Probiotics for newborns: are they useful?

One of the most used remedies to calm newborn colics is the administration of probiotics, in particular of Lactobacillus reuteri . Don't expect, however, miracles; an Australian study conducted on 167 children, and published in the British Medical Journal, assessed the use of probiotics against infant colic inactivity as ineffective. Let's see why.

According to statistics, gas colic affects about 20% of newborns. The disorder is the cross of many infants and, consequently, of their parents, as it causes abdominal pain with desperate crying .

The baby cries for at least three hours a day, for a minimum of three days a week, mainly in the afternoon and in the evening hours. Fortunately the disorder tends to disappear within five months of age; meanwhile what to do?

Every grandmother has her own theories, but ... is there anything more scientific than grandma's methods? Unfortunately, on the gaseous colic of the newborn it is not yet much and, consequently, as far as the remedies are concerned, one goes by trial and error.

The study that rejects probiotics against colic of the newborn

The aforementioned research has enrolled 167 children, some breastfed, others with formulated milk. 85 of them, randomly chosen, were given Lactobacillus reuteri ; the remaining newborns received placebo. During the research some parameters were analyzed, to evaluate their possible improvement: duration of crying, state of agitation, duration of sleep, composition of intestinal bacterial flora, quality of life.

The results? In breast-fed infants, probiotics have had no effect; in those fed with formulated milk, even more prolonged crying occurred.

Stomach pain in children: what remedies?

What are probiotics

There is so much confusion about the definition and usefulness of probiotics and this generates many doubts. In May 2013, the Ministry of Health published a revision of the Guidelines on prebiotics and probiotics, which clarifies various aspects and partly explains how the name probiotics is born.

The use of live milk enzymes in the supplements sector in Italy dates back to about 30 years ago; in this way a specific category of products developed which mostly contained milk enzymes and B vitamins, defined as "organic-vitamines dietary supplements", for which some preparation and use rules were established.

Over the years, the biological term has been progressively abandoned because it generated confusion (it brought to mind products from biological agriculture); it was then replaced with the word probiotic . According to current legislation, supplements sold under the name of probiotic no longer necessarily contain vitamins or other nutrients.

Probiotics are bacterial microorganisms that manage to coexist peacefully with bacteria naturally present in the intestine and help them to perform their functions adequately, that is, to inhibit the proliferation of harmful bacteria, stimulate the intestinal immune system and produce enzymes favorable to the health of the organism . Their role is therefore to preserve the balance of intestinal bacterial flora.

They can, therefore, be useful in case of intestinal disorders such as constipation and diarrhea, or even for prophylactic, that is, preventive, especially when there are factors that can negatively interfere with the well-being of the child's gastrointestinal tract, as in the adult, for example during a course of antibiotics.

Recent studies also show the benefits of using probiotics to prevent allergies in children.

An advice

In newborns, when the problem is gas colic, perhaps the best remedy is to wait patiently for this bad time to pass, soothing the child with so much affection, delicate massages on the tummy and contact with the parent.

Obviously, if the baby cries and complains very often, if it appears to be suffering and seems to need help, the person to turn to is always the pediatrician, avoiding the do-it-yourself and the use of products that were not recommended. to the doctor.