Giving babies and toddlers antibiotics can increase the risk of obesity

Antibiotics can be lifesaving, but they can have serious downsides — including increasing the risk of obesity when they are given early in life, according to a recent study. Antibiotics kill bacteria. That can be a very good thing when the bacteria are causing a serious infection. But antibiotics don’t limit themselves to killing infection-causing bacteria; they kill other bacteria in the body, too. And that can be a very bad thing. Our bodies are full of bacteria. These bacteria, part of our microbiome, are important. Along with other micro-organisms in our body, they play a role in how we digest foods, in normal growth, and in our immune system. When we take antibiotics, we inadvertently kill some of those bacteria. At first glance, it seems like this wouldn’t be such a big problem; after all, the world is full of bacteria, can’t we replace them? But as we learn more about our microbiome, it appears that the way it gets started — meaning the bacteria that we gather and grow early in life — is very important and can have lifelong effects. Studies have shown that babies who are born by caesarean section are more likely to be obese as they grow, and part of the reason is thought to be that because they aren’t born through the birth canal, they don’t get that natural birth dose of bacteria to get them started in the right direction. In the study, researchers looked at more than 300,000 infants born into the military health system. They looked at whether they wer...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Children's Health Infectious diseases Parenting Source Type: blogs