New Research On Baby Poop Has Some Concerning Findings

By Kate Streit, SimpleMost

While it may not be the most pleasant way of assessing a baby’s health, what’s in a diaper can tell you a lot about what’s happening inside a body. Now parents have new information about their children’s gut health.

Bethany Henrick of the University of Nebraska and Evolve BioSystems Inc. recently issued a report summarizing previous research on babies’ feces. They found that the pH (the measure of how acidic or alkaline something is) has been steadily on the rise since the 1920s.

The finding is concerning because acidity is an indicator of how much so-called “good” bacteria a baby has in their gut. Good bacteria is necessary for digesting food and protecting us from disease.

Formula, Antibiotics and C-Section Rates
The team analyzed medical studies of infant feces going back to 1926 to come to their conclusions in the report.

“There is clear evidence that the infant gut microbiome has important long-term health implications, and perturbations of the microbiome composition may lead to chronic inflammation and immune-mediated diseases,” Henrick and her team wrote. “… [T]he profound change in the gut environment, as measured by fecal pH, present a compelling explanation for the increased incidence of allergic and autoimmune diseases observed in resource-rich nations.”

The researchers identified three main factors that may be contributing to the decreased presence of beneficial bacteria: infant formula, antibiotics and c-section rates. According to a study published in Frontiers in Pediatrics, these three factors were linked to changes in gut bacteria that may be linked to health issues such as allergies, asthma and weight problems... Read more on SimpleMost