Probiotics Now Recommended for Infants

Probiotics should be consumed by pregnant and lactating women and their breast-fed infants to prevent the development of atopic dermatitis, according to recommendations that will soon be issued by the World Allergy Organization.

It will be the first time that probiotics will be recommended for allergy prevention by a medical organization. The announcement was made at the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology 2014.

The Guidelines for Allergic Disease Prevention are still officially under review. The first section, on probiotics, is scheduled to be released at the end of January 2015. Sections on vitamin D and prebiotics will follow.

Steve: The expected probiotic recommendations are a revelation, especially for people like us who have recommended them for decades. However, specific strains or combinations of strains need to be put in the guidelines. For example, the strains that showed the more consistent results are Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium.