This giveaway is now closed. Thanks for stopping by.  The winner is Ani. Congrats!

If you’ve been following my tweets and blog posts, you may remember that I suspected my son has a food allergy. Last week we received confirmation that he is allergic to both cow’s milk and eggs.  Unfortunately, our daughter has also been reacting to some of the foods in my diet, including cow’s milk.  Between my son’s rashes and upset tummy, and my daughter’s spitting up and slow weight gain, it’s been a rough few months.  While we were waiting for my son’s test results to come back, my pediatrician suggested we start him on a probiotic (which we did).  And when I visited the lactation consultant in our area, she suggested both my daughter and I start on probiotics to help with the spitting up (which was causing her discomfort and subsequent crying episodes).

When MomSelect was looking for reviewers for a campaign with BioGaia, I had already been successfully using the infant drops with my daughter for several weeks.  The lactation consultant in our area had observed positive results on infants who received these drops with regards to colic so we purchased them to help with her colic, reflux, and spitting up.  BioGaia is a Swedish biotechnology company that develops and sells probiotic products to promote health.  Their products include the probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus reuteri (L. reuteri) ,  “a “good” and friendly bacterium that helps battle the “bad” micro-organisms in the digestive tract to improve health.” What I like about BioGaia is that they use a bacteria that we already have in our bodies.  BioGaia’s probiotics work to promote a healthy balance of good bacteria to promote overall gut health.  According to the company, BioGaia reduced crying time in infantile colic, GI symptom, antibiotic use and absences in children, and reduced diarrhea in hospitalized adults taking antibiotics.

Courtesy of the company and MomSelect, we received BioGaia Probiotic Drops, Probiotic Straws, and Probiotic Chewable Tablets.

I was already familiar with the drops and the straws since we had been using them prior to this review.  Five drops a day provides 100 million live, active cells for our daughter.  We usually try to add them to her bottle, although I should note that hot food and drink can damage the live cultures.  The straws (which are very cool!) also provide 100 million live, active cells, simply by drinking 2-4 ounces of liquid through them (perfect for my son). Lastly, the chewable tablets are suitable for children and provide 100 million live, active cells (perfect for my son).

The biggest difference we’ve noticed is in our daughter, particularly because we’ve been giving her the drops since she was about 8 weeks old.  I made dietary changes (I cut out dairy, caffeine, etc.), took probiotics, and gave her probiotics.  We started noticing a difference in about a week.  She cried less…she spit up less…and she started gaining weight.  We still have a long road ahead.  I have to be diligent about avoiding trigger foods and giving her probiotics.  But I’ve definitely noticed a difference.

BioGaia offers a natural, safe way to give both of my children probiotics.  I like the fact that my son can drink from a straw (something he already does) and receive probiotics.  A healthy digestive system is tied to the immune system so it’s important to balance the good and bad bacteria in the gut.  If you’d like more information about the health benefits of probiotics, I recommend checking out their website.

Win It! One of you will win your choice of one of the following:   A 5mL bottle of drops, a 30-count chewable tablet packet or a 30-count pack of straws. Simply leave me a comment with something you learned on the site.  Comments will close on April 7, 2010 at 11:59 PM PST.

One comment per person, please (unless you do the extra credit). US residents only. Duplicates and comments not including the above information will be disqualified. Comments are moderated. If you don’t see your comment in a reasonable amount of time, send me an email. Bloggers and non-bloggers may enter. If you don’t want to leave your email address, please be sure to check back for my announcement on the winner. Please note that winners must respond within 48 hours of being announced/contacted or another winner will be drawn.Want an extra entry? Do any or all of the following and receive an extra entry for each one.

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I did not receive compensation for this post.  Product samples were received via MomSelect to facilitate this review.