I am currently participating in a study program through the RCH that involved taking huge doses of probiotics during the last 4 weeks of pregnancy to minimise eczema & other allergies in children.

My DD is having her 1yr allergy & asthma scan next week.

The results won't be publically avaliable for another 3 years i think, but this was a pretty big project - covering 400 women/children for 4 years +.

The previous study was done in Italy i believe, where they took probiotics for the whole pregnancy, but a different study showed not much difference between taking it the whole pregnancy and only during the last 4 weeks. We have been taking stool samples from birth - 6 months, and vaginal swabs from myself during pregnancy.

The probiotics (i'm told), were far stronger than anything than is avaliable commerically here. WEe had to take 6 tablets a day. I will ask next week how strong each tablet was. The study was done on anyone with a family history of skin conditions, food allergies or asthma.

As somebody with very severe eczema, i have a big invested interested in seeing if i can reduce this in my kids. My DS has no signs of anything, and i just noticed an hr ago my DD has a large eczema looking patch behind 1 knee. I really hope this isn't the beginning