The Intestinal Microflora of Infants: Composition of Fecal Flora in Breast‐Fed and Bottle‐Fed Infants

Abstract

The fecal flora of 35 breast‐fed and 35 bottle‐fed babies was determined. Bifidobacteria were the predominant fecal bacteria in both groups. Conversely, the counts of most of the other bacteria, such as bacteroides, eubacteria, peptococci, veillonella, clostridia, enterobacteria, streptococci, and bacilli in the bottle‐fed group were significantly higher than those in the breast‐fed group. The frequencies of occurrence of lecithinase positive Clostridia, clostridia‐others, pseudomonas and bacilli in the bottle‐fed group were significantly higher than those in the breast‐fed group. Twenty‐one genera and 103 species or biovars of microorganisms were isolated from the feces of the breast‐fed group and 20 genera and 97 species or biovars from the bottle‐fed group. The organism that showed the highest number and the highest frequency of occurrence in both groups was Bifidobacterium breve. Bifidobacterium infantis, which was formerly the most prevalent Bifidobacterium species in baby feces, was never isolated in this study. Further, the counts and incidences of Clostridium paraputrificum, C. perfringens, and Bacillus subtilis, the counts of C. clostridiiforme, Bacteroides vulgatus, Veillonella parvula, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus bovis, S. faecalis, and S. faecium and the incidences of C. difficile, C. tertium, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the bottle‐fed infants were significantly higher than those in the breast‐fed infants.