PLoS ONE (Jan 2015)

Similar Occurrence of Febrile Episodes Reported in Non-Atopic Children at Three to Five Years of Age after Prebiotics Supplemented Infant Formula.

  • Margriet van Stuijvenberg,
  • José Stam,
  • Christoph Grüber,
  • Fabio Mosca,
  • Sertac Arslanoglu,
  • Gaetano Chirico,
  • Christian P Braegger,
  • Josef Riedler,
  • Günther Boehm,
  • Pieter J J Sauer,
  • Multicentre Immuno Programming Study (MIPS) Study Group

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0129927
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 6
p. e0129927

Abstract

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This is a follow up study of a multicenter randomised placebo-controlled trial in seven centres in five West European countries. The RCT assessed the effect of infant formula supplemented with a mixture of prebiotics (with neutral short-chain and long-chain oligosaccharides and pectin-derived acidic oligosaccharides) during infancy in term-born children (n=1130). In the follow-up study 672 children (60% of the study population) participated: 232 (56%) from the prebiotics group (PG), 243 (58%) from the control group (CG), and 197 (66%) from the non-randomised breast-fed group (BG). The primary outcome was the occurrence of febrile episodes at three to five years of age prospectively documented by the parents: in the PG 1.17 (interquartile range 0.50-2.08) episodes per year versus 1.20 (0.52-2.57) in the CG; and 1.48 (0.65-2.60) in the BG. This specific prebiotics mixture given during infancy in healthy non-atopic subjects does not decrease febrile episodes and therefore seems not to prevent infection between their third and fifth birthday.