Parental Perception and Experience in Infants with Colic Symptoms Receiving Probiotic Supplementation

Objective:We aimed to evaluate the effects of probiotic drops containing the microbial strains Bifidobacterium breve BR03 and Bifidobacterium breve B632 on symptoms and quality-of-life indicators in infants aged 0–12 months under real-life conditions, particularly in subgroups such as colic, cesarean delivery, prematurity, hospitalization, and antibiotic exposure.Materials and Methods:This four-center, multicenter study was conducted in the pediatric clinics of Prof. Dr. Cemil Taşcıoğlu City Hospital, Yalova Training and Research Hospital, Esenyurt State Hospital, and Sancaktepe Prof. Dr. İlhan Varank Training and Research Hospital. Symptoms of a total of 150 infants aged 0–12 months were compared before and after probiotic use using a parental questionnaire. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for continuous/ordinal variables, and the McNemar test was used for binary variables (statistical significance set at p<0.05).Results:The median age of the infants was 4.5 months (25th–75th percentile: 2–8), and 56% of the cases were male. The reasons for initiating probiotic use were irritability (42.7%), colic (26.7%), gas (22.7%), and recommendation (8.0%). The median duration of use was 90 days, and the median daily dose was 5 drops. After probiotic use, a marked improvement was observed in crying-related parameters: median crying duration decreased from 1 hour/day (25th–75th percentile: 1–3) to 0 hours/day (25th–75th percentile: 0–1), median crying frequency decreased from 2 (25th–75th percentile: 2–3) to 1 (25th–75th percentile: 1–1), and the median number of daily crying episodes decreased from 10 (25th–75th percentile: 8–10) to 2 (25th–75th percentile: 2–4). In parallel, significant reductions were observed in the severity scores of gasses, abdominal distension, and irritability, along with increases in maternal and paternal sleep duration and a decrease in maternal depressive mood score (all comparisons p<0.001). In binary symptom assessment, the presence of gas decreased from 63.3% to 7.3%, irritability from 47.3% to 11.3%, and abdominal distension from 63.3% to 22.7%, while the proportion of infants reported to have nighttime sleep increased from 32.0% to 68.0% (all p<0.001).Conclusion:The use of probiotic drops containing the microbial strains Bifidobacterium breve BR03 and Bifidobacterium breve B632 was found to be associated with clinically meaningful improvement in gastrointestinal complaints and parent-related sleep and mood parameters, as well as good tolerability, in infants aged 0–12 months.