Safety and acceptability of Lactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938 and Bifidobacterium longum subspecies infantis 35624 in Bangladeshi infants: a phase I randomized clinical trial.

Background: Probiotics have rarely been studied in young healthy infants from low-income countries. This phase I study investigated the safety and acceptability of two probiotics in Bangladesh.

Methods: Healthy infants aged four to twelve weeks from urban slums in Bangladesh were randomized to one of three different intervention dosing arms (daily, weekly, biweekly - once every two weeks) of Lactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938 and Bifidobacterium longum subspecies infantis 35624 over one month or to a fourth arm that received no probiotics.

Diapers in war zones: ethnomedical factors in acute childhood gastroenteritis in Peshawar, Pakistan.

This article considers ethnomedical knowledge and practices among parents related to contraction of acute gastroenteritis among children in Peshawar, Pakistan. Research methods included analysis of the Emergency Pediatric Services' admission register, a structured interview administered to 47 parents of patients seen in the Khyber Medical College Teaching Hospital, semi-structured interviews of 12 staff, and four home visits among families with children treated at the hospital. The use of native research assistants and participant observation contributed to the reliability of the findings, though the ethnographic, home-visit sample is small.