Yoghurt for babies may reduce eczema and allergies

Regularly eating yoghurt in the first year of life may protect infants from developing eczema and allergies, researchers from the universities of Otago and Auckland have found.

Children who were fed yoghurt daily in their first year, once introduced to solids, had up to 70 per cent reduction in eczema and allergy incidence, according to lead researcher Julian Crane.

“The more regularly yoghurt was given, the greater the effect,” Dr Crane says in a press release.

Plain, unsweetened yoghurt is already recommended from around six months of age as an excellent food. The study didn’t prove cause and effect, but the results are interesting and warrant further investigation.

Clinical and Experimental Allergy, Feb 2018