Early malnutrition may impair infants’ mix of gut microbes
Babies’ microbiomes fail to fully recover even after nutrition improves
By Nathan Seppa
Malnutrition in a baby might do more than thwart the child’s growth. A study shows that acutely malnourished babies have an understaffed reservoir of helpful bacteria in their intestines, a problem that lingers even after they are given foods specially designed to help them gain some weight.
The findings suggest that malnutrition damages the array of beneficial gut microbes, or microbiota, that reside in people’s bodies. These microbes appear indispensible to metabolism, immunity, digestion and overall development (SN: 6/18/11, p. 26). An individual’s mix of gut microbes can last decades and function much like an internal organ, says study coauthor Jeffrey Gordon, a physician and microbiologist at Washington University in St. Louis.