Alisa Fleming, www.GoDairyFree.org ~ Yes, probiotics can assist tummy troubles, but as we suspected (yet a research team felt like pursuing) probiotics are ineffective in battling cow’s milk allergy.  While GI symptoms are not uncommon in milk allergies, it is in fact an immune response rather than a lack of healthy bacteria per say.  The team of researchers out of The Netherlands conducted a randomized controlled study to determine if probiotic supplementation (given via an extensively hydrolyzed formula) would accelerate tolerance to cow’s milk in infants with a milk allergy.  The trials followed 119 little ones with cow’s milk allergy through their infancy, with some receiving the probiotics and the others holding steady in the placebo (no probiotics) group. Unfortunately, the two groups showed very similar results in tolerance of cow’s milk at the end of the study.