I had a bad reaction to Kefir

[gina2328]

I got some kefir grains from a local lady a week ago. I have been drinking raw milk from a farmer for over a year. So, I have been making kefir, my first few batches smelled a bit sour. I drank one cup a day for two days.

I had bad diarrhea. Then I researched about it and I cut back to 1/4 cup of kefir for two days. I still had the diarrhea, so I stopped yesterday.

I am wondering what to do now? Should I wait a while? How long and how much do I start to drink and when do I increase? I am definitely not allergic to raw milk. My DH drank some and did not have a problem. Weird.

Also, we have too much kefir now, what do I do with my grains? I want to stop making some kefir for awhile. Thanks.

[Ruthla]

I know kefir grains can be stored in the fridge (in milk) for about a week. I'm not sure about longer-term storage.

[caedmyn]

Have you had any problems with fermented foods, water kefir, or kombucha (assuming you've tried any of these)? It could be that your gut flora just needs to adjust to the good bacteria in kefir, or it could be that you are sensitive to a naturally occurring food chemical called amines...fermented foods are high in amines. I had 10 days of horrible diarrhea after drinking a few cups a day of water kefirs, and I eventually figured out that it was because I am sensitive to amines. It took a good week for my stomach to recover even after I'd entirely stopped the water kefirs, and it took a couple of weeks after that before I could tolerate fermented foods again. Then smaller amounts of fermented foods gave me bad gas (it took me a long time to figure out why)..qaA

Anyhow, you might want to wait for a bit to try kefir again. When you start it up again, try with small amounts (maybe even a couple of tablespoons a day at first). If you still have diarrhea from that, or if small amounts are okay but you get diarrhea when you try to drink larger amounts, I think there's a good chance that you are sensitive to amines.

[Flowergirl~]

It is very important to start slow and in small amounts. Initially I had the same reaction.

[MoonStarFalling]

I have the same reaction and I haven't figured out why. I keep trying to reintroduce it but it happens every time. I drink kombucha regularly so I didn't think it was from an imbalanced gut.

[quietserena]

I had the same reaction but it stopped a few days after. It's known to do that sort of thing for those whose intestinal flora is messed up.

I'm sorry you had such a reaction. If you want to try again, we'll have to figure out why you're having such a bad reaction and in order to do that we'll have to get a lot more info.

Have you had store bought kefir with no problems?

[gina2328]

Thanks for the hug quietserena I have never tried store bought kefir. I just brewed my first batch of kombucha so I am having a tiny 1/4 cup today. I have not had any fermented foods.

The lady I bought the grains from had a cheese making class and was selling scobies, kefir grains, homemade sauerkraut, etc. So maybe it was too much for my gut when I had the kefir and sauerkraut . But I only had a small amount of the kraut.

I think I will go with 1 Tablespoon of Kefir and work my way up.