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The Role of Prebiotics and Probiotics in Prevention and Treatment of Childhood Infectious Diseases
The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, 07/31/2012
Weichert S et al. – This article focuses on the evidence of clinical benefits of prebiotics, probiotics and synbiotics toward prevention and treatment of pediatric infectious diseases.
- Infant formulae and food products marketed for children have been increasingly supplemented with probiotics and/or prebiotics.
- A vast number of studies have accounted for the transit of probiotic use from alternative to more evidence-based medicine.
- Data support the use of certain probiotics for the adjunct treatment of acute viral gastroenteritis, and for prevention of gastrointestinal diseases.
- Data from well-conducted randomized-controlled trials support the therapeutic role for probiotics toward necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants.
- However, it is difficult to translate heterogeneous-based study results, which are mainly due to varying genera, strains, doses, study settings and measured outcomes, into evidence-based recommendations.