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Do babies need probiotics?

Most healthy babies do not need probiotics. Breast milk and a normal, varied diet already support a healthy gut, and no major pediatric body recommends routine probiotic use for well infants.

Probiotics may offer modest, situation-specific benefits (like reduced crying in some breastfed babies with colic), but they are not considered essential for typical healthy development.

Strength of evidence

Mixed

Recommendations combine a Canadian Paediatric Society position statement and an AAP clinical report (guideline level) with conflicting meta-analyses and a 2019 Cochrane review; results vary by condition, strain, and feeding type, so certainty is only moderate to low for most uses.

What the evidence says

For a healthy, term baby who is growing well, probiotics are not required. Breastfeeding itself helps seed a healthy infant gut, and pediatric groups do not recommend adding probiotic supplements as a routine part of infant care.

Probiotics have been studied for specific problems. The strain Lactobacillus reuteri has shown a modest reduction in crying time for breastfed babies with colic in several trials, but a 2019 Cochrane-based review found the evidence was not strong enough to say probiotics clearly beat placebo for colic overall, and benefits mainly disappeared once supplementation stopped. Some infant formulas already contain added probiotic strains, but the overall health benefit of this addition has not been proven in large trials.

For premature or very low birth weight babies, the picture is different and more specialized. There is some evidence probiotics may reduce serious gut complications in preterm infants, but the AAP specifically advises caution and does not support routine use in the smallest, most vulnerable preemies due to inconsistent safety and quality data.

Bottom line: healthy babies generally don't need probiotic supplements. If your baby has colic, was born prematurely, or has a specific digestive issue, it's worth discussing with your pediatrician whether a particular probiotic strain could help in that specific situation.

Sources

✓Reviewed by CH, MD, FRCPC

Reviewed by a specialist physician certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, who has read this answer against the sources listed above and confirmed it reflects them. That is not medical advice about your child. How we review

Answer checked July 30, 2026

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