Probiotics in Babies

Probiotics are live microorganisms (in most cases, bacteria) that live in the human gut. They are also considered the "friendly bacteria". Mainly, probiotics are available for consumers in the form of dietary supplements and foods. They can be utilized as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), a group not presently considered as part of conventional medicine. Complementary medicines are applied together with conventional medicine, and alternative medicine is used as an alternate to conventional medicine.

Probiotics are classified as live microorganisms that, when ingested, produce some therapeutic or preventive health benefits. Successful probiotics are capable of resisting these insults, and transiently start residing in the gut. It would seem logical that most health promoting benefits of probiotic organisms would be seen in disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. Treatment of inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract with probiotics is an exciting new area of exploration.

At birth, the gastrointestinal canal is germ-free. During the birthing process bacteria ingested rapidly colonize the gut within hours. These bacteria are liable to prepare the gastrointestinal immune system. Systemic immune system will not work normally without these bacteria. After this early colonization, gut continuously works extremely constant throughout life. This gut immune system is now in training stage; learning to be familiar with and tolerate to the bacterial varieties come into contact during early infancy.

The majority of health promoting benefits of probiotic organisms would be observed in gastrointestinal tract disorders, mostly acute diarrhea in children. For example, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, significantly decrease the severity and duration of acute viral enteritis. Other probiotics include Lactobacillus reuteri and Lactobacillus GG. Many other probiotics organisms may also have some preventative role by reducing the threat of infection with viral gastroenteritis. Lactobacillus GG and certain strains of bifidobacteria have demonstrated in reducing the risk of diarrheal disease hospital and free-living environments.

Treating Diarrhea with antibiotics, using broad-spectrum agents, is a frequent complication especially in children. Lactobacillus GG has demonstration its ability to reduce the risk of antibiotic associated diarrhea in about 75% children. it is a live organism although it is not human derived. This yeast displayed in reducing the risk of antibiotic-associated diarrhea in adults. Both S boulardii and Lactobacillus GG have confirmed effectiveness in the prevention of relapsing Clostridium difficile diarrhea.

It appears that at least some probiotics may be capable of both down-regulating the allergic response and in enhancing immune response against potential pathogens.

Treatment with Probiotics

The beneficial effects of probiotics have been demonstrated to be strain-specific. For example, some strains of lactobacillus species have ability of shortening the duration of rotavirus diarrhea, while the majority of others are not. Although probiotics has been successfully used in various studies on animals and in some cases on humans, but more studies needed to determine the efficacy of probiotics in clinical situations.

The genetic variability among various strains of lactobacilli is considerable. Benefits of probiotics are mostly dependent on their ability to colonize the bowel. Presence of receptors on the bacterial cell wall is usually required to allow attachment to gastrointestinal epithelium. Such receptors are not present in most strains. A number of strains are more bile- and acid-resistant than others and some strains even make bacteriocins, thus killing adjacent organisms. We may consider probiotics as we now believe antibiotics, with many alternative strains helpful in diverse situations and many double-blind, placebo-controlled studies for prevention or therapy.