Infant Colic – BB12 and Early Life Digestion
The first months of life are a time of rapid change, not only for a baby’s body, but also for their developing gut. This delicate environment and important time plays a crucial role in digestion, comfort, and immune development. For some infants, this adjustment period can bring challenges such as colic, irregular digestion, or slower weight gain, all of which can place stress on the baby, and when the baby is stressed, the parents are too!
This is an area where BB12 has had a good deal of study. Over the past two decades, scientists have conducted several high-quality human studies, many of them double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials, exploring how BB-12 may help infants establish balance and comfort in the earliest stages of life, the aim being to reduce colic or any other forms of digestive upset.
Across these studies, BB-12 has shown strong, consistent benefits: helping to reduce the symptoms of infant colic, supporting steady growth in preterm infants, and promoting a healthier gut and immune environment right from the start. And as well all know, a good start is a good thing!
So what does the research actually show us?
Calmer, more comfortable babies
In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 80 infants with colic, researchers found that babies who received BB-12 drops once a day for four weeks cried and fussed less, with a reduction of 130 crying minutes per day, compared to an 84 minute reduction in the placebo group, and 130 minutes less of crying is a big improvement!
In practical terms, that meant daily crying time dropped from over three hours to just about one hour on average, a change most parents would call life-changing, and certainly indicative of a happier baby.
What’s more, the babies taking BB-12 showed signs of better gut comfort at a biological level, with higher protective immune markers (secretory IgA) and lower calprotectin, an indicator of gut inflammation.
A follow up with this group of participants found that no infant relapsed when treatment stopped, suggesting that the effect BB12 had was a long lasting one. A good start indeed!
Supporting growth and gut balance in preterm infants
In another double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of 69 preterm infants, BB-12 was added daily to expressed breast milk for three weeks. The babies receiving BB-12 gained weight faster, showing consistently higher daily growth than the placebo group, and developed a more balanced gut environment, with higher levels of beneficial bacteria and lower signs of inflammation.
The probiotic group showed higher levels of IgA, a slight increase in faecal acetate and lactate, and a drop in calprotectin. This all lends itself to the argument that BB12 helped to reduce inflammation and balance out the gut environment, and reinforces the results found in the first study.
These results were achieved safely, without any adverse effects reported, an important factor in such a sensitive population as pre-term infants.
Consistency and scientific strength
Across these clinical trials, involving preterm infants and babies, the findings are remarkably consistent:
Babies receiving BB-12® cried less, grew more, and showed better immune balance. It’s also important to note that all studies were randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, meaning neither parents nor researchers knew which infants received BB-12 until after the results were analysed, so it was a fair test. And the results were not just statistically significant, but clinically meaningful, reflecting real improvements in comfort, development and wellbeing.
Ok, so how does this affect me?
Early life sets the stage for a child’s long-term health. When an infant’s digestion is calm and balanced, everything from feeding to sleep tends to go more smoothly, and the benefits ripple outward for the whole family.
The research on BB-12 shows that it can play a gentle, natural role in helping to establish that balance. By supporting healthy bacteria in the gut, BB-12 has shown a real capacity to create digestive comfort and reduce colic, whilst simultaneously boosting growth and immune development in early life.
For parents seeking something backed by rigorous science, BB-12 is one of the most researched bacterial strains ever studied in infants, tested in multiple double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, and consistently shown to support comfort, growth, and gut balance from the very beginning.
We should note that our BetterGuts BB12 product contains a high concentration of bacteria intended for adults, and should not be used in infants. We’d love to develop a live culture BB12 supplement for babies one day, so stay tuned!
References (the science) – Don’t just take our word for it:
1. Nocerino R, De Filippis F, Cecere G, Marino A, Micillo M, Di Scala C, de Caro C, Calignano A, Bruno C, Paparo L, Iannicelli AM, Cosenza L, Maddalena Y, Della Gatta G, Coppola S, Carucci L, Ercolini D, Berni Canani R. The therapeutic efficacy of Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BB-12® in infant colic: A randomised, double blind, placebo-controlled trial. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2020 Jan;51(1):110-120. doi: 10.1111/apt.15561. Epub 2019 Dec 3. PMID: 31797399; PMCID: PMC6973258. Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6973258/
2. Mohan, R., Koebnick, C., Schildt, J. et al. Effects of Bifidobacterium lactis Bb12 Supplementation on Body Weight, Fecal pH, Acetate, Lactate, Calprotectin, and IgA in Preterm Infants. Pediatr Res 64, 418–422 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1203/PDR.0b013e318181b7fa
3. Mohan R, Koebnick C, Schildt J, Schmidt S, Mueller M, Possner M, Radke M, Blaut M. Effects of Bifidobacterium lactis Bb12 supplementation on intestinal microbiota of preterm infants: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study. J Clin Microbiol. 2006 Nov;44(11):4025-31. doi: 10.1128/JCM.00767-06. Epub 2006 Sep 13. PMID: 16971641; PMCID: PMC1698302. Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1698302/
4. Chen K, Zhang G, Xie H, You L, Li H, Zhang Y, Du C, Xu S, Melsaether C, Yuan S. Efficacy of Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis, BB-12® on infant colic - a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study. Benef Microbes. 2021 Nov 16;12(6):531-540. doi: 10.3920/BM2020.0233. Epub 2021 Sep 22. PMID: 34550055. Available at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34550055/
