Probiotics and your baby
As a parent, your young child’s health and well being are a top priority. Learn everything you need to know about probiotics and why they help to keep your baby happy and healthy.
Probiotics can help keep your baby happy and healthy.
What are Probiotics?
Probiotics are bacteria that normally inhabit the intestines. While bacteria are usually perceived as bad, probiotics are actually beneficial to the digestive system as one of their roles is to break foods down into their individual components for absorption into the body. Probiotics may be taken orally to support good health. Antibiotics kill both good and bad bacteria, so the addition of probiotics puts good bacteria back into the body to maintain health naturally.
These probiotics may be found in foods such as special yoghurts and milk drinks which help improve the balance of bacteria in the digestive system. Probiotics like Bifidus BL added to infant formulas and other milk drinks, provide a beneficial supplement for infants and toddlers who do not always have the protection of good bacteria present in their diet at an early age.
Why use Probiotics?
Breastfeeding provides your baby with the best possible nutrition available for the first six months of life. Due to the proteins and other components of breast milk, breastfed babies have a healthy bowel structure that is made up of well over ninety percent of bifidobacteria. A new born’s digestive system is free of bacteria. Within hours of being born, bacteria from the baby’s mother and from the environment begin to establish themselves within an infants’s body. By the age of two, the bacteria in the child’s digestive system are more like that of an adult, with both good and bad bacteria present.
For a variety of reasons, not all mothers are able to successfully breastfeed. Infants who are formula fed have much less of the good bacteria compared with those who are breastfed; this is where a formula containing probiotic bacteria may be recommended.
Choosing a formula that contains probiotic bacteria may contribute to a young child’s growth and health and help to protect from infection such as diarrhoea caused by rotavirus.
What is Bifidus BL?
Bifidus BL is a probiotic that is also known as Bifidobacteria. These good bacteria can help strengthen the intestinal health of infants and toddlers, reducing the risk of constipation, improving bowel activity while decreasing the chance of nappy rash.1,2,3,4 This probiotic is added to an infant formula or toddler milk in a dried form.
Bifidus = Probiotics for immunity and protection 8,9
The Benefits of Good Bacteria
Probiotics not only contribute to a healthy digestive system, they also provide many other benefits including a boosted immune system; fewer respiratory and allergic conditions4 ; and improvement in skin conditions.5 They can also prevent diarrhoea.6
Including foods in the child’s diet that contain probiotics can help the good bacteria reduce the number of bad bacteria, resulting in a harmonious balance. Some good bacteria can aid digestion by helping the body make use of minerals which can help produce vital vitamins.7
Probiotics can also benefit the immune system by helping to form a barrier to bad bacteria thus helping to protect against infection.
The Effects of Bad Bacteria
During childhood, there are many illnesses and infections that are caused by viruses such as rotavirus, however, other sicknesses are caused by bad bacteria called pathogenetic bacteria. Whatever the cause, the symptoms should be taken seriously and assessed by a doctor.
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1. Kalliomaki M, et al. Probiotics in the primary prevention of atopic disease: a randomised placebo-controlled trial. Lancet 2001;357:1076-1079.
2. Mitsuoka T. Intestinal flora and human health. Asia Pacific J Clin Nutr 1996;5(1):2-9.
3. Walker WA. Role of Nutrients and Bacterial Colonization in the Development of Intestinal Host Defense. JPGN 2000;30: S2-S7
4. Bjorksten B, Sepp E, Julge K, et al. Allergy development and the intestinal microflora during the first year of life. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2001;108:516-5201.
5. Kalliomaki M, Salminen S,Poussa T,Arvilommi H, Isolauri E ‘Probiotics and prevention of atopic disease: 4-year follow-up of a randomised placebo-controlled trial. Lancet 2003 May 31; 361(9372):1869-71.
6 . Chouraqui, J-P, et al. Acidified Milk Formula Supplemented With Bifidobacterium lactis: Impact on Infant Diarrhea in Residential Care Settings.Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition: 2004;38(3):288-292.
7. Parvez S, Malik KA,Ah Sang S,Kim HY Probiotics and their fermented food products are beneficial for health. J Appl Microbiol 2006 Jun;100(6):1171-85.
8. "Isolauri E, et al: Probiotics: effects on immunity. Am J lin Nutr, 2001; 73 (2 Suppl): 444S-50S" Study covering effects up to toddlers age.
9. "Saavedra J, et al. Effect of long term consumption of infant formulas with bifidobacteria (B) and S.thermophilus (ST) on stool patterns and diaper rash in infants. J Pediatr Gstroenterol Nutr, 1998; 27:82 (abstract). Study covering effects up to toddlers 18 months of age.