Thanks, Ellen, for alerting us to this. I was recently at a nutrition conference in Sydney where there was a satellite seminar one evening on probiotics. Note that the organisms are the 'probiotics'. Prebiotics are the substances that encourage growth of the probiotic organisms. It is the organisms that are a potential concern. Speakers from Finland at the seminar discussed development and use of probiotics - it was not specifically about infant feeding, although the effects on allergy and eczema in infants were mentioned. One speaker, an Australian, gave a sobering presentation amongst these about safety of probiotics. She stressed that the safety cannot be assumed, and that conventional toxicology and safety evaluation is of limited value in the case of probiotic bacteria. There is debate still over what constitutes appropriate safety testing, so some would argue that putting these into infant formula and testing on real babies seems a bit premature. No-one knows what these bacteria might do even in adults yet, let alone an immunologically-immature infant. Some researchers feel that there has been nowhere enough study done on these yet. Interestingly, one speaker began by talking about how infants obtain their microbiota (ie microorganism mix in the gut) from their mother - from her skin and prebiotics (oligosaccharides) in her breastmilk. Then later from food and other influences such as antibiotics, stress, gastro disease, etc. He said that breastfeeding sets up the microbiota for years. Presumably, the most profound effect would be seen in mothers who birth their babies at home and have skin-to-skin contact automatically and breastfeed exclusively. The bacteria from hospitals and staff, effects of antibiotics given to mothers and artificial feeding would all interrupt this process. Perhaps in Finland, mothers have less of these interventions?? Sam Doak wrote: ><<No statistically significant difference in recumbent length, head >circumference, or incidence of >adverse events was found between the two groups. Infants in the >experimental group had fewer incidences of constipation and had stool >characteristics that suggest that the experimental formula was tolerated >well. >Furthermore, these infants showed a trend toward fewer respiratory tract >infections.>> > >But, how did they compare with the breastfed infants? "Fewer incidences" is >still more than "normal" for an infant. I agree that there should be controls of breastfed babies in these sorts of studies, but we are probably only dreaming! I also noticed the careful wording in this abstract - nothing about statistical significance except that there was none in adverse events, etc. Were the 'fewer instances of constipation' significant? The stool characteristics 'suggest' it was tolerated well, and there was a 'trend' towards fewer infections. Wishy-washy, non-scientific terminology that really tells the reader nothing but subliminally implies that the test formula was 'better'. Perhaps the full article would reveal more scientific results. At least the funding source was declared! -- ****************************************************************** Joy Anderson B.Sc. Dip.Ed. Grad.Dip.Med.Tech. IBCLC Australian Breastfeeding Association counsellor, Nutrition student Perth, Western Australia. mailto:[log in to unmask] ****************************************************************** *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET email list is powered by LISTSERV (R). There is only one LISTSERV. To learn more, visit: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html