5. Conclusions
’ reduction, gastrointestinal symptoms, URTIs
Our study provides the first solid RCT-based evidence that bovine colostrum can be effectively used to prevent and decrease the gravity of URTIs in pre-school children. The results we obtained allow us to conclude the following:Kindergarten children 4–7 years of age receiving the pre-season colostrum supplementation may have up to 31% less days with URTI self-reported symptoms over 20 weeks from beginning of supplementation than children receiving a placebo.These children tested within the same period (20 weeks) presented an even bigger median reduction in their URTI gravity score (−37%) in the COL vs. the PBO groups, which supposedly results not exclusively from sick days’ reduction but also from milder course of the URTIs.The number of episodes, defined as 3 consecutive days of second degree of URTI gravity separated from other episodes by at least 3 days, was reduced in the COL group by 50% as compared to the PBO group over the entire period of the trial (21 weeks).The observed effects of our study were obtained with main supplementation lasting for less than just 1/3 of the trial period.There were no significant side effects observed during the trial, neither in the COL nor in the PBO groups. Moreover, there was no statistically significant difference between these groups in regard to gastrointestinal symptoms.Overall, it can be concluded that our typical mild (15 days 2 × 500 mg + 30 days 1 × 500 mg) pre-seasonal supplementation with bovine colostrum provides significant protection to pre-school children from both frequency and gravity of URTIs over 140 days (20 weeks) of the fall/winter infectious season. The outcome of our study also indicates that the use of bovine colostrum in order to protect pre-school children from URTIs may have very important socioeconomic influence on the lives of their relatives and caregivers.