Research Update on Probiotics for Infants

Let’s begin this week’s research review with a study on the potential long-term benefits of probiotic use in infants. Researchers in Slovenia collected data on 316 healthy-weight newborns whose parents had test-confirmed allergies.

The families were divided into two groups: 115 infants were placed into a probiotic group and received probiotics every day between the ages of four weeks to twelve weeks while breastfeeding. The remaining 201 infants were put in the control group and breastfed without any supplements.

All children were followed by the same pediatrician through nine years of age to assess the children over the years to see who developed allergic rhinitis or allergic rhino conjunctivitis at some point. The results showed during the follow-up that 19.6% of the children had developed either form of allergy. They confirmed the diagnosis by examining the children for levels of IgE and skin prick tests.

Children in the probiotic group were three times less likely to develop allergic rhinitis than those in the control group, 4.3% versus 13.9%. When examining allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, the difference between the probiotic group and the control group was much lower although still statistically significant at 8.7% versus 9.5%.

I like this study because the children were tracked for an extended period of time. It may be that if the infants were tracked only through one year of age or if the study were terminated when they were four or five, there might not have been the same significant differences. Sometimes seeing the benefits can take longer than we expect.

You have to wonder what the results would be if the children were given probiotics beyond twelve weeks (some may have been; probiotics weren’t prohibited beyond the study.) We make sure Riley, who’s five, gets his probiotics every day.

Is that reduction in allergies worth the effort? Paula says any lessening of allergies is worth doing. Next month will be the 57th anniversary of her first allergy shots, and she’s been getting shots nearly continuously ever since—three at a time these days. If probiotics will spare some children years of shots or medications, let’s go for it.

What are you prepared to do today?