Another fantastic study that demonstrates the benefit of probiotics in keeping your child’s immune system strong and healthy. This clearly shows that probiotics not only reduce the need for antibiotics but also reduced days off from child care and the awful symptoms of colds and flus. So, if you weren’t convinced by previous posts on my blog, you should be by now! Most importantly, ensure that your child receives a high quality probiotic that contains the correct strains in the right therapeutic doses. If you need to consult a naturopath then I recommend doing so and getting a product that will work as opposed to shooting in the dark and self prescribing.

A daily supplement of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains may reduce the incidence of cold and flu-like symptoms in children by 50%, says a new study from Danisco. A combination of the two strains was linked to reductions in fever incidence by 73%, a reduction in the occurrence of runny noses by 59%, and drop in the incidence of coughing by 62%, according to findings published in Pediatrics.

“Daily probiotic dietary supplementation during the winter months was a safe effective way to reduce episodes of fever, rhinorrhea, and cough, the cumulative duration of those symptoms, the incidence of antibiotic prescriptions, and the number of missed school days attributable to illness,” wrote the authors, led by Gregory Leyer from the Department of Research and Development for Danisco in Madison. “L acidophilus NCFM alone was effective. There was, however, a trend for a broader protective effect with the combination of L acidophilus NCFM and B lactis Bi-07.”

Indeed, when L. acidophilus NCFM was used alone the fever incidence was cut by 53 per cent, the occurrence of runny noses was reduced by 28 per cent, and the incidence of coughing fell by 41 per cent. According to UNICEF, a global average of 16% of children under five suffer from acute respiratory infections.

Study details

Leyer and his co-workers from Tongji University (Shanghai), the University of Texas at Houston, and Sprim USA (Frisco) recruited 326 children aged between three and five in a child care centre in China.

The children were randomly assigned to one of three groups, and received twice a day for six months the single L. acidophilus NCFM strain, the combination of the strains, or placebo. In addition to the reductions in the incidence in fever, coughing, and runny noses, the researchers noted a reduction in the use of antibiotics in children either of the probiotic interventions, while these children also missed fewer days of child care.

“Although the reduced incidence of antibiotic prescriptions for all indications noted in an earlier study was confirmed, this study is the first to indicate a trend toward more-significant results with a combination versus single strain preparation,” wrote the authors. The duration of symptoms was also reduced in the placebo groups, with a 32 and 48% decrease observed in the single strain and combination groups, respectively.

Commenting on the mechanism, the researchers said that an immune-enhancing effect was the “likely explanation, because numerous studies with various probiotic bacteria have demonstrated their ability to modulate immune responses through interactions with toll-like receptors”. Furthermore, they note that part of the rationale behind the strain choice for this study lay in the strains ability to stimulate cells called dendritic cells that play a role in immune systems function.

Pediatrics

2009, Volume 124: e172-e179

“Probiotic Effects on Cold and Influenza-Like Symptom Incidence and Duration in Children”