Babies low on key gut bacteria at higher risk of asthma
First 100 days are critical period for microbe exposure
Lacking certain gut microbes in the first three months after birth can put babies at risk for asthma, a new study shows.
Children who had low levels of four types of bacteria early in infancy were more likely to be diagnosed with asthma by age 3 than tots who had more of the microbes in their feces. Researchers in Canada report the findings in the Sept. 30 Science Translational Medicine.
By the time the babies were a year old, though, the researchers couldn’t detect any distinct differences between the gut microbes of 22 babies at high risk of asthma and 297 babies at low risk. Those findings indicate that babies need certain bacteria — Lachnospira, Veillonella, Faecalibacterium and Rothia — in the first 100 days after birth to properly train the immune system and protect against asthma, the researchers conclude.