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A New Treatment for Colic?

Lactobacillus reuteri reduced crying times in breast-fed infants.

Infantile colic is difficult to treat. In a randomized non-blinded trial, Italian investigators assigned 83 breast-fed infants with colic (>3 hours of crying on >3 days/week) to receive the probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri (5 drops once daily 30 minutes after feeding) or the anti-gas medication simethicone (60 mg/day as 15 drops twice a day after feeding) for 28 days. Mothers also were asked to adopt a diet free of cow’s milk.

By day 28 after randomization, mothers of infants in the probiotic group were significantly more likely than mothers of infants in the simethicone group to report a reduction from baseline in average crying time to less than 3 hours per day (95% vs. 7%). In addition, median crying times were significantly shorter in the probiotic group than in the simethicone group on days 7, 14, 21, and 28 (e.g., 51 vs. 145 minutes/day on day 28).

Comment: Are these results too good to be true? Colic is likely a heterogeneous disorder, yet, in this study, lactobacillus was remarkably effective. Although I would like to see additional confirmatory double-blind studies before this treatment is widely adopted, I can imagine giving this probiotic a chance in difficult-to-treat infants.

— Howard Bauchner, MD

Published in Journal Watch Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine January 24, 2007

Citation(s):

Savino F et al. Lactobacillus reuteri (American Type Culture Collection Strain 55730) versus simethicone in the treatment of infantile colic: A prospective randomized study. Pediatrics 2007 Jan; 119:e124-30. (http://dx.doi.org/10.1542/peds.2006-1222)

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