Boosting Your Baby’s Gut: Know the Role of Microbiome
Promoting your child's gut health by supporting the microbiome means you are preparing him for a lifetime of wellness. On top of lesser colds, less severe stomach discomfort, and many more benefits as studies have shown how a healthy microbiome is critical to one's overall wellness.
In this article, you'll find helpful ideas to help you balance your child's and even your microbiome for optimum health.
With more studies developing on the microbiome's essentiality, it is becoming increasingly clear that a healthy immune system begins with having a healthy gut. This is especially the circumstance when it comes to young kids.
Some children seem to get ill every time the season changes. Add in seasonal allergies, and it can appear like a losing fight to stay healthy.
To support our child's immune system, his digestive system, and for lesser sore throats, ear pains, and tummy discomforts, there are steps you can try and take to keep her microbiome balanced. Some germs, specifically good bacteria, beneficial probiotics, and microbes, are vital for general wellness.
ALSO READ: New Study Shows Breastfeeding Hormones Make Mothers Happier
Microbiome Explained
We all have a unique microbiome that houses almost 100 trillion bacteria that outnumber our human cells by a 10-to-one factor.
Different kinds of bacteria function differently within the human body. According to research, about 85 percent of them are said to be "beneficial probiotics."
Experts in this field of study consider "good guys" to help children produce vitamins, get nutrients, and control their immune system. More so, they may even affect their mood.
A child's first few years in life are crucial in terms of the microbiome's proper development. Even though a baby's gut is mostly sterile inside the mother's womb, the primary microbial inoculation starts as the baby goes down to the birth canal, picking up bacteria from the vagina along the way. With this, breast milk provides tons of microbes, as well.
Microbiome in Infants
Ensuring your baby's microbiome develops properly begins with the mom, nurturing her gastrointestinal system during pregnancy.
It's not just the genes that pass down to the developing baby, but the mother's microbes, as well. What's also called "the invisible community," residing in a pregnant woman that helps her thrive, is also likely to form the foundation of the baby's immune and gastrointestinal systems.
Studies have shown that microbiome seeding is generally observed to begin at birth "through the vaginal canal, skin-to-skin contact, and breastfeeding."
However, new research has begun proposing that microbes' transmission could take place in the womb through the placenta.
Ultimately, as studies have shown, the surrounding environment, which includes other mothers, fathers, siblings, pets, the ground, and nature, continue to add to this "microbial biodiversity."
And, since the mother's own microbes are passed on to her baby during delivery, and via her breast milk, she is said to have set the stage for her baby's microbiome development, not to mention his or her general wellbeing.
DON'T MISS THIS: COVID-19 Update: Recent Developments Regarding the Infectious Disease
Experts' Recommendation
To help mothers boost their baby's guts, experts have recommended the Seed's Female Daily Synbiotic. This unique 2-in-1 capsule with prebiotic and probiotic content and "algae microsphere delivery system" shield against stomach acid and protect viability through digestion.
The brand's liquid prebiotic suspension functions as an added barrier to oxygen, moisture, and heat, the elements bacteria are sensitive to.
Essentially, as earlier mentioned, vaginal birth is ideal for improving your baby's gut health from the very beginning. If you are pregnant and your OB already tells you that you are delivering your baby via C-section, talk to him or her about the option of "vaginal seeding or swabbing the baby after birth."
Another important technique to boost your baby's gut is to breastfeed him or her as long as possible. Breast milk has many beneficial microbes and particular nutrients that nourish the probiotics so they can flourish.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Case Report at Children's National Hospital Raises Concern for Resistance to Antibiotic
Check out more news and information on Gut Health on MD News Daily.
Oct 10, 2020 07:20 AM EDT