How to Support Your Child's Gut Health
Do you want to know more about your child's gut health? Today we know that some of the "good" bacteria living naturally inside children's gut can influence their health, including digestion, immune health, skin health, and mental wellbeing. In this article, we will shed some light on the factors that influence the health of your child's gut microbiome and how to keep it at its best.
Development of Gut Microbiome from Birth
The childhood years are fundamental for all aspects of development. The gut microbiome and immune system bases are formed in the womb. During pregnancy and the first two years of life, we can see major changes in the gut microbiome. Studies show that the colonization of the gut bacteria begins at birth, but continues to develop for two to three years approximately until the gut microbiome reaches adult-like diversity and proportions and tends to stabilize.
Several factors, including gestational age, delivery mode, birth weight, feeding types, antibiotic exposure, maternal microbiome, and diet, influence the gut microbiota of our children, its diversity, abundance, and of course function. Depending on these factors, some unwanted side effects such as poor immunity, eczema, digestive problems, or allergies may occur if optimal conditions are not ensured.
Building Gut Health In Children
So, how do we prevent problems and try to optimize our children's gut health?
Being aware of the factors that impact the microbiome, it is possible to modulate and take care of the composition of the bacterial community to improve health.
1. Nourish the “good guys” in the gut
The “good guys” are the healthy (beneficial) bacteria in your child’s gut. To support them is very important to get plenty of probiotic and prebiotic foods. Prebiotics are the main fuel for the gut’s good bacteria and help them grow and multiply. For kids, some of the best and simple prebiotic foods include bananas, oats, and berries.
It is always a piece of good advice to diversify their diet as much as possible, including different varieties of veggies and fruits, because these foods contain plenty of fibers and polyphenols, which are the main fuel for the gut microbes.
The probiotics, live cultures of good bacteria, are present in yogurt, kefir, cheese, etc. Any of these options is good to increase the amount of probiotics in your child's diet.
Avoiding ultra-processed foods and foods high in sugar (i.e. foods that are associated with harmful bacteria) can also improve your child’s gut health.
2. Only use antibiotics when necessary
Antibiotics are the most prescribed medication given to children, but it is well known that they negatively impact the gut microbiome. They are not always selective and can wipe out lots of good bacteria together with the harmful ones causing the infection. Repeated courses of antibiotics for prolonged periods, can lead to health issues, like antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD). This occurs as a consequence of an imbalance in the gut microbiome, often characterized by reduced diversity of gut microbial species, and the abundance of certain "harmful” species with a negative impact on the immune function.
If your child needs antibiotics, they should take them. But you can also consider giving them probiotics specially formulated for children, to help recolonize the gut ecosystem and restore their levels of good gut bacteria. Always consult with your GP for specific health advice.
Listen to the podcast episode about antibiotic resistance with researcher and lector Patrick Munk from DTU on how some bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics and how to avoid that.
3. Let your children go outside to play in the dirt and be exposed to animals and pets
This might not sound obvious, but playing in the dirt and having contact with animals can be positive for our kids' gut microbiome. When kids are exposed to different microbes they help the body to build strong immune defenses.
Studies have found a positive link between kids who grew up on farms and their immunity, compared with kids living in cities. The interaction with dirt, plants, and animals from the environment, could modify the composition of the gut bacteria and strengthen the immune system.
4. Maternal obesity and diet
Maternal obesity can cause unwanted changes in the baby's microbiome concerning metabolic health, via two paths.
First, by the direct vertical microbiota transfer, the maternal obesity-associated microbiota results in intergenerational effects and possibly the development of metabolic disorders in the baby.
Second, obesity and maternal overweight are a main risk factor for C-section delivery. The composition and dynamics of gut bacteria in C-section babies it is very different from those in the vaginally born, mostly characterized by the lack or decrease of Bacteroidetes, the reduction of bifidobacteria, and respective increases in Proteobacteria. This is a lack of beneficial species and an increase in the potentially harmful ones.
Besides the gut microbiome, C-section-delivered babies of overweight moms have a higher risk of being overweight at one year compared to vaginally delivered babies, showing the importance of microbial colonization of the newborn and its effects in determining later gut microbiome composition and baby development.
Listen to the podcast episode on fertility and the connection to the gut microbiome with research and quality chief Frederikke Lindenberg from Copenhagen Fertility Center, where she also talks about how the baby's microbiome develops through the pregnancy.
5. More sleep
It is widely known that sleeping patterns affect the composition of the gut microbiome. However, recent scientific studies have shown a new association between sleep and gut microbiome in preschool-aged children. Longer night-time sleep and greater sleep efficiency has been associated with specific beneficial (commensal) bacteria that may regulate sleep through modulating neurotransmitter metabolism and the immune system.
Do you want a look into your child's gut microbiome and what bacteria are present, then you can get insight with a gut microbiome test from Unseen Bio.
If you want to dive deeper into the gut microbiome, then listen to our podcast "Mikrobiomet" (The Microbiome), where we explore everything science knows about gut health and the microbiome together with a broad range of microbiome experts.
You can also read more about how your life style and the different food groups impact the gut microbiome in our other articles.
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By Christian Lieven (System Biologist)
Sources:
-Jian, Ching et al. “Early-life gut microbiota and its connection to metabolic health in children: Perspective on ecological drivers and need for quantitative approach.” EBioMedicine 69 (2021): n. Pag.
- Wang Y, van de Wouw M, Drogos L, Vaghef-Mehrabani E, Reimer RA, Tomfohr-Madsen L, Giesbrecht GF. Sleep and the gut microbiota in preschool-aged children. Sleep. 2022 Jun 13;45(6):zsac020. doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsac020. PMID: 35037059; PMCID: PMC9189981.
