Probiotics cannot prevent allergy in young children

Friday January 16th, 2009

Giving probiotics to pregnant women and their babies is unlikely to help prevent allergies, experts say.

The rise in childhood allergies may be due to by a lower exposure to bacteria, stopping the immune system from developing as it should. Allergic children often have different set of bacteria in their intestines, specifically less lactobacilli and bifidobacteria.

A team from Finland decided to see whether probiotic supplements could add these missing bacteria. They gave either probiotics or a placebo to 1,223 mothers whose infants were thought to be at high risk of allergies, for the last month of their pregnancy. Their babies were given the probiotics and a prebiotic from birth until they reached six months.

When they reached five years of age, the children were examined for symptoms of eczema, food allergy, allergic rhinitis (hay fever), and asthma. The probiotics did not protect them from allergies, except those who had been born by caesarean.

The study is published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Researcher Dr Mikael Kuitunen said: "No allergy-preventive effect is extended to age five years by perinatal supplementation with probiotics in babies at risk for developing allergies; protection is conferred only to caesarean-delivered babies.

"However, it is possible that stronger and longer stimulation of the infant immune system possibly by varying the strains of bacteria, may result in better allergy-preventive effects."

Kuitunen, M. et al. Probiotics prevent IgE-associated allergy until age 5 years in cesarean-delivered children but not in the total cohort. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, published online January 9, 2009.

Tags: Allergies & Asthma | Child Health | Europe

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