Will a Probiotic Baby Poop Cocktail be the Next Drink Trend?

You’ve probably tried all the Kombucha. That age-old, likely Chinese in origin, fermented tea drink. Bottled in every grocery store. On tap at the bougie juice bars, shared workspaces, swaggy coffee shops, taprooms and growler shops. Maybe some kefir, the grain & cow’s milk derived probiotic beverage. Heard of Wildbrine, Suja Wellness, Farmhouse Culture, Tropicana Essentials Probiotics drink, GoodBelly, Kevita, Siggi’s Swedish-Style Filmjölk or Chobani’s yogurt drink? All the rage.

But did you catch the recent study that created a baby poop beverage to increase overall gut microbiome health?

The baby poop probiotic study.

Seriously. Read it for yourself. It’s titled “Human-origin probiotic cocktail increases short-chain fatty acid production via modulation of mice and human gut microbiome.” Is it possible that healthy probiotics derived from infantile feces could benefit your gastrointestinal system? Here’s the quick & dirty (pun fully intended) on the research study’s setup:

• 34 cute little baby turds. Tongue in cheek, but numerically accurate.
• 321 bacterial colonies or “isolates” were chosen. Now to pick the best of the best for gut health purposes.
• Narrowed down to 10 specific, beneficial bacterial strains. 5 strains in the Lactobacillus genus, and 5 strains in the Enterococci genus. A genus is one level more generic than a species. To provide a little context: if you take a multi-strain probiotic supplement, it’s likely that some of the Lactobacillus species below are in your pill or powder.
  1. Lactobacillus (L.) paracasei D3-5
  2. L. rhamnosus D4-4
  3. L. plantarum D6-2
  4. L. rhamnosus D7-5
  5. L. plantarum D13-4
  6. Enterococci (E.) raffinosus D24-1
  7. E. INBio D24-2
  8. E. avium D25-1
  9. E. avium D25-2
  10. E. avium D26-1

The 10 ideal strains.

The 10 ideal gut-benefiting strains were successfully identified, isolated from the 34 infantile fecal samples, and formed into a beverage. These 10 strains met ALL 7 criteria the researchers established for optimal probiotic function. The 5-strain Lactobacillus + 5-strain Enterococci probiotic cocktail was fed to mice, compared to Lactobacillus only, Enterococci only and a control group without any bacteria strains. Their gut microbiomes were assessed at the beginning of the study, and again at 8 hours, 1 day, 3 days and 10 days later.

Note: your morning yogurt has a few Lacto strains in it. For example, Chobani Greek contains Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus casei. We make our Instant Pot homemade yogurt (or oven-based) with a Chobani starter, so ours likely has massive amounts of the same beneficial probiotic strains due to a longer fermentation.

Where the heck did the researchers find the baby diapers??

Day care center anyone?

Cheers to the toddlers & infants at Bright Horizon day care center in Winston-Salem NC who unknowingly donated their stool to the cause. Brave bunch of data analysts. These were chosen at random from the center, likely to help vary the samples. Who’s up for a dumpster-diving session?? 100% kidding. The samples were diluted, added to petri dishes, incubated for 12-24 hours, and further isolated to ensure nothing more than the ideal 10 strains were used.

The most significant takeaways?

• This cocktail has the potential to inhibit the growth of the pathogenic (very bad) bacterial strains in the Enterobacteriaceae family. Ever heard of E. coli? K. pneumonia?
• The cocktail produced a sizable increase in short chain fatty acids (SCFA). SCFAs are generally found to be lower in people who have certain blood sugar diseases (diabetes), carry very excessive weight (obesity), have immune systems that attack friendly bodily tissues / organs / cells (autoimmune diseases), and uncontrolled or abnormal growth of cells (cancer).

So… what the heck does this all mean?

1. Baby poop probiotic cocktails may be able to help fight bad bacterial infections better than many other probiotic supplements and foods on the market. They can actually hurt the growth of E. coli and K. pneumonia in the gut. That’s a pretty big deal.
2. Baby poop probiotic cocktails have the potential to increase production of SCFA in human guts, yielding an overall better functioning gut microbiome.
3. If SCFA are increased in the gut, there’s a chance the increased gut function could reduce the risk of diabetes, obesity, autoimmune diseases and cancer. However, it’s way too early in the research to make any sort of claim or evidence-based theory at the moment.

Note: need a probiotic for your overall gut health? Garden of Life has a game changing Once Daily Women’s and Once Daily Men’s we use and I would highly recommend. Two of the most researched probiotic strains for infant use are L. rhamnosus (found in the poop!) and L. reuteri. Mommy’s Bliss Baby Probiotics contain a ton of rhamnosus, and Gerber Soothe Baby Probiotic contains plenty of reuteri. Use them both together since different strains offer varying benefits. Always talk to doctor before making any supplemental changes with your kiddos. Per usual.

The next probiotic drink.

In conclusion, next time you walk into your local Publix, Wegmans, Trader Joe’s, H-E-B, Aldi, Harris Teeter, Hy-Vee, Costco, WinCo, Whole Foods, Fry’s, Kroger, or Target, keep your eyes peeled for “Poo-biotics”, or “Diaperbiome”, or “Day care fare”, or “Kom-poo-cha”, or “GoodSmelly”, or “Tropicolon”, you’ll know where it comes from. In all seriousness, this small discovery could help the countless people struggling with GI infections and IBS caused by an imbalance in good-to-bad bacteria (dysbiosis). Kudos, or should I say Püdos, to the researchers aiming to change the face (or butt?) of gut-focused healthcare in our lifetime.

Real talk. Would you drink it?