NEW YORK – A report out of Australia indicates that giving infants specific types of healthy bacteria in their first 6 months does not reduce the development of allergies later.

This surprising result came out of a study by Dr Susan Prescott and colleagues from the University of Western Australia. The research team was looking at healthy bacteria as a way of priming a child’s immune system and preventing later allergy development.

In a previous study by the same researchers, 178 children were given either Lactobacillus Acidopholus or a placebo. At one year of age, researchers found that children receiving acidopholus were more likely to develop allergies and not less. This was a direct contradiction to the hygiene hypothesis, which is one of the strongest theories in allergy research today.

The good news for parents is that the higher rate of allergic children among the test infants disappeared as they got older. By 30 months, there was no difference in rates of allergy between the test group and the placebo group. This included all allergic symptoms such as rash or other allergic conditions.

However, the hygiene hypothesis continues to be of interest, because of the tendency for kids in the “cleaner” first world to develop allergies at a higher rate than children in developing countries. Prescott noted that it’s is possible that other strains of probiotic bacteria may be more protective against allergies than the strains which her team have studied. This leaves room for more research projects to look at the effects of other known healthy bacteria.

Parents should keep in mind that probiotic bacteria are beneficial for reasons other than allergies. Babies given probiotics in the study were less likely to develop gastrointestinal infections between 6 months and 30 months.

Prescott concluded: “While the probiotics [studied] did not appear to have a role in allergy prevention, other strains have shown more promise.”

Source: Reuters