Moms taking probiotics during pregnancy in hopes of lowering their babies’ asthma rates may not have any success that way, but researchers have said that there are plenty of other benefits.
Reducing asthma risk
It’s a good idea to find out what, if anything, can reduce a child’s risk of developing asthma. However, researchers at the University of Alberta have found that taking probiotics during pregnancy or administering them to babies does not reduce a child’s risk of developing asthma.
The team of medical scientists pored over data from 20 clinical trials in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan. They studied information on around 4,800 children whose mothers took probiotics during pregnancy or gave probiotics to their babies in the first year.
They found that the doctor-diagnosed asthma rate was 11.2 percent among the probiotic babies, and 10.2 percent among those who had a placebo.
Benefits abound, however
The researchers did say that while probiotic use didn’t seem to affect asthma rates, they said that they can be useful for premature babies and babies with bowel issues. And on the prevention front, probiotics may help prevent eczema, which often goes hand-in-hand with other allergy issues, such as asthma or food allergies.
They also discovered an incidental finding — babies who received the probiotics as infants or while in their mothers’ womb had a lower rate of respiratory infections. They admit that more research needs to be done to establish a connection, but those results were promising.