Building a healthy gut - birth and beyond
Do you know when your baby’s microbiome – the ecosystem of microorganisms including bacteria, that live on and in your body, supporting your health – starts to grow? It’s actually while in the womb as bub gets exposed to beneficial microbes through the placenta. Then, literally at birth, baby comes through the birth canal, rich in microbes, and these are soaked up through the skin and taken in with the first breath. With the first meal, even more are introduced as breast milk is packed with microbes, even naturally including those necessary to help baby digest the milk. These little introductions to varying microbes will continue to occur all throughout your child’s life, and they lay the foundation for baby’s own microbiome, planting the seeds to grow a healthy immune system for life.
Of course at times the natural progression from womb through birth canal and on to breastfeeding isn’t an option, I know this first hand as both of my boys have been born by caesarean. To make up for it (as much as I can) I’m doing my best now to expose them to the ‘good guys’ as I know the sterile hospital theatre and hospital environment is much less supportive of a healthy gut. Some simple things you can do to boost your baby’s microbiome:
Skin to skin as much as possible for as long as possible. It’s never too late! Our microbiome is constantly evolving so by getting to touch yours, you can give some to your baby, toddlers and children too.
Breastfeed, any amount you can, for as long as you can. Even if it’s partial feeding and only for a week. Any amount is a positive. And of course, if you can feed them into toddlerhood all the better for it.
Let them eat dirt! When the time comes babies will naturally explore the world around them, and yes, at times, that means they’ll be eating dirt, leaves, sand, twigs. These exposures to the natural world are important for building a strong and resilient microbiome, so let them at it. I will say however, the only time I practice caution here is when I know grounds have been sprayed with pesticides, these are never a benefit to a child so this is where I draw my line.
Encourage your family to eat food from nature, and not from a packet. Every living thing has it’s own microbiome, so the more contact we have with natural foods, the better.
A note on probiotics…
While probiotics are all the rage I personally don’t suggest you hurry off to buy some. Problem being, without testing you just don’t know what bugs you’ve got, doing what. Taking in a probiotic that’s high in one or two strains may only increase those in your body when you actually need some others. If you’re going to take probiotics do so under the guidance of a nutrition professional and be sure to only take them short term so you’re not constantly taking in too much of the same. Remember, there are 1000s of microbes out there, it’s unlikely the ones you need are just the 4 found in the probiotic at your chemist.
