Milk Pre and Probiotic Blend Found to Protect Against Common Childhood Illness

Diarrhoea, pneumonia and illnesses with high fever are the most common causes of sickness in young children. In recent years probiotics have emerged as a potential intervention. Probiotics have been proven to improve the intestinal microbial balance, hamper the growth of diarrhoeal pathogens and also boost immunity, thereby, having beneficial effects on health.

However in terms of demonstrating a meaningful effect on the health of children, the evidence is relatively limited as most evidence has come from selective intervention studies in sick children with small sample sizes. Some hospital based short term studies have shown promise in terms of sickness prevention, but large community based prospective studies evaluating effects of probiotics on sickness in children in their home environments have been lacking.

Now a naturally occurring probiotic has been proven by rigorous and formal clinical research to benefit the health of children. A large scale community based controlled trial was undertaken to investigate the effect of the probiotic BBi combined with prebiotics against common childhood sickness. The study was led by Professor Sunil Sazawal a leading international expert in nutrition for children. Professor Sazawal heads a team of highly experienced health and nutrition researchers.

Using the randomised, controlled, double-blind (RCDB) community based trial design provides the highest level of confidence in the findings. The study was large - involving over 600 children aged 12 to 36 months, half of whom consumed either milk containing probiotic BBi and prebiotic or control milk without probiotic BBi and prebiotic every day for an entire year.

The results demonstrated that children consuming milk with prebiotic and probiotic BBi were significantly better protected against episodes of dysentery (a particularly serious form of diarrhoea). Furthermore, over the course of the year of the study, consumption of milk with prebiotic and probiotic BBi also reduced the burden of, or number of days with, dysentery. Better protection against getting dysentery improves a pre-schooler's health status, preventing loss of nutrients during diarrhoeal episodes and decreased intake of food during illness.

Also observed among children consuming milk with prebiotic and probiotic BBi was a significant reduction in the burden of severe illness and high fever combined with an overall reduced need for antibiotics.

Iron deficiency is the most common and widespread nutritional disorder in the world. As well as affecting a large number of children and women in developing countries, it is the only nutrient deficiency which is also significantly prevalent in industrialised countries. Iron deficiency anaemia is linked to impaired physical and cognitive development, and increased risk of sickness in children. Children consuming milk with prebiotic and probiotic BBi conveyed a trend of protection against development of iron deficiency and anaemia.

These findings are even more impressive because of the conservative study design which compared everything that happened in the intervention group of children (consuming milk with prebiotic and probiotic BBi) to a control group of children (consuming milk without this combination).

No other strain of probiotic has such strong scientific backing for protection against infectious illness in children

The study findings have been presented at the World Congress of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Paris 2004, and the 28^th Annual-Scientific Meeting of the Nutrition Society of Australia, Brisbane 2004.

A summary of this study is published in: Sazawal S, Dhingra U, Sarkar A, Dhingra P, Deb S, Marwah D, Menon VP, Kumar J, Black RE. Efficacy of milk fortified with a probiotic Bifidobacterium lactis (DR-10) and prebiotic galacto-oligosaccharides in prevention of morbidity and on nutritional status. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2004;13(Suppl):S28

Full publications are in the process of being submitted to leading medical journals.

Click here to read a PubMed abstract of this study.