Protective gut bacteria play plenty of roles to keep a person's immune system healthy. This is essential to babies, whose health is vulnerable to viruses and illnesses. A new study, however, found that antibiotics and C-sections may be preventing babies from developing good intestinal bacteria.
Aside from helping digest food, intestinal bacteria also affect obesity, digestive problems, mental health, heart health and autoimmune disorders like allergies and asthma, CBS News reported. Experts found that babies build their gut microbiome during the first two to three years of their lives.
Potential Issues In Babies' Microbiome Development
Studies led by researchers from New York University and Massachusetts General Hospital found that frequent use of antibiotics in childhood prevented babies from developing diverse groups of healthy microbiome. Children's microbiomes take their time to resemble the ones found in adults, and continued use of antibiotics delays that maturation.
Antibiotics can also make the babies' microbiomes unbalanced and helps germs build resistance against antibiotics. In the United States, a two-year-old child has already received three courses of antibiotics for ear or respiratory infections, among others.
The studies also found that vaginally delivered babies exposed to their mother's germs in the birth canal have higher gut bacteria structure. Those delivered via C-section, however, have low levels of Bacteriodes bugs that help a person build intestinal immunity.
Gut Bacteria Species Can Reverse Autism-Related Symptoms?
Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine found that one missing specific species of gut bacteria can give way to social benefits. With mice as its subject, the study found that bringing the bacteria species back to the animals' guts can reverse some of their behavioral deficits, which resemble the symptoms of autism spectrum disorders, or ASDs, in humans, Science Daily reported.
According to the research, maternal obesity and eating a high-fat diet during pregnancy increases babies' risk of developing neurodevelopmental disorders such as ASDs. With these findings, researchers suspect that diets can change a person's gut microbiome and how it influences the brain.
People with ASDs have difficulties in communicating and interacting with others, and they also have limited activities and interests. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around one in 68 children has some kind of ASD.
To restore or improve gut bacteria, medical researcher and biochemist Dr. David Williams advised people to take probiotic supplements and eat traditional fermented foods such as pickled vegetables, kefir, soy products and fermented milk products. He also recommends taking lactic acid yeast wafers with each meal.
