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Alternative Medicine—Good Bugs for Baby

Pregnant? Eat more bacteria—at least the good kind found in probiotics. Your kids will thank you later. In a study published in a recent issue of The Lancet, women took probiotic supplements for the last few weeks of their pregnancies and for six months after giving birth. By age four, their children were 40 percent less likely to suffer from eczema than children whose mothers took placebos. The finding is in line with other research that’s shown probiotics to be helpful with such allergy-related conditions. Unfortunately, yogurt won’t work; the bacteria used in the study, Lactobacillus GG, is only found in supplements.