Comment published on 9 February 2022, see
Nutrients 2022, 14(4), 724.
Probiotics in Pediatrics. A Review and Practical Guide
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), UZ Brussel, KidZ Health Castle, 1090 Brussels, Belgium
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Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Silvia Scaglioni and Ruggiero Francavilla
Nutrients 2021, 13(7), 2176; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13072176
Received: 17 May 2021
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Revised: 17 June 2021
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Accepted: 21 June 2021
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Published: 24 June 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutritional Habits and Interventions in Childhood)
The potential benefit of the administration of probiotics in children has been studied in many settings globally. Probiotics products contain viable micro-organisms that confer a health benefit on the host. Beneficial effects of selected probiotic strains for the management or prevention of selected pediatric conditions have been demonstrated. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of current available evidence on the efficacy of specific probiotics in selected conditions to guide pediatricians in decision-making on the therapeutic or prophylactic use of probiotic strains in children. Evidence to support the use of certain probiotics in selected pediatric conditions is often available. In addition, the administration of probiotics is associated with a low risk of adverse events and is generally well tolerated. The best documented efficacy of certain probiotics is for treatment of infectious gastroenteritis, and prevention of antibiotic-associated, Clostridioides difficile-associated and nosocomial diarrhea. Unfortunately, due to study heterogeneity and in some cases high risk of bias in published studies, a broad consensus is lacking for specific probiotic strains, doses and treatment regimens for some pediatric indications. The current available evidence thus limits the systematic administration of probiotics. The most recent meta-analyses and reviews highlight the need for more well-designed, properly powered, strain-specific and dedicated-dose response studies.
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Keywords:
probiotics; pediatrics; children
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Depoorter, L.; Vandenplas, Y. Probiotics in Pediatrics. A Review and Practical Guide. Nutrients 2021, 13, 2176. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13072176
AMA Style
Depoorter L, Vandenplas Y. Probiotics in Pediatrics. A Review and Practical Guide. Nutrients. 2021; 13(7):2176. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13072176
Chicago/Turabian StyleDepoorter, Leontien, and Yvan Vandenplas. 2021. "Probiotics in Pediatrics. A Review and Practical Guide" Nutrients 13, no. 7: 2176. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13072176
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