the abx with meals just take the probiotic in btwn


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## kamesennin (Jan 3, 2005)

Yeah, you might be taking too much too soon, maybe try lowering dosage for a few days and then work up to it?


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## mavery (Jun 3, 2005)

Hmmm. We are doing the pro- at a different time from the anti-. (I'm giving him the probiotic with breastmilk about an hour before food+abx, figuring then the blood level of the abx is low and there's time for the probiotic to be digested before the abx kick in.) I guess it could be die-off, though neither of us has any yeast etc. probs.


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## carrietorgc (Sep 16, 2003)

yeast is funny though, i had no sxs at all but sure do have die off! plus the baby has thrush again, so i know that even if i am not showing signs, it is there. btw, yeast can cause ibs symptoms due to leaky gut syndrome.


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## changingseasons (Mar 24, 2008)

I know this is a really old thread.... but I am having this same issue.

I ran out of the Solgar probiotic that I was taking, so I started taking another brand that an ND had given me a while back. The first time I tried it (a couple months ago), I ended up getting super sick for 2 weeks- diarrhea about a million times a day, everything I ate just went straight through me, totally undigested. I thought I narrowed it down to my digestive enzymes- I figured that I had become sensitized to something in them (we're doing all this gut healing for serious food allergies in DD and I). Never once thought it was the probiotics, but I stopped taking them just in case.

Well now I started taking them again, and same thing- 3rd day of taking them, the diarrhea just started.

They are Pharmax HLC High Potency caps. They are way stronger than the Solgar ones I was taking, but I'm not taking anywhere near the recommended dose (of 2 caps 2x per day)- I'm taking one, once per day.

Has anyone else had probiotics cause this kind of problem? Is it just too strong for me? Should I start splitting up the capsules, or just skip this brand altogether?


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