The effects of prebiotic supplementation on weight gain, diarrhoea, constipation, fever and respiratory tract infections in the first year of life

• Published in: Journal of paediatrics and child health Vol. 54; no. 8; pp. 875 - 880
• Main Authors: Shahramian, Iraj, Kalvandi, Gholamreza, Javaherizadeh, Hazhir, Khalili, Manijeh, Noori, Noor Mohammad, Delaramnasab, Mojtaba, Bazi, Ali
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Australia John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 01.08.2018; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Age; Analysis of Variance; Baby foods; Breast Feeding - methods; Breastfeeding & lactation; Child Development; Constipation; Constipation - drug therapy; Constipation - prevention & control; Diarrhea; Diarrhea - drug therapy; Diarrhea - prevention & control; diarrhoea; Dietary Supplements; Female; Fever - drug therapy; Fever - prevention & control; Humans; Infant; Infant Formula; Infant, Newborn; Infections; Iran; Male; neonate; Newborn babies; Prebiotics; Prebiotics - administration & dosage; Prospective Studies; Reference Values; respiratory tract infection; Respiratory Tract Infections - drug therapy; Respiratory Tract Infections - prevention & control; Risk Assessment; Term Birth; Treatment Outcome; Weight Gain - physiology; Iran; constipation; prebiotics; neonate; diarrhoea; respiratory tract infection
• ISSN: 1034-4810; 1440-1754
• DOI: 10.1111/jpc.13906

Aim This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of prebiotics on some common clinical ailments in healthy term infants. Methods Sixty healthy‐term, breastfed (BF) infants were included. Along with these infants, 120 healthy‐term formula‐fed infants were randomly assigned to either the prebiotic formula (PF, n = 60) or regular formula (RF, n = 60) groups. Ready‐to‐use prebiotic‐supplemented formula containing galacto‐oligosaccharides and polydextrose (ratio 1:1) was used. Results At 2 months of age, PF infants demonstrated significantly higher weight gain than BF and RF. At 6 months of age, bodyweight was significantly higher in the RF group compared to BF and PF groups (P < 0.05). Similar results were seen at 8, 10 and 12 months of age. At 10 months of age, the duration of diarrhoea was significantly shorter in PF‐fed compared to the RF (P = 0.03) group. A significant difference was found between PF and RF (P < 0.0001) and BF and RF groups (P = 0.002) for diarrhoea duration. Means of constipation episodes per year were 0.03 ± 0.18, 0.433 ± 0.77 and 0.1 ± 0.30 for the BF, RF and PF groups, respectively, with significant difference found between BF and RF (P = 0.006) and PF and RF (P = 0.02). The means of episodes of respiratory tract infections per year for BF, RF and PF groups were 1 ± 0.69, 1.6 ± 0.88 and 1 ± 0.58, respectively (P = 0.01). Conclusion Prebiotic‐supplemented and regular formula were similar to breast milk regarding prophylactic effects for diarrhoea, constipation and respiratory tract infections in the first year of life. Prebiotic‐supplemented formula may be an appropriate substitution for breast milk when breast milk in unavailable.