Infants with colic may not benefit from so-called probiotics – yoghurt type foods aimed at replenishing gut bacteria, according to a new study.
About one in five babies suffer from infant colic, or "excessive crying of unknown cause". It is defined as crying or fussing for three hours or more a day for three days or more per week for three weeks in infants aged less than three months. Although it normally resolves by itself, it puts caregivers at higher risk of depression.
The cause is still unclear, after decades of research, but may be linked to stomach problems.
Dr Valerie Sung of the Royal Children’s Hospital, Victoria, Australia, and her team investigated whether the probiotic known as Lactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938 can reduce crying or fussing in a group of 167 breastfed or formula fed infants with colic. Half received the probiotic and half placebo by mouth every day for a month.
The average time spent crying or fussing per day fell steadily and equally in both groups, showing no significant difference. The probiotic has no negative side-effects.
The study is published in the British Medical Journal.
The probiotic "did not benefit a community sample of breastfed infants and formula fed infants with colic," the authors write. "These findings differ from previous smaller trials of selected populations and do not support a general recommendation for the use of probiotics to treat colic in infants."
Commenting on the study, Dr William Bennett of Indiana University School of Medicine, USA, states: "We know little about the acquisition and development of the microbiota in an infant’s gut. We should hesitate to aggressively alter the development of intestinal microbiota without a better understanding of normal intestinal development."
Sung, V. et al. Treating infant colic with the probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri: double blind, placebo controlled randomised trial. BMJ 2 April 2014 doi: 10.1136/bmj.g2107 [abstract]
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