Answers to all your questions about giving your baby the best head start
You asked, we’re answering!
We get a lot of questions about healthy pregnancies and healthy babies, especially when it comes to gut health.
So we’re here to answer your biggest questions about protecting and fostering your baby’s gut microbiome. And let’s start by talking about exactly what that means.
What Is the Gut Microbiome?
Your gut microbiome is the foundation for your lifelong wellness. It’s made up of trillions of bacteria. When the microbiome is in healthy balance, beneficial probiotic bacteria vastly outnumber pathogens and keep them under tight control.
Those beneficial bacteria affect every organ and system in your body, helping them function the way they’re supposed to. And the same applies to your baby.
A healthy gut microbiome…
- Trains and directs the immune system to mount proper responses, so it doesn’t overreact or underreact[1]
- Promotes early brain development, affecting cognition, behavior, and mood[2,3]
- Manages healthy blood pressure levels from birth[4]
- Supports healthy aging and extended longevity[5]
That’s just a fraction of the health benefits a well-balanced gut microbiome delivers. And it all starts with your pregnancy.
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How Do Babies Get Their Gut Microbiomes?
The bacteria your baby needs to create a microbiome comes from you, first established during the birth process.
With natural childbirth, the baby picks up gut bacteria from the mother during vaginal delivery. Their microbiome will initially resemble their mother’s diverse gut microbiome. With C-sections, the baby gets first exposed to their mother’s skin bacteria and bacteria in the delivery room environment. This can lead to a less diverse microbiome for the baby, and a greater likelihood of pathogens.[6]
Either way, you can shape your baby’s gut microbiome through feeding, whether you choose breast or bottle.
Research shows that the first 1,000 days after birth are essential for gut microbiome development.[7] What happens then can dictate your baby’s lifelong immunity, wellness, and risk for autoimmune and chronic disorders. So keeping your baby’s gut microbiome healthy is of critical importance, starting on day one.
How Do Probiotics Help?
Your gut microbiome faces a lot of threats that can tip it into a state called dysbiosis. That’s when pathogenic bacteria grow and multiply so much that they overtake beneficial probiotic bacteria. When the gut microbiome falls out of balance and into dysbiosis, it can set off a chain of unhealthy events.
Pathogens stop probiotic bacteria from performing their jobs to support whole-body health. Those harmful bacteria also produce a wide variety of compounds that can undermine wellness by:
- Increasing oxidative stress
- Triggering inflammatory processes
- Causing digestive upset
- Disrupting nutrient absorption
- Sending the immune system into overdrive
- Increasing the risk of mental health issues
- Decreasing brain power
The best way to overcome dysbiosis or to sidestep it completely is with probiotic support. Taking probiotics brings balance to the gut microbiome. And that can be especially critical during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Should I Take Probiotics While I’m Pregnant?
Your gut microbiome changes dramatically during pregnancy. Those changes help you nurture and nourish your baby. They can also make you more vulnerable to dysbiosis, unfortunately.
Dysbiosis can increase your risk of potential pregnancy problems such as:
- Strep B[8]
- Preeclampsia[9]
- Preterm birth[10]
- Gestational diabetes[11]
Taking probiotics during pregnancy can help keep your gut microbiome in healthy balance. Researchers believe that taking probiotics during pregnancy can help reduce the risk of potential problems related to dysbiosis.[12,13]
As always, please check with your healthcare provider before starting any new supplement.
Can I Take Probiotics While I’m Breastfeeding?
Your breast milk naturally contains probiotic bacteria that helps colonize your baby’s gut microbiome.[14] What passes through depends on what’s in your gut microbiome, so you’ll want to make sure it contains a diverse population of beneficial bacteria.
Taking probiotics while breastfeeding helps keep your gut in healthy balance, so you can pass along those benefits to your baby. Research shows that nursing babies whose moms take probiotics have healthier, more diverse gut microbiomes, healthier weights, and a decreased incidence of colic.[15] One study found that taking probiotics while nursing resulted in greater memory potential and lower levels of IL-6 (interleukin-6, an inflammatory compound).[16]
What About Probiotics for My Baby?
Whether your baby gets breast milk or formula, they are getting probiotics every time they eat. But they may also benefit from exposure to probiotic supplements just like you do.
Our microbiologist Kiran Krishnan reveals that his children started getting little dabbles of spore probiotics by week two. He follows to explain that this “mimics what’s supposed to happen in nature”. Babies put everything in their mouths to sample the world around them. Ancestral babies would lay on the ground sampling dirt, rocks, everything they could reach, and that helped establish a robust microbiome.[17]
The same is true today. Exposure to beneficial bacteria supports a healthy gut microbiome.
How Do I Give My Baby Probiotics?
First, it’s important to note that not all probiotics are equal. Most probiotics cannot survive the digestive process, meaning they have little to no impact on your or your baby’s health. But spore probiotics are different. These super strains are naturally equipped with an endospore shell that protects them from high temperatures, stomach acid, digestive enzymes, and more, so they are able to reach the gut 100% alive, every time. Once they reach the gut, they get to work establishing a healthy and diverse microbiome—just the foundation your baby needs for lifelong wellness.
You can put a tiny dab of spore probiotic powder from the capsule on the breast or in the baby’s mouth to give them extra probiotic support.
Of course, always check with your pediatrician before giving any kind of supplement to your baby.
Just Thrive Gut Health Products
Trust Just Thrive for Your Baby’s Healthy Gut
You want to do everything you can to give your baby a happy, healthy life. That all stems from a well-balanced gut microbiome, and Just Thrive Probiotic can help make that happen.
Just Thrive Probiotic contains four clinically studied spore probiotics:
- Bacillus indicus HU36™
- Bacillus subtilis HU58™
- Bacillus coagulans (SC-208)
- Bacillus clausii (SC-109)
This proven effective team of spore probiotics helps keep your gut microbiome in healthy balance to support lifelong wellness. Just Thrive Probiotic promotes a healthy gut environment, allowing a diverse population of beneficial bacteria to grow and flourish.
>> Give your baby the best head start right from the beginning with Just Thrive Probiotic.
But if you’re unsure about trying Just Thrive Probiotic, we understand and we can help.
EVERY Just Thrive purchase is covered by our Bottom of the Bottle, 100% money back guarantee.
That means you can try Just Thrive Probiotic risk-free to see how it works for your family… and we’re confident that you’ll notice a positive difference.
But if for any reason you don’t notice any benefits, you can ask for a full product refund at any time. Even if it’s 3 months or 3 years later. Even if the bottle is empty!
Sources
- Thaiss, C., Zmora, N., Levy, M. et al. The microbiome and innate immunity. Nature 535, 65–74 (2016).
- Hunter S, Flaten E, Petersen C, Gervain J, Werker JF, Trainor LJ, Finlay BB. Babies, bugs and brains: How the early microbiome associates with infant brain and behavior development. PLoS One. 2023 Aug 9;18(8):e0288689.
- Yang I, Corwin EJ, Brennan PA, Jordan S, Murphy JR, Dunlop A. The Infant Microbiome: Implications for Infant Health and Neurocognitive Development. Nurs Res. 2016 Jan-Feb;65(1):76-88.
- Liu T, Stokholm J, Zhang M, Vinding R, Sørensen SJ, Zhao N, Mueller NT. Infant Gut Microbiota and Childhood Blood Pressure: Prospective Associations and the Modifying Role of Breastfeeding. J Am Heart Assoc. 2025 Mar 4;14(5):e037447.
- Wilmanski T, et al. Gut microbiome pattern reflects healthy ageing and predicts survival in humans. Nat Metab. 2021 Feb;3(2):274-286.
- Zhang C, Li L, Jin B, Xu X, Zuo X, Li Y, Li Z. The Effects of Delivery Mode on the Gut Microbiota and Health: State of Art. Front Microbiol. 2021 Dec 23;12:724449.
- Pantazi AC, et al. Development of Gut Microbiota in the First 1000 Days after Birth and Potential Interventions. Nutrients. 2023 Aug 20;15(16):3647.
- Morgan JA, Zafar N, Cooper DB. Group B Streptococcus and Pregnancy. [Updated 2024 Aug 11]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482443/
- Lv LJ, et al. Early-Onset Preeclampsia Is Associated With Gut Microbial Alterations in Antepartum and Postpartum Women. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2019 Jun 26;9:224.
- Baldassarre ME, Di Mauro A, Capozza M, Rizzo V, Schettini F, Panza R, Laforgia N. Dysbiosis and Prematurity: Is There a Role for Probiotics? Nutrients. 2019 Jun 5;11(6):1273.
- Dias S, Pheiffer C, Adam S. The Maternal Microbiome and Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: Cause and Effect. Microorganisms. 2023 Aug 31;11(9):2217.
- Baldassarre ME, et a;. Rationale of Probiotic Supplementation during Pregnancy and Neonatal Period. Nutrients. 2018 Nov 6;10(11):1693.
- Brantsaeter AL, et al. Intake of probiotic food and risk of preeclampsia in primiparous women: the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. Am J Epidemiol. 2011 Oct 1;174(7):807-15.
- Moore RE, Townsend SD. Temporal development of the infant gut microbiome. Open Biol. 2019 Sep 27;9(9):190128.
- Alemu BK, Azeze GG, Wu L, Lau SL, Wang CC, Wang Y. Effects of maternal probiotic supplementation on breast milk microbiome and infant gut microbiome and health: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Am J Obstet Gynecol MFM. 2023 Nov;5(11):101148.
- Gonia S, et al. Maternal oral probiotic use is associated with decreased breastmilk inflammatory markers, infant fecal microbiome variation, and altered recognition memory responses in infants-a pilot observational study. Front Nutr. 2024 Sep 25;11:1456111.
- Blum WEH, Zechmeister-Boltenstern S, Keiblinger KM. Does Soil Contribute to the Human Gut Microbiome? Microorganisms. 2019 Aug 23;7(9):287.
