Before this pregnancy and a 5 hour road trip with my girls by myself, I had never had a urinary tract infection (UTI.) Not even after 10 years of teaching elementary school and “holding it” a gazillion times for the sake of not leaving my students alone in the classroom. But when both of my daughters finally fell asleep on our solo summer road trip after an hour of whining, crying, and complaining, I just kept driving and ignored my urge to “go.” 5 hours later, I had myself my very first UTI- and it was no fun at all.

For days I tried cranberry juice first. No improvement. Still burning, still trickling, and still having to pee every 10 minutes.

Then I added apple cider vinegar and drinking baking soda water to raise the pH of my urine. This definitely decreased the burn, but things still trickled on out and I still had to “go” every 10 minutes- too often even for a pregnant lady.

So after two weeks or so, I finally ran across this article by Dr. Mercola on D-Mannose. The article claimed that 85-90% of UTI’s can be remedied with the following D-Mannose protocol:

• For adults, take 1 tsp of D-Mannose powder ever 2-3 hours for 2-3 days or continue until symptoms are relieved. (children take 1/2 tsp)

I strongly suggest you read the entire article, as it helped me gain confidence in the protocol and understand why it was working.

I also STRONGLY recommend buying only this powder by KAL. I tried both Vitacost and NOW brands of D-Mannose powder first and they didn’t make a difference. I’m really glad I tried one more time after reading these reviews on KAL D-Mannose, because it worked within the first two doses.

The taste for D-Mannose is sweet since it is a certain class of sugar. I mix it with about 2 oz of water and it tastes like subtle sugar water.

You can purchase KAL D-Mannose online or at a local Vitamin Shoppe for under $30.