Give Your Child a Legacy of Health: Boost Their Microbial I.Q By Judith Finlayson
As a parent you do your best to provide an environment that will help your child to flourish. The groundwork includes nutritious food, physical and brain-stimulating activity, and a clean environment. However, there may be something you’ve overlooked: building their microbiome.
Your Microbial Legacy
Whether your baby’s microbiome is seeded during pregnancy is being actively debated. However, a mother’s microbiome plays a regulatory role in pregnancy. Gut bacteria mediate how well her body utilizes the nutrients she consumes. Moreover, “good guy” bacteria manufacture certain nutrients, notably folate, a key player in healthy pregnancy outcomes.
Lifestyle factors like chronic stress, smoking, alcohol consumption and a poor diet (flag ultra-processed foods) thwart the growth of health-supporting bacteria. Among other factors, the quality of a mother’s microbiome determines the bacteria she passes on to her newborn, primarily via a vaginal birth and in breast milk.
And since it’s important not to blame everything on mothers, one laboratory study linked a father’s unhealthy diet prior to conception with unhealthy alterations of gut microbiota in his male offspring.
Gut Bacteria Control Immunity
Among other functions your child’s microbes calibrate their immune system. About 70 percent of the immune system resides in our gut. Your child’s immune system affects whether they will be among the 25 percent or so of infants who develop allergies.
Microbes Influence Brain Development
Microbes also impact how your infant’s brain develops. We’ve long known that autism spectrum disorder may be linked to bacterial imbalances. Recently scientists have been exploring how specific strains of bacteria influence children’s behavior, emotions and even their intellectual development.
For instance, research suggests that mothers who transmit higher ratios of beneficial bacteria may be building better brains in their offspring. One study of more than 400 infants found that boys with a higher proportion of “good guy” Bacteroidetes, were programmed for better cognition and language skills. The suspected link is sphingolipids, a substance these bacteria produce, which supports healthy brain development.
It should be noted that as a group, girls have more Bacteroidetes and are inclined to cognitively outperform boys at this stage.
Eat A Nutritious Diet
While we are far from having all the answers, it’s become increasingly clear that a robust microbiome works in partnership with the mother‘s body to support healthy pregnancies. Future research will shed light on the pathways involved. In the meantime, strategies that nourish a mother’s microbiome, including a healthy diet and adequate exercise will help to ensure the best pregnancy outcomes, paving the way toward healthier infants.
Your microbiome is what you eat.
Once babies start to consume solids, certain foods, especially those providing fiber, bolster microbial health. Fiber is the most prevalent of a group of substances known as prebiotics, which encourage friendly bacteria to proliferate.
Good food sources of baby-friendly prebiotics include bananas, pears, apples, sweet potato, sweet green peas and whole grains. In addition to fiber, these foods provide other nutrients (like beta-glucan in some whole grains,) which also enrich your child’s microbiome.
It’s More Than Fiber
In addition to fiber, other constituents of food like phytonutrients (naturally occurring chemicals found in plant foods) cultivate a vibrant microbiome. Polyphenols are currently generating considerable interest. These substances are abundant in some spices, cocoa, nuts, leafy greens and some fruits. When friendly bacteria digest polyphenols they produce health-promoting compounds like short-chain fatty acids, boosting the production of beneficial bacteria. In laboratory studies these metabolites (as they are called) have also been shown to head directly to the brain --- a valued perk for infants whose brains are actively developing.
Another way to expand your baby’s bacterial community is to feed them fermented foods like yogurt and kefir. These foods provide live bacteria known as probiotics that support their microbial friends.
Some plant foods (chia, hemp and flax seeds, Brussels sprouts and walnuts, among others) also provide alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a form of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3’s encourage the growth of beneficial bacteria. Although, your body finds it challenging to convert ALA to forms it can easily use, when friendly bacteria digest polyphenols they produce chemicals that support this process.
Since many diseases can be traced back to the gut, it’s never too soon to start nurturing your infant’s microbiome. Eating a variety of whole foods ensures that your baby obtains the wide range of nutrients that support a robust microbiome. Once your child can understand the concept, encourage them to nurture their own family of invisible critters, building the healthy gut that is the groundwork of their long-term health.
Judith Finlayson is a journalist and bestselling author with a longstanding interest in health and nutrition. Her most recent book, You Are What Your Grandparents Ate: What You Need to Know About Nutrition, Experience, Epigenetics, and the Origins of Chronic Disease, was published in 2019. It has been translated into 7 foreign-language editions, including French, German, Spahis and Japanese. Visit her at www.judithfinlayson.com.