When you are awaiting your baby’s birth or you are holding one in your arms, you must be finding lots of information on steps for taking care of the baby’s health & raising him/her the best. Your baby does not come alone in this world, he/she brings with him/her a host of microorganisms who will live in his/her gut. Ecosystems of bacteria cover your baby on his/her birth & continue to grow & thrive as the baby is breastfed milk. These microbes are trying to establish a new home inside the body of your baby. You may be worried to know that your baby has already become a house of bacteria & you will resonate this with bad omen or you will think that your baby is not healthy. However this is good news! Shocked?
These microbes living in the gut of your baby are going to be one the most important organs of your baby & would help your baby grow healthy. Every individual is host to trillions of microorganisms living in their nose, mouth, skin & gut & each of these microbes work with cells & play an important role in the health of the body. The gut is the most abundant source of these organisms & is responsible for keeping the immune system healthy. These microbes facilitate proper nutrient absorption, digestion, hormone regulation, and even influences happiness.
Given the fact that, gut microbiome plays in important in various biological functions, this ecosystem of microbes is regarding as an organ of the body & belongs to many different systems such as
- Immunological – Immune system
- Gastrointestinal – Digestion
- Endocrine – Hormones
- Neurological – Cognitive function
Your baby needs a healthy microbiome to facilitate the functioning of all these systems to keep your baby healthy.
During your baby’s first few years of life, microbiome is being developed. When the baby is in the mother’s womb, they do not have microbiomes of their own. When they take birth, it is the first time they are exposed to this environment of microbes which is going to impact their health for a lifetime. During the next few years, your baby would come in contact with various microorganisms as they are exposed to the external environment. This adds more microbes to their system until they turn 3. Therefore, it is essential that during these first 3 years, your baby develops a healthy microbiome since this will help in maintaining a healthy life & fend off from chronic diseases as your baby grows older.
It is not brainer now to understand that before you get pregnant, you should ensure that you have a healthy microbiome, your immune system is not overactive, your digestion process is smooth & energy & hormone production are well regulated. As a mother, you will pass on the microbiome to your baby at birth. Since gut microbiome plays an important role in regulating hormone levels, you should make sure that you have a healthy gut microbiome & your dietary choices should feed beneficial folks living in your gut.
During pregnancy, taking care of the health of your gut is even more important & you should keep yourself away from having too much sugar or your favorite chocolate or cheese cake since you are not feeding two of you, you are feeding 40 trillion microbes. These microbes actually influence your cravings & if you are falling for too much of sugary stuff, it may be your microbiome giving you instructions to eat more cake or chocolate.
Your gut microbiome influences your endocrine system & hormonal imbalances can directly impact your gut microbiome & its health & vice versa. Having right food that feeds your beneficial microbiome means that you are working to regulate & balance your hormone levels
In Fact it would be surprising to know that breast fed milk contains sugars which your baby cannot digest & it rests on your baby’s microbiome to digest sugar in breast milk which helps them grow. Therefore strive to feed your baby with breast milk & avoid formula fed milk
If you are expecting, you should definitely get your gut microbiome sequenced to build a healthy roadmap for your baby who is about to be born. We at Genefitletics can sequence your microbiome by just taking a swab of your stool & analyse microbial activity in your gut to provide unique dietary recommendations that feed beneficial microbes in your gut & keep pathogens at bay. For more details, hit us up here: https://genefitletics.com/
Sources: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-gut-bacteria-tell-their-hosts-what-to-eat/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4681407/
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