Vol.6 Issue 1
Otitis media

We’ve known for years that children who attend day care centers have a high rate of infectious disease episodes. Hatakka et al (1) studied whether probiotic milk consumption could reduce the frequency of infections among children in Finnish day care centers.  Probiotics are postulated to reduce the frequency of infections by stimulating both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses, as well as nonspecific responses.

Using a randomized, double-blind design, 513 children aged 1 to 6 years consumed 200 ml daily of cow’s milk with or without added Lactobacillus rhamnosus (5-10 X 105 colony forming units/ml) for seven months. Parents kept a daily diary that recorded infectious symptoms (including otitis media symptoms), day center absences, physicians’ diagnoses, and antibiotic prescriptions. The number of children in the Lactobacillus group who had physician-diagnosed infections (including otitis media) was less than in the control group. Moreover, fewer of them were prescribed antibiotics compared with the control group. The groups did not differ with respect to parent-reported number of symptomatic days.

These findings suggest that probiotics may prevent the occurrence of childhood infectious illnesses that are highly prevalent among children who attend day care centers.  Impressive was the fact that the two groups differed on the objectively measured outcomes (i.e., number of absences and antibiotic prescriptions), thus supporting the hypothesis that probiotics enhance protective immune responses. While probiotic milk is clearly contraindicated in certain conditions (i.e., lactose intolerance, conditions that require immunosuppressive therapy), it may be a useful intervention to reduce the incidence of common childhood infectious illnesses in a vulnerable population. 

1.         Hatakka K, Savilahti E, Ponka A, Meruman JH, Poussa T, Nase L, Sacelin M, Korpela R. Effect of long term consumption of probiotic milk on infections in children attending day care centres: double blind, randomized trial. BMJ 2001;322:1-5