ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Clinical Infectious Diseases
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1575605
This article is part of the Research TopicStrain-Specific Probiotics: Enhancing Children's Health Through Targeted Clinical ResearchView all 13 articles
Saccharomyces boulardii and Bifidobacterium Co-treatment for Antibiotic Associated Diarrhea in Pediatrics: A Multicenter Efficacy and Safety Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1People’s Hospital of Deyang City, Deyang, Sichuan Province, China
- 2The First People's Hospital of Zhaotong City, Zhaotong City, China
- 3Mianyang Third People's Hospital, Mianyang, China
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Background: Recent or ongoing use of antibiotics causes diarrhea. Probiotic yogurt is generally used in antibiotics-induced diarrhea as adjuvant therapy. There have been no clear recommendations for preventing antibiotics-induced diarrhea in infants and young children in China mainland. The objectives of the study were to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Saccharomyces boulardii and Bifidobacterium in antibiotic-induced diarrhea in infants and young children in Chinese settings. Methods: Data were collected retrospectively. Infants and children received antibiotics treatments with 50 g daily regular yogurt and 50 g daily regular yogurt for 7 days after those treatments (AY cohort, n=119) or with 10 billion CFU daily Saccharomyces boulardii and 10 billion CFU daily Saccharomyces boulardii for 7 days after those treatments (AS cohort, n=110), or with 10 billion CFU daily Bifidobacterium and 10 billion CFU daily Bifidobacterium for 7 days after those treatments (AB cohort, n=106). Results: All infants and young children reported diarrhea after the start of any type of antibiotics treatments with probiotics. Time for the start of diarrhea after start of antibiotics treatments with probiotics was higher in infants and children of the AS cohort than those of infants and children of the AY (3 (4-3) days vs. 1 (1-1) days, p<0.001) and the AB (3 (4-3) days vs. 2 (2-1) days, p<0.001) cohorts. Twenty-four (twenty percent), 11 (10%), and 17 (16%) infants and children reported any type of diarrhea in the AY, AS, and AB cohorts, respectively. The number of patients with reported diarrhea (mild and severe) and the number of patients who require extra anti-diarrheal treatments after antibiotics treatments in the AS cohort were fewer than those reported in the AY and the AB cohorts (p<0.05 for all). Yogurt reported sneezing, running nose, redness of the eyes, and nausea in the AY cohort (p<0.05 for all comparisons). Saccharomyces boulardii and Bifidobacterium caused vomiting and nausea.Conclusions: Any type of antibiotic treatments cause diarrhea in infants and young children.Probiotics especially Saccharomyces boulardii co-treatments with any type of antibiotics treatments significantly reduce incidences of diarrhea in infants and young children with manageable adverse effects.Level of Evidence: III.
Keywords: Antibiotics induced diarrhea, Bifidobacterium, infants, loose stool, Saccharomyces boulardii, Watery stool, Yogurt, young children
Received: 12 Feb 2025; Accepted: 12 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Liu, Zhou, Duan, Shi and Zeng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yan Zeng, People’s Hospital of Deyang City, Deyang, Sichuan Province, China
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