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 James McNabb, M.D., C.N. |
Probiotics and Children
Everyone knows what an antibiotic is. These have been rightly heralded as major advances in medical care in the last half-century. But, do you know what a probiotic is? If you don’t, you may be missing the next great advance in childhood infections. The term probiotic refers to the bacteria that normally inhabit our gastrointestinal tract from beginning to end. Among their many functions is to keep pathologic bacteria, bad bacteria that can cause disease, from creating illness.
Good for Children
This protection begins at birth. A study in China showed that breast-fed babies have a predominance of the good (probiotic) bacteria, while bottle-fed babies have a predominance of bacteria that can cause diarrhea. Another study from Bangkok showed that infants and children given probiotics have half as many diarrheal episodes as those not given probiotics.
It seems logical that probiotic bacteria that occupy the GI tract could in fact decease the incidence of GI diseases such as diarrhea. Amazingly, though, it appears that probiotics have beneficial effects on infections elsewhere. For example, a Finnish study showed that children given probiotics had fewer days of absence from daycare centers. They showed a 17% reduction in respiratory infections and a reduced need for antibiotic therapy. An Italian study showed that urinary tract infections in neonates were half as likely when given probiotic as those who were not. This is quite a surprise. Who would have guessed that? Even more surprising was a study that showed that giving women probiotics during pregnancy reduced the rate of infantile eczema in their babies for over four years.
Recommendations
The obvious conclusion is that the less number of pathologic bacteria you carry around with you, the fewer problems you will have with many types of infections. For formula-fed babies, I recommend adding 1/8 tsp of probiotic powder to one of their feedings daily. For breast-fed babies, dusting the nipples with probiotic powder with each feeding seems like a good way to get more of the good bacteria into their system. Adding probiotics to pumped breast milk is another good way. Antibiotics are not the answer to childhood infections: preventing them is much better.
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