After birth, the baby's intestinal flora must first develop. If it is healthy, this has a major influence on the baby's health, but also on its sleep development. This so-called microbiome includes a whole community of "good" bacteria that gradually colonise the baby's intestines from birth and take on important tasks there. For example
- they support digestion and intestinal motility,
- they produce various vitamins,
- they neutralise toxins,
- they ward off infections caused by pathogenic germs and
- train the immune system
All scientists in the world agree on this: Breast milk is and remains the best for healthy infant nutrition. Its ideal composition, which always suits the baby and its development, also ensures that the child's intestinal flora can develop optimally. It contains bifidobacteria strains and offers these "good germs" a perfect breeding ground in the baby's intestines.
A scientific team from the Department of Nutrition and Immunology at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has investigated how different formulas of infant formula affect the development of the intestinal flora of infants.
There are good and bad gut bacteria in babies
In the developing, healthy intestinal flora of the child, the so-called Bifidobacteria an indispensable part. These little invisible heroes are natural lactic acid cultures that use their abilities to create an acidic environment in the gut. That sounds uncomfortable and it is - at least for harmful bacteria and pathogens. They don't like an acidic intestinal environment at all! In such a "climate", they hardly succeed in settling, surviving or even multiplying in a pathogenic way. This is because the good bifidobacteria prevent this and keep the "bad relatives" in check.
It has also long been known that bifidobacteria strains are transferred to infants through breast milk. In this way, breastfed babies receive natural protection against pathogens and have been proven to suffer significantly fewer infections than babies who only receive industrially produced baby food.
Accordingly, researchers at the Technical University of Munich, for example, asked themselves: Does infant formula enriched directly with bifidobacteria have the same protective effect? Among other things, this question was investigated using different formulations of breast milk substitutes on 223 children. The result: In every case, all formulations have an effect on the child's intestinal flora - the only question is how.
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The "bifidogenic effect" in infant formula
The differences in the effects of the formulas on the intestinal flora of infants became particularly clear between their third and seventh month of life.
Recognition 1: Even if bifidobacteria are added directly to artificial baby food, the number of these good bacteria in the baby's intestines still increases not.
Recognition 2: The situation is different if the infant formula contains Galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), which are also contained in breast milk. These prebiotic substances are dietary fibres consisting of polysaccharides. If they reach the baby's intestines, harmful germs and bacteria cannot do anything with them. However, GOS is extremely useful for the valuable bifidobacteria: they benefit from it and react to it with increased growth! This is known as the "bifidogenic effect" of GOS, even in bottle-fed infants. This effect is almost as great as in fully breastfed babies.
By the way: Even if a baby is fed a "mixed" diet - i.e. is fed both breast milk and artificial baby formula with GOS - a positive bifidogenic effect is achieved.
Consequence: Anyone who feeds their child with formula milk - for whatever reason - should make sure that GOS is added to it.
How has the effect of bifidobacteria on infants been researched?
The findings were obtained through molecular analyses of both the baby formula and the stool of the participating babies in their first year of life. The stool samples were put under the microscope five times over the course of these 12 months. The main focus here was on the composition of the child's stool and the diversity of bacteria it contained.
To conduct the study, the researchers set up four comparison series (research arms) with standard infant formula (for supplementary feeding if breast milk was insufficient, when not breastfeeding or after weaning):
- In the first arm, the young participants received a standard infant formula (formula and follow-on formula) without any additives (placebo).
- In the second arm, the infants were given standard infant formula with two additional strains of bifidobacteria (probiotics).
- In the third arm, galactooligosaccharides (prebiotics) were added to standard infant formula.
- And finally, in the fourth arm, the participating babies were given standard infant formula that also contained two bifidobacteria strains (probiotics) and galactooligosaccharides (prebiotics).
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