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]
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