In recent years the gut microbiome has been associated with many developmental issues and studies have documented an increased incidence of gastrointestinal symptoms in children with learning needs. For example, research shows that digestive flora plays a role in childhood behaviours such as the ability to focus, follow instructions, and even sit still (Pärtty et al., 2013).
"Early life perturbations of the developing gut microbiota can impact neurodevelopment and potentially lead to adverse mental health outcomes later in life", (Borre, 2014).
If your child has trouble concentrating or following directions have you noticed they also have tummy troubles? Frequent bloating, reflux, constipation? Or perhaps they just don’t agree with certain foods? Are they fussy eaters?
Often however, underlying gut imbalance doesn’t manifest as digestive problems at all, instead showing up as poor immunity, anxiety, skin problems, sleep disturbance, or allergies.
So how does the child gut become adversely affected?
...and so affect neurodevelopment and theirlearning potential?
Research shows the following factors may have impact on the gut and subsequent cognitive outcomes (Borre, 2014):
Mode of delivery
Early hospitalisation
Antibiotics (particularly in the first 6 months of life and up to the first year
Environmental factors such as toxicity
Maternal stress
Maternal infection and disease
Mode of nutritional provision
Whilst these studies may seem pretty scary to parents and new mums, and I can say this personally as a mother whom has been affected by a large number of these risk factors, I can also tell you that studies and practice have shown that using nutritional interventions may prevent, mitigate and even reverse these potential adverse outcomes. The important thing is to recognise these factors and corresponding symptoms and make changes as soon as possible.
Positively modulating the gut microbiota may have benefits for cognitive and learning outcomes. For example, not only does the method of feeding via breast or supplementation of formula with prebiotics prove beneficial for cognitive development, but prebiotic use later in life may even have positive cognitive effects too.
Prebiotic studies provide evidence for the beneficial use of prebiotics to help maintain a well-balanced microbiome from infancy to early adulthood.
I am so passionate about this subject, please do contact me if any of the above factors affect your child. juliana@functionalherbology.co.uk
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