An Australian study published in the journal Allergy found that ingesting probiotics in the first six months of life did not reduce children’s risk of developing allergies.
The findings were the result of follow-up work conducted on a previous study of 178 children who consumed Lactobacillus acidophilus or a placebo each day for the first six months of their lives. At age 1, the children who ingested the probiotics were more likely to develop a sensitivity to allergens. However, the scientists found that at age 2-and-a-half, there was no difference between the children who consumed the probiotics and those who took the placebo.
The findings showed that the children in the probiotic group had fewer gastrointestinal infections, although the study wasn’t designed to measure those effects.