Probiotics could reduce premature baby mortality

“There are thousands of different probiotic strains which are associated with infant gut health, but no one has previously found the most effective ones for preventing mortality.”

Healthy babies born at or near full-term will naturally develop a set of “good” bacteria in their gut which has a range of benefits including helping them digest food properly and warding off disease.

Pre-term babies, however, can sometimes develop “abnormal” bacteria in their gut which be outright harmful.

Studies into the effectiveness of probiotics had looked at varying parameters including birth weight and how premature the babies were.

Professor Sun said by pulling together a large cohort across the different studies, they were able to see clear…