Data published in Frontiers in Nutrition indicated that children aged 0-3 years old who consumed supplements formulated with Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis R0033, Bifidobacterium bifidum R0071, and Lactobacillus helveticus R0052 had a 12% lower risk of being overweight and a, 18% lower risk of obesity in pre-school.
“Supplementation at any time during this early life period appeared to be beneficial in reducing the likelihood of developing overweight or obesity,” wrote researchers from Sun Yat-sen University (China), Queensland University of Technology (Australia), Women’s and Children’s Hospital of Longhua District of Shenzhen (China), and Biostime (Guangzhou) Health Products Ltd. (China).
“These findings suggest a possible protective role of early probiotic use, underscoring the need for further longitudinal and experimental studies to confirm its preventive potential.”
Weight management
A link between the gut microbiota and obesity was first reported in 2006 by Jeffrey Gordon and his group at Washington University in St. Louis, who found that microbial populations in the gut are different between obese and lean people, and that when the obese people lost weight, their microflora reverted back to that observed in a lean person. This suggested that obesity has a microbial component (Nature, Vol. 444, pp. 1022-1023, 1027-1031).
A 2013 paper in Science (Vol. 341, Issue 6150), also led by Professor Gordon, found that transplanting gut bacteria from obese humans into germ-free mice leads to greater weight gain and fat accumulation than mice that were given bacteria from the guts of lean humans.
A recent rat study from scientists at the University of Georgia, Athens that transplanted the microbiota from lean donors and combined this with prebiotics (inulin) produced beneficial shifts in the microbiota even when the animals continued to consume a high fat (“Western”) diet.
This has led many research groups to explore if probiotics may help manage weight. A probiotic is defined as a “live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host” – FAO/WHO.
Study details
The new cross-sectional survey included 31,190 children, 4,337 of whom were overweight and 1,389 were obese. Data was collected from structured questionnaire completed by the children’s mothers.
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study examining the effects of probiotic supplementation during the ages of 0–3 years on overweight and obesity in Chinese preschoolers"
Statistical analysis showed that probiotic supplementation during the first three years of life reduced the risk of being overweight or obese, with additional analysis showing that the association between probiotics and obesity was only significant for girls.
“Early probiotic intervention helps regulate the gut microbiota and may reduce the occurrence of obesity by influencing metabolism, the immune system, and energy balance,” wrote the researchers. “Our findings suggested that probiotic supplementation initiated at different ages between 0 and 3 years was associated with a lower prevalence of overweight and obesity in preschool children, with no evident sensitive period.”
Source: Frontiers in Nutrition, 2025, Vol 12, doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1597894, “Early supplement of probiotics reduces the risk of obesity among preschool children: a real-world observational study”, Authors: M. Zhang, etal.
