A probiotic containing eight different strains of live micro-organisms may help prevent diarrhoea during antibiotic treatment in children, according to a randomised, placebo-controlled study.

The results are in line with a 2019 Cochrane review that concluded probiotics as a group have a moderate protective effect on the prevention of paediatric antibiotic-associated diarrhoea.

However, it remains unclear whether multispecies probiotic formulations can prevent such diarrhoea, the Medical University of Warsaw, Poland, researchers wrote in their JAMA Pediatrics report.

A total of 350 children (mean age four years) were recruited within 24 hours of starting broad-spectrum systemic antibiotics and randomly assigned to a probiotic or placebo for the duration of antibiotic treatment and for one week after.