Probiotics for Babies and Colic: What's Appropriate

Written and medically reviewed by Dr Zeeshan Afzal (MBBS), Medical Officer at Welzo.
Last reviewed: 29 July 2026 | Next review due: July 2027 | Evidence base: NHS, NICE CKS, Cochrane, ESPGHAN and peer-reviewed randomised controlled trials

If you have spent the last three evenings pacing a hallway with an inconsolable newborn, you have almost certainly typed "baby probiotics UK" into Google at 2am. It is one of the most searched infant health terms in Britain, and the results are a mess of contradictory promises. Some brands imply drops will end colic in a week. The NHS says something quite different. Both cannot be right. This guide sets out exactly what the research shows, what UK health authorities actually recommend, where the evidence is genuinely encouraging, and where it collapses. It is written for parents who want the real picture rather than a sales pitch. If you are new to this subject, our overview of gut health in the UK explains the underlying science, our guide to children's probiotics in the UK covers older age groups, and our page on probiotics in pregnancy covers the period before birth. You can browse the full Welzo gut health range and our probiotics collection at any time.

An important note before you read on

Welzo sells a range of well-researched gut health supplements, including Akkermansia muciniphila, modified citrus pectin powder, Ultra Purity Berberine and Ultra Purity TUDCA. None of these products are suitable for babies, infants or children. They are formulated and dosed for adults only. Nothing in this article should be read as a suggestion to give an adult supplement to an infant. Where products are discussed for parents, that is made explicit.

Infant health is a high-stakes area. Please treat this article as background reading to help you have a better-informed conversation with your GP, health visitor or pharmacist, not as a replacement for that conversation.

Table of contents

• The short answer
• What colic actually is (and what it is not)
• Why the infant gut microbiome entered the colic conversation
• What the research says about baby probiotics and colic
• What UK guidance says: NHS, NICE and ESPGHAN
• Is it safe to give a baby probiotics?
• What to look for in a UK baby probiotic
• How to give probiotic drops to a baby
• What actually helps colic
• Red flags: when crying is not colic
• Probiotics for babies beyond colic
• Probiotics for the breastfeeding parent
• Cost and value in the UK
• The bottom line
• Frequently asked questions
• References

The short answer

If you read nothing else, read this:

• One strain has meaningful evidence: Limosilactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938, and that evidence applies mainly to exclusively or predominantly breastfed infants under three months with colic.
• The evidence in formula-fed babies is weak and inconsistent. The largest and most rigorous community trial found no benefit in a mixed breastfed and formula-fed population.
• The NHS does not recommend probiotic supplements for colic, stating there is no evidence they help. This is an important position for parents to know about.
• ESPGHAN, the European paediatric gastroenterology body, takes a softer line, saying L. reuteri DSM 17938 may be considered in breastfed infants with colic.
• Probiotics do not appear to prevent colic in healthy newborns.
• Preterm, low-birthweight and immunocompromised infants are a different category entirely. Do not give probiotics to these babies outside specialist neonatal supervision.
• Colic resolves on its own. By 10 to 12 weeks of age it is rare. Any product trialled during that window will appear to "work" simply because time passed.

What colic actually is (and what it is not)

The clinical definition

Colic is not a disease. It is a description of a pattern of behaviour. The long-standing research definition, known as the modified Wessel criteria, is crying and fussing for at least three hours a day, on at least three days a week, for at least one week, in a baby who is otherwise healthy, feeding well and growing normally.

The key phrase is otherwise healthy. Colic is a diagnosis of exclusion. A clinician reaches it only after ruling out other causes of excessive crying such as infection, cow's milk protein allergy, reflux, a hair tourniquet around a toe, or a corneal scratch.

How common is colic?

A 2017 systematic review and meta-analysis led by researchers at the University of Warwick pooled 28 diary studies covering 8,690 infants. It found that average fussing and crying time held steady at roughly 117 to 133 minutes per 24 hours during the first six weeks, then dropped to an average of 68 minutes by 10 to 12 weeks. Using modified Wessel criteria, colic affected 17 to 25 per cent of infants in the first six weeks, 11 per cent by 8 to 9 weeks, and just 0.6 per cent by 10 to 12 weeks.

That final figure matters enormously when you are evaluating any colic product. Colic largely disappears on its own within about ten weeks. Any intervention started at week seven will look impressive.

What colic is not

Colic is not evidence that you are feeding your baby wrong. It is not a sign of a "sensitive stomach" that needs correcting. It is not caused by anxious parenting, and it does not predict later temperament or health problems. The same Warwick analysis found no evidence of a universal crying peak at six weeks across studies, which undercuts some of the folk wisdom around colic timelines.

Colic and the parent

The most serious risk associated with colic is not to the baby. It is the exhaustion, isolation and distress it causes parents, and in rare cases the risk of a parent shaking a baby out of desperation. This is why every credible guideline puts parental support at the centre of colic management rather than at the end as an afterthought.

Why the infant gut microbiome entered the colic conversation

How a baby's microbiome is seeded

A newborn's gut is colonised rapidly in the first days and weeks of life. Mode of delivery, feeding method, antibiotic exposure and even the immediate environment all shape which organisms take hold. Breastfed infants typically develop a Bifidobacterium-dominated community, fed by human milk oligosaccharides that the baby cannot digest but these bacteria can.

If you want the underlying biology, our guides to microbiome diversity, gut barrier function and short-chain fatty acids explain how these communities influence the gut lining and immune signalling.

What is different in the guts of colicky babies

Observational research has repeatedly found differences between the gut communities of colicky and non-colicky infants. Colicky babies have been found to be colonised less often by Lactobacillus species and more often by gas-producing and anaerobic gram-negative organisms including Escherichia and Klebsiella. Some studies have also reported higher rates of colonisation with Clostridioides difficile.

The theory that follows is intuitive: if the gut community is skewed, gas production and gut motility may be altered, producing abdominal discomfort. This is the concept sometimes described as gut dysbiosis.

The critical caveat

Association is not causation. It is entirely possible that colicky babies cry more, swallow more air, feed differently, and that this changes their microbiome rather than the reverse. The microbial differences may be a consequence of colic rather than its cause. This is precisely why randomised controlled trials matter more than observational findings here.

The gut–brain axis in infancy

There is genuine and growing interest in how gut microbes signal to the developing nervous system, a field explored in our article on the gut-brain connection. In infancy this research is still early stage. It is a legitimate scientific hypothesis, not an established mechanism, and it should not be presented to parents as settled fact.

What the research says about baby probiotics and colic

Limosilactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938: the most studied strain

Almost all of the credible colic research concerns a single strain. It was formerly classified as Lactobacillus reuteri and is now, following taxonomic reclassification, Limosilactobacillus reuteri. The strain designation DSM 17938 is what matters. A different L. reuteri strain is a different organism with different effects.

The 2015 meta-analysis

A meta-analysis published in PLOS ONE in 2015 pooled six randomised controlled trials covering 423 infants with colic, 213 receiving L. reuteri DSM 17938 and 210 placebo. It found the probiotic reduced daily crying time by approximately 43 minutes at two weeks and 46 minutes at three weeks, and increased the proportion of infants classed as treatment successes at two and three weeks. Notably, the benefit was not significant at four weeks, and the strain did not affect weight, length or head circumference, with no serious adverse events reported. Five of the six trials enrolled exclusively or predominantly breastfed infants.

The 2018 individual participant data meta-analysis

The strongest analysis to date, published in Pediatrics in 2018, pooled the raw individual-level data from the relevant trials rather than just their summary results. Its conclusion was specific: L. reuteri DSM 17938 effectively reduces crying in breastfed infants with colic and can be recommended for that group. Its role in formula-fed infants, the authors stated plainly, requires further research.

Where the evidence falls down

The most important counterweight is a double-blind, placebo-controlled randomised trial conducted in a community sample in Melbourne, published in the BMJ. Unlike earlier trials recruited from specialist clinics, it enrolled both breastfed and formula-fed infants from the general community. It found no benefit. Some analyses even suggested formula-fed infants in the probiotic arm fussed slightly more.

This is not a minor footnote. Community-recruited trials are usually the more realistic test of whether something works in the real world, and this one was negative.

Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BB-12

BB-12 has appeared in a smaller number of colic trials and is the second strain that European paediatric guidance mentions as a possible option for breastfed infants. The evidence base is considerably thinner than for DSM 17938 and should be treated as preliminary. Our guide to Bifidobacterium longum covers the wider genus in adults.

Multi-strain products

Many products sold for infants contain four, eight or twelve strains. Broader is intuitively appealing, but almost none of these blends have been tested as blends in infants with colic. A blend containing DSM 17938 alongside eleven untested strains is not equivalent to DSM 17938 studied on its own. Our article on single versus multi-strain probiotics unpacks this trade-off.

Can probiotics prevent colic?

A 2019 Cochrane review examined whether giving probiotics to healthy newborns prevents colic developing. It included six studies with 1,886 participants. The conclusion: compared with placebo, probiotics made little or no difference to whether colic occurred, though crying time appeared reduced. The review authors judged the overall certainty of the evidence to be extremely limited because of sparse data, heterogeneity between studies and risk of bias, and explicitly stated it was not possible to advise a change in practice.

Evidence at a glance

What UK guidance says: NHS, NICE and ESPGHAN

The NHS position

This is the section most product pages leave out. The NHS page on colic states directly that remedies for colic such as anti-colic drops, herbal preparations and probiotic supplements are not recommended and there is no evidence they help colic. It advises speaking to your health visitor for support instead.

The NHS also advises against spinal manipulation and cranial osteopathy for colic, noting there is little evidence they work and they may hurt your baby.

NICE Clinical Knowledge Summaries

NICE CKS guidance on infantile colic centres on reassurance, support and general soothing measures. It does not recommend simeticone drops or lactase drops on the basis of insufficient evidence, and it does not recommend routine changes to a breastfeeding parent's diet or to formula preparation. Probiotics are not part of standard recommended management in UK primary care.

ESPGHAN

The European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition published a strain-specific position paper in 2023. It concluded that L. reuteri DSM 17938 may be considered for the management of colic in breastfed infants, while noting that data on other strains, blends and synbiotics in infantile colic are limited. A 2025 review of studies published since then concluded that the existing ESPGHAN recommendations should stand unchanged.

How to reconcile these positions

These bodies are not contradicting each other so much as answering slightly different questions and weighting uncertainty differently. NICE and the NHS are setting policy for a whole population, where a modest average effect in one subgroup, based on trials with some risk of bias and industry funding, does not justify a national recommendation. ESPGHAN is advising specialists managing individual families, where a low-risk option with some supporting data is reasonable to consider.

For a parent, the practical translation is this: a trial of L. reuteri DSM 17938 in a breastfed baby with colic is a defensible thing to discuss with your GP or health visitor. It is not something the NHS will endorse or fund, and it is not something you should expect to work.

Is it safe to give a baby probiotics?

Healthy, full-term babies

Across the colic trials, L. reuteri DSM 17938 has been generally well tolerated. The 2015 PLOS ONE meta-analysis found no effect on growth measurements and no serious adverse events. The 2019 Cochrane prevention review similarly found no difference in reported side effects between probiotic and placebo groups.

That said, "no serious adverse events in a few hundred infants over three weeks" is a limited safety dataset. It is not the same as long-term safety data, which does not really exist for this population.

Preterm, low-birthweight and medically vulnerable babies

This is the single most important safety message in this article. In September 2023 the US Food and Drug Administration issued a Dear Healthcare Provider letter warning that preterm infants given probiotics are at risk of invasive, potentially fatal disease caused by the organisms in the product. The letter described a preterm infant with a birthweight under 1,000g who was given a probiotic in hospital, developed sepsis caused by Bifidobacterium longum, and died. Genomic sequencing showed the bacterium causing sepsis was a genetic match to the organism in the product. More than two dozen adverse events in infants had been reported to the agency since 2018.

Do not give any probiotic product to a baby who was born preterm, has a low birthweight, has a central line, has a compromised immune system, has short bowel syndrome, or is unwell, without explicit instruction from the paediatric or neonatal team looking after them. A live organism is a live organism, and an immature or compromised immune system may not contain it.

Probiotics in neonatal units are a different thing entirely

You may read that UK neonatal units give probiotics to premature babies. Some do, as part of a strategy to reduce necrotising enterocolitis, a severe and often fatal bowel condition affecting very preterm infants. Cochrane reviews have examined this evidence in detail. This is a hospital intervention, using specific products, under continuous specialist monitoring, in babies who are already under intensive medical supervision. It has no bearing on whether you should buy drops for a healthy full-term baby, and it is certainly not permission to give a shop-bought supplement to a premature baby at home.

Side effects parents report

Reported effects in healthy infants are usually mild and transient: a change in stool consistency, a little extra wind, or fussiness in the first few days. Our article on probiotic side effects and our overview of probiotic safety cover this in more depth for older age groups. If anything more than mild change occurs, stop and speak to a healthcare professional.

What to look for in a UK baby probiotic

If, having read the above, you and your GP or health visitor decide a trial is reasonable, here is how to evaluate what is on the shelf.

Strain designation, not just species

The label should name the full strain: genus, species and strain code. Limosilactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938 is a strain designation. "Lactobacillus blend" is not. If a product will not tell you the strain code, the clinical evidence does not apply to it. The same principle applies across the category, as explained in our guides to Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and how to choose a probiotic.

Dose

The colic trials generally used around 100 million colony-forming units per day, delivered as five drops. This is far lower than the 20 to 50 billion CFU doses common in adult products. More is not better in an infant, and adult doses are not appropriate. Our explainer on CFU versus AFU covers how these counts are measured.

Format

Oil-suspension drops are the format used in most infant trials and are the easiest to dose accurately. Powders and sachets designed for infants also exist; see our guide to probiotic powders. Adult capsules, drinks and tablets are not suitable for babies. Never open an adult capsule and give a portion of the contents to an infant.

Excipients and allergens

Check the carrier oil, whether the product is dairy-derived, and whether it contains any sweeteners or flavourings. Dairy-derived cultures are usually fine, but if cow's milk protein allergy is suspected this needs checking. Our guides to dairy-free probiotics and vegan probiotics cover the alternatives for older children and adults.

Why UK labels rarely say "probiotic"

You may notice that UK packaging says "live cultures" rather than "probiotic". This is not evasiveness. The UK Department of Health considers the term "probiotic" to constitute a health claim, because it implies a health benefit. Under the retained nutrition and health claims regulations, only claims authorised on the Great Britain Nutrition and Health Claims Register may be used, and no probiotic health claim has been authorised. The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled against brands on exactly this point.

The practical consequence for parents: a UK label legally cannot tell you what a product is for. That makes reading the strain designation and checking it against the published trials even more important.

Storage and stability

Some infant products need refrigeration; many modern formulations are shelf-stable. Follow the label. See our guides to whether probiotics need refrigeration and shelf-stable probiotics.

A quick checklist

How to give probiotic drops to a baby

Timing

Most infant drops are given once daily. Trials have typically dosed in the morning, often shortly before or during a feed. Consistency matters more than the specific time. Our article on when to take probiotics covers timing principles in general.

Delivery

For breastfed babies, drops can be placed onto a clean fingertip or a spoon and offered directly, or dropped onto the nipple immediately before a feed. For bottle-fed babies, add drops to milk that is at or below body temperature. Never add live cultures to hot formula, as heat will kill the organisms. Do not mix a full day's dose into a whole bottle if there is a chance the baby will not finish it.

How long to trial before deciding

The trials that found benefit reported it at two to three weeks. Give any trial a fair run of about three weeks, keeping a simple diary of crying and fussing times so you have something objective to look back on. Our article on how long probiotics take to work explains why short trials mislead.

Set a stop date before you start. Because colic resolves spontaneously, without a predefined endpoint many families end up spending money for months on a product that stopped being relevant weeks earlier.

What actually helps colic

Feeding and positioning

• Hold your baby upright during feeds to reduce air swallowing.
• Wind your baby during and after every feed.
• If breastfeeding, make sure the first breast is well drained before offering the second.
• Check positioning and attachment with a midwife, health visitor or infant feeding specialist.

Soothing measures

• Hold and cuddle during crying episodes; you cannot spoil a newborn.
• Gentle motion, such as walking with the pram or rocking.
• White noise, a warm bath, or a change of environment.
• Reducing overall stimulation in the evening.

What not to do

• Do not change formula or cut foods from your own diet without professional advice.
• Do not use spinal manipulation or cranial osteopathy; the NHS advises against both.
• Do not use devices inserted into a baby's rectum to relieve wind, which NHS services specifically warn may cause harm.
• Do not give herbal remedies or gripe water to very young infants without checking with a pharmacist.

Looking after yourself

If you are close to breaking point, put your baby down somewhere safe such as their cot, leave the room, and take a few minutes. This is safe and it is recommended. Cry-sis offers a UK helpline for parents of excessively crying babies, and the NHS colic page lists current support options. Tell your health visitor or GP honestly how you are coping; postnatal depression and anxiety are far more common in parents of colicky infants and both are treatable.

Red flags: when crying is not colic

Seek urgent medical advice

Contact NHS 111, your GP urgently, or attend A&E if your baby has any of the following alongside crying:

• Fever, especially in a baby under three months
• A rash that does not fade under pressure
• Vomiting that is green, bloody, or forceful and repeated
• Blood in the nappy or stool
• Refusing feeds, or significantly fewer wet nappies
• Unusual floppiness, drowsiness or difficulty waking
• Rapid, laboured or grunting breathing
• A weak, high-pitched or continuous cry that is different from their usual cry
• Poor weight gain or weight loss
• A bulging soft spot on the head

Trust your instincts. You know your baby better than anyone.

Cow's milk protein allergy

Consider this if excessive crying comes with eczema needing treatment, faltering growth, blood or mucus in stools, persistent vomiting, or altered bowel habit. It is managed with a supervised dietary exclusion, not with probiotics. Speak to your GP.

Reflux

Crying during or straight after feeds, arching of the back, and frequent posseting can point to reflux rather than colic. Our guide on when to see a GP about stomach symptoms covers the general principles for older patients, but for infants, go to your GP or health visitor directly.

Probiotics for babies beyond colic

After antibiotics

Antibiotic-associated diarrhoea in children is one of the clearer indications in paediatric probiotic research. ESPGHAN recommends Saccharomyces boulardii or Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG, started as early as possible alongside the antibiotic course. Discuss this with your GP or pharmacist rather than acting alone in an infant. See our guides to probiotics after antibiotics and Saccharomyces boulardii.

Acute gastroenteritis

ESPGHAN lists several strains that may be considered in acute gastroenteritis in children, including LGG, S. boulardii and L. reuteri DSM 17938. The priority in an infant with gastroenteritis is always rehydration and medical assessment, not supplementation. Our article on recovering from a stomach bug covers the general approach.

Constipation

Current European guidance does not recommend any probiotic strain for functional constipation in children. Our guide to constipation relief covers evidence-based options for older age groups.

Probiotics for the breastfeeding parent

A common question is whether the feeding parent taking a probiotic helps the baby. There is no good evidence that adult probiotic supplementation resolves a baby's colic, and it should not be pursued for that purpose.

Parental gut health in its own right is a different matter. Pregnancy, birth, antibiotic exposure and the sheer disruption of the newborn period all affect digestion and wellbeing. If you are interested in supporting your own gut health as an adult, our guides to the best probiotics in the UK, probiotics for women and the best foods for gut health are good starting points, alongside our articles on fermented foods, kefir and gut health and sleep.

The Welzo probiotics collection and the wider gut health range include adult formulations such as Akkermansia muciniphila, modified citrus pectin powder, Ultra Purity Berberine and Ultra Purity TUDCA. To repeat the point made at the top of this article: these are adult products. They are not for babies or children, and they should not be given to an infant under any circumstances. If you are breastfeeding, check any supplement with your GP, midwife or pharmacist before taking it.

Cost and value in the UK

Infant probiotic drops in the UK typically cost somewhere between £15 and £30 for a bottle lasting around a month. Over a three-month colic window that is a meaningful sum for a household already absorbing the costs of a new baby.

Set that against the evidence. In breastfed infants, the pooled data suggest a reduction of roughly 40 to 50 minutes of crying per day at two to three weeks, an effect that was not statistically significant by four weeks in the 2015 meta-analysis. In formula-fed infants, the expected benefit is close to zero. And whatever you do, colic will very likely be gone by 10 to 12 weeks anyway.

That is not an argument against ever trying. It is an argument for going in with clear eyes, a defined trial period, and no guilt whatsoever if you decide it is not worth it.

The bottom line

Baby probiotics are one of the few areas of the supplement market where a specific strain has real randomised trial evidence behind it. Limosilactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938 in breastfed infants with colic is a legitimate, if modest, finding.

It is also an area where the marketing has run substantially ahead of the science. The strain specificity is usually lost, the feeding-method caveat is almost always omitted, the NHS position is rarely mentioned, and the fact that colic resolves on its own is never front and centre.

If your baby is breastfed, under three months, otherwise healthy and thriving, and you have discussed it with your GP or health visitor, a three-week trial of a correctly dosed DSM 17938 product is a reasonable thing to do. If your baby is formula-fed, born preterm, unwell, or has any medical complexity, the answer is different, and in the preterm case it is a firm no without specialist supervision.

What will help most families most is not a bottle of drops. It is accurate information, practical soothing techniques, honest support, and the knowledge that this ends.

Frequently asked questions

Are baby probiotics safe for newborns in the UK?

In healthy, full-term newborns, infant probiotic drops have been generally well tolerated in clinical trials, with no effect on growth and no serious adverse events reported. However, safety data are short-term and limited in size. They should not be given to preterm, low-birthweight, unwell or immunocompromised infants outside specialist supervision, because of the documented risk of invasive infection. Always check with your GP, health visitor or pharmacist first.

What is the best probiotic strain for colic?

Limosilactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938 is the most studied and the only strain with reasonably consistent supporting evidence, and that evidence applies mainly to breastfed infants under three months. Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BB-12 has weaker supporting data. The strain code matters; other L. reuteri strains are not interchangeable.

Does the NHS recommend probiotics for colic?

No. The NHS states that probiotic supplements, anti-colic drops and herbal remedies for colic are not recommended and that there is no evidence they help. It advises speaking to your health visitor for support and using general soothing measures instead.

How long do baby probiotics take to work for colic?

In the trials that found benefit, reductions in crying appeared at around one to two weeks and were clearest at two to three weeks. Allow about three weeks before judging, and keep a simple crying diary so you have objective data rather than an impression formed during a difficult week.

Can I give my baby an adult probiotic?

No. Adult products use doses that are often hundreds of times higher than infant doses, contain strains that have not been studied in infants, and may include excipients unsuitable for babies. Never open an adult capsule to give part of the contents to a baby. Welzo's adult gut health products, including Akkermansia, berberine, TUDCA and citrus pectin, are for adults only.

Do probiotics work for formula-fed babies with colic?

The evidence is weak and inconsistent. The individual participant data meta-analysis concluded that the role of L. reuteri DSM 17938 in formula-fed infants needs further research, and the largest community-based randomised trial, which included both breastfed and formula-fed infants, found no benefit overall.

Can probiotics prevent colic if I start them at birth?

A Cochrane review of six studies with 1,886 infants found that probiotics made little or no difference to whether colic occurred, although crying time appeared reduced. The certainty of the evidence was rated extremely limited, and the reviewers concluded it was not possible to advise a change in practice.

Why do UK baby probiotic labels say "live cultures" instead of "probiotic"?

Because UK regulators treat the word "probiotic" as a health claim, and no probiotic health claim has been authorised on the Great Britain Nutrition and Health Claims Register. Brands therefore use compliant alternatives such as "live cultures". The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld complaints against companies using the term in advertising.

What should I do if probiotics do not help my baby's colic?

Stop them. Go back to feeding technique, positioning, winding and soothing measures, and speak to your health visitor. If crying is accompanied by poor weight gain, eczema, blood or mucus in stools, persistent vomiting or any red flag symptom, see your GP, because the diagnosis may not be colic at all.

When does colic usually stop?

Colic typically begins in the first few weeks, is most common through the first six weeks, and declines sharply after that. Pooled data show it affects 17 to 25 per cent of infants in the first six weeks, around 11 per cent by 8 to 9 weeks, and only about 0.6 per cent by 10 to 12 weeks. Most families are through it by three to four months.

References

1. NHS. Colic. National Health Service.
2. NHS Best Start in Life. Colic and breastfeeding. National Health Service.
3. NICE. Colic – infantile: Clinical Knowledge Summary. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
4. Wolke D, Bilgin A, Samara M. Systematic review and meta-analysis: fussing and crying durations and prevalence of colic in infants. The Journal of Pediatrics. 2017;185:55–61.e4.
5. Sung V, D'Amico F, Cabana MD, et al. Lactobacillus reuteri to treat infant colic: a meta-analysis. Pediatrics. 2018;141(1):e20171811.
6. Xu M, Wang J, Wang N, et al. The efficacy and safety of the probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938 for infantile colic: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. PLOS ONE. 2015;10(10):e0141445.
7. Ong TG, Gordon M, Banks SS, Thomas MR, Akobeng AK. Probiotics to prevent infantile colic. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2019;3:CD012473.
8. Cochrane. Plain language summary: Probiotics to prevent infantile colic.
9. Szajewska H, Berni Canani R, Domellöf M, et al. Probiotics for the management of pediatric gastrointestinal disorders: position paper of the ESPGHAN Special Interest Group on Gut Microbiota and Modifications. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. 2023;76(2):232–247.
10. Hojsak I, Kolaček S, Mihatsch W, et al. Probiotics in pediatric functional gastrointestinal disorders. Review, PubMed Central.
11. US Food and Drug Administration. FDA Roundup: September 29, 2023 – Dear Healthcare Provider letter on probiotics in preterm infants.
12. Sharif S, Meader N, Oddie SJ, Rojas-Reyes MX, McGuire W. Probiotics to prevent necrotising enterocolitis in very preterm or very low birth weight infants. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2023;7:CD005496.
13. Advertising Standards Authority / CAP. Food: Probiotic claims.
14. UK Parliament. Written question HL16090: use of the term "probiotic" on food labels.
15. Proprietary Association of Great Britain. Probiotics: UK regulatory position.
16. Dryl R, Szajewska H. Efficacy of Lactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938 for infantile colic: systematic review with network meta-analysis. Medicine. 2018;97(1):e9375.

About the author

Dr Zeeshan Afzal (MBBS) is a practising doctor and Medical Officer at Welzo. He writes and reviews Welzo's clinical content, with a focus on digestive health, evidence appraisal and translating research findings into practical guidance for patients. All Welzo health content is written or reviewed by qualified medical professionals and is referenced to primary sources, national guidance and peer-reviewed literature.

Medical disclaimer

This article is for general information only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. It is not a substitute for consultation with a qualified healthcare professional. Infant health decisions should always be discussed with your GP, health visitor, midwife or pharmacist. If your baby is unwell, seek medical advice promptly. If you think your baby is seriously unwell, call NHS 111 or 999, or attend your nearest A&E. Never delay seeking professional advice because of something you have read here.

Image credits: all images used in this article are licensed under Creative Commons via Wikimedia Commons and are attributed in their captions. No copyrighted or stock-licensed imagery has been used.