Paediatric practice: The role of probiotics in normalization of gut microbiota balance in children

Gut microbiota consisting of a large number of bacterial species actively influences various physiological functions, participates in metabolic and biosynthetic processes, has an immunomodulating effect, maintains the barrier function of mucous membranes and therefore becomes part of the host organism. A complex and many-step process of the formation of normal flora of the gastrointestinal tract begins immediately after a baby is born and continues during the first eighteen months of life. A complicated neonatal period and use of antibacterial drugs in small infants might impair the balance of gut microbiota. The effect of the probiotic «Promadophilus®Children» on the composition of gut microbiota was assessed in small children from groups of risk for development of intestinal dysbiosis. Studies have shown that against the background of using a complex probiotic the qualitative and quantitative parameters of lacto- and bifigoflora in children in the neonatal and early postnatal periods normalized. The levels of other groups of obligate anaerobic bacteria (bacteroides and clostridia) did not demonstrate any statistically significant changes.