How the gut microbiome develops during the first three years of life can affect a child’s health for years to come, but antibiotic use in infancy can impair microbiome development, potentially leading to long-term health problems. Unfortunately, most studies on this topic have used antibiotics that aren’t typically prescribed in infants, making it unclear whether the findings can be applied to humans. To rectify this problem, researchers recently developed a model of early microbiome disruption using the common antibiotic clindamycin. Clindamycin severely disrupted the microbiome and caused swelling and other irregularities in the intestinal structure. A diet containing prebiotics like those found in human breastmilk didn’t help, but supplementation with prebiotics and a single strain of the probiotic bacterium Bifidobacterium breve NRBB01 partially restored the microbiome, and supplementation with prebiotics and a mix of Bifidobacterium strains had an even stronger restorative effect. The prebiotic+probiotic treatments, known as synbiotics, also ameliorated the clindamycin-induced structural abnormalities in the intestine, especially the multi-strain treatment. Notably, more work is needed with different antibiotics and under circumstances like preterm birth. Nevertheless, the findings suggest that Bifidobacterium synbiotic treatment can help restore intestinal health after early-life microbiome disruption.