In the United States, 3,671,000 women become mothers to 3,941,553 children in 1997-1998.  

(Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, P20-375, P20-454, P20-470, and P20-499, in U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2001 [121st edition], Washington, DC, 2001, p. 62 and 67.)

"A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts."

(Source: Washington Irving, accessed at http://quotations.about.com/library/weekly/aa042899.htm.)

"Children attending day care centers have a 1.5-3.0 times higher risk of gastrointestinal and respiratory tract infections than children cared for at home or in small family care groups."  So begins a study by eight researchers from Helsinki and Tampere Finland, published in the British Medical Journal, to determine the efficacy of using probiotic milk to stave off the "obvious public health and economic consequences, such as direct medical costs as well as the indirect costs of parents having to take time off of work to look after sick children."

Probiotic bacteria-in this case, milk infused with Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG-is said to be able to strengthen the immune system of a child, reducing the incidence of infection, the number of days infected, thus reducing the administration of antibiotics, and promoting recovery from common childhood diseases.  In fact, however, the researchers found, "no significant differences between the groups in the number of days with respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms." (p = 0.28 and 0.57, respectively).  Indeed, after age adjustment, even the slight advantage that the Lactobacillus group had over the control group in number of days absent from day care disappears (odds ratio 0.89).

The bright spot seems to be that "The number of children with respiratory infections...was significantly lower in the Lactobacillus group (relative reduction 17%)."  In addition, there was a 19% reduction in the number of children prescribed antibiotics for those infections.  After adjusting for age, even these differences begin to pale (odds ratio 0.72, p = 0.08).

The demographics of the children studied by the Finns is enlightening-and disturbing.  The average age of the children in the Lactobacillus group was 4.6 years, with the control group averaging slightly younger, at 4.4 years.  However, it is the length of time-22 and 20 months, respectively-that these young children have already spent in day care that is instructive.  At four and one-half years of age, these children have spent almost half their lives in the care of strangers.

In the end, the probiotic milk "slightly reduced" the number of respiratory infections and their subsequent treatment by antibiotics.  Compared with the acknowledged risks to children posed by sending them to day care in the first place, perhaps infusing the Finnish family with some sense of filial responsibility, rather than infusing their milk, will keep their kids out of harm's way-and day care.

(Source: Katja Hatakka, Erkki Savilabti, Antti Pönkä, Jukka H. Meuran, Tuija Poussa, Leena Näse, Maija Saxelin, and Riita Korpela, "Effects of Long-Term Consumption of Probiotic Milk on Infections in Children Attending Day Care Centres: Double blind, randomised trial," British Medical Journal  (2 June 2001) 322: 1327-1332, accessed at www.bmj.com.)