Giving probiotics or "good bacteria" to premature infants may help to reduce their risk of a bowel disorder. 

Necrotizing enterocolitis is a sudden inflammatory intestinal disorder that attacks and kills the lining of the bowel. It mainly affects premature babies. The cause is unknown, but scientists say it may involve a lack of ability to fight off normal intestinal bacteria.  

People need certain microbes in their gut to maintain health, and it is thought that probiotics may boost levels of beneficial bacteria while keeping disease-causing microbes at bay.

Dr. Sanjay Patole of the King Edward Memorial Hospital for Women in Perth, Australia, and his colleagues reviewed trials on giving probiotics to babies born at 33 weeks or earlier and weighing less than 1.5 kilograms.

The analysis suggested probiotics may reduce the risk of contracting necrotizing enterocolitis by 65 per cent and risk of death by 53 per cent compared with control groups.

Although the trials used different doses, timing and microbes, the results were "remarkably consistent," the team concluded.

"If a large, well-designed trial confirms our results, it could make a very strong case for the routine use of probiotics in preterm neonates," the study's authors wrote.

Feeding breast milk and delaying preterm delivery are the usual approaches to preventing necrotizing enterocolitis, pediatrician Dr. Carlo Caffarelli, of the University of Parma, Italy, said in a journal commentary.

Caffarelli agreed with the study's authors that probiotics are a promising approach and that further large trials are needed before they are recommended.