Synbiotics, probiotics or prebiotics in infant formula for full term infants: a systematic review

Study answer

What this study found

Synbiotics did not significantly improve growth (weight, length, head circumference). Probiotics did not significantly improve growth or (consistently) reduce infections; stool frequency may increase with some regimens, but results are inconsistent. Prebiotics increased weight gain modestly (approx. 0.97 g/day in meta-analysis) and stool frequency, but did not consistently affect length, head circumference, infections, or hospitalization. No evidence that synbiotics are superior to probiotics or prebiotics. Overall, evidence quality is low due to imprecision, inconsistency, varied…

Study & population

Design: randomized controlled trials; participants: healthy full-term infants (>37 weeks gestation or birth weight ≥2.5 kg), age 0–12 months, formula-fed only; no disease, congenital abnormality or eczema; settings include multi-centre and single-centre trials; blinding described in some trials.

Intervention

Synbiotics: three regimens in term infant formulas.

Key limitation

Small sample sizes in several studies; heterogeneity in strains/doses/durations; varied formulas and outcome reporting; risk of bias and potential publication bias; overall low certainty of evidence.

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Original abstract