I couldn’t help passing this along. It shows significant reduction in infection among children who take probiotics (healthy bacteria, higher dose than in yogurt). I have used probiotics to shorten illness and prevent sore throats from progressing into something else, based on other research, so I’m not surprised by the results.
This placebo-controlled trial showed:
“When families didn’t do anything, most kids developed fever, cough, runny nose, and were treated with antibiotics sometime in the next 6 months. But among those who were given the probiotics, most kids did not get a fever, cough, runny nose or antibiotics over the next 6 months. And if they did get sick, it lasted on average about half as long.”
Read more: http://www.drgreene.com/blog/2010/09/07/probiotics-powerful-prevention#ixzz12MEJ2lG8
Since probiotics used in pregnancy have been shown to reduce eczema rates in infants – and I have my own theories about why that is, consistent with Solveeczema.org – I thought I would pass this information along. My favorite brand of probiotic for this purpose, even for the grown ups in our house, is Baby’s Jarro-Dophilus from Jarrow, it has been more consistently effective of the ones I have used. (Must be dissolved into a liquid, do not take straight, it can form very sticky clumps.)