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Probiotics ineffective in reducing days missed from child care
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Administering a combination of Bifidobacterium animalis subsp lactis and Lactobacillus rhamnosus as a probiotic to prevent gastrointestinal and respiratory infections was not effective in limiting the number of days missed from child care in healthy infants, according to a study published in Pediatrics.
“The increased exposure to infections in child care has been associated with factors such as crowding and sharing of toys, leading to increased risk of disease transmission between infants,” Rikke Pilmann Laursen, MDc, from the department of nutrition, exercise and sports at the University of Copenhagen, and colleagues wrote. “Infection during childhood is a distress to families but also a financial burden to society, both in terms of lost working days of parents and medical costs. Therefore, strategies for prevention are of great importance.”
To assess the efficacy of probiotics in infants aged 8 to 14 months in preventing infection and reducing number of days absent from child care, the researchers conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in which 290 randomly selected infants received the combination of probiotics or a placebo. Those who were administered the probiotics were given so in a dose of 109 colony-forming units of each probiotic daily for 6 months.
The researchers then assessed the number of days missed from child care, the frequency of symptoms of illness and doctors’ visits. All information in this regard was submitted by parents through web-based questionnaires on a daily and weekly basis.
The median number of days missed from child care was 11 days (interquartile range = 6-16), and no difference was observed between the two groups. There was also no difference in the other outcomes of the study between the placebo and probiotic groups, including the number of doctor-diagnosed upper and lower respiratory tract infections, doctors’ visits, antibiotic treatments, frequency and duration of diarrhea, and days with common cold symptoms, fever, vomiting, or caregiver’s days absent from work.
“Potential immunoprotective effects of breast-feeding, probiotics, the infants’ good health and those included responding to an invitation resulted in a self-selected population of primarily well-educated, high-income families with a special interest in the study,” Laursen and colleagues wrote. “Considering the aforementioned factors, the results from this study cannot be readily extrapolated to children in other age groups or in different settings.” — by Katherine Bortz
Disclosure: The researchers provide no relevant financial disclosures.
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