A Disease on the Rise
A Sugarcoated Pregnancy
Finger Pricks and Insulin Pumps
The Western Diet: A Life Too Sweet
12.Intestinal Diseases: Fire in the Gut!
The Gut: A Thirty-Foot Tube, but Mind the Gap
For Crying Out Loud
Chewing on Gluten: Microbes and Celiac Disease
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
13.Asthma and Allergies: Microbes Keep Us Breathing Easy
The Burden of Asthma
Searching for the Culprits
From the Gut to the Lung
Allergies and Eczema, Too?
14.Gut Feelings: Microbiota and the Brain
Bottom-Up Thinking
The Microbes Made Me Do It!
Microbes and Moods
Stress, Depression, and Anxiety
Autism Spectrum Disorders
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
The Road to a Better Brain
The Not-So-Magical Kingdom
A Parent’s Nightmare—What Do I Do?
Vaccines and Microbiota—Is There a Connection?
The Future
Understanding the Microbiome
Analysis of Your Microbiome
Beyond Genes: Microbial Metabolites
Second Generation Probiotics
Prebiotics
Back to the Future: Fecal Transfers
RePOOPulating Our Gut
Crystal Ball Time
Personalized Diets
Preface
We all want what is best for our kids. The problem is that there is no perfect handbook on how to raise them, nor is there any one best way, either. We read books and articles, talk to friends, and try to remember (or forget!) how our parents raised us. Both of us have children and have struggled and muddled through the parenting process the same way everyone does. We are also scientists who have worked with microbes for many years, and we couldn’t help but consider how these ever-present microbes influence development as we raised our children. At first we studied microbes that cause disease, and we feared them just like anyone else. But more recently we began taking notice of all the other microbes that live in and on us—our “microbiota.” As we continue to study the microbiota of humans, it is becoming clear that our exposure to microbes is most important when we’re kids. At the same time, modern lifestyles have made childhood much cleaner than ever before in human history, and this is taking a huge toll on our microbiota—and our lifelong health.
The genesis of this book came from the realization that the studies in our lab—and the labs of several other researchers—prove that microbes really do impact a child’s health. What shocked us most was how early this starts—the first one hundred days of life are critical. We knew microbes played a role in well-being, but we had no idea how soon this role began.
Several other factors converged to help convince us to write this book. Claire has young children, and all of her young parent friends were extremely interested in the concept of microbes and how they might affect their kids. Whenever we tell other parents about our work, the questions never cease—Do I need to sterilize their bottles every time? What kind of soap should I use? We realized that there are many questions out there about microbes . . . and a lot of wrong information.
Brett is married to a pediatric infectious disease specialist (Jane) who was constantly suggesting articles and findings about how microbes affect kids, which led us to realize that since this was such a new field, there was no one source parents could turn to if they wanted to learn more. Not to mention that scientific articles are usually dry, terse things with lots of jargon and, frankly, are terribly boring. However, this new area of research has a lot to offer to people raising children who are not likely to get this important information from dense scientific papers or from studies often misinterpreted by the press. There is a lot of information being produced by some of the best scientists in the world, which we consider extremely useful for the day-to-day decisions we make while raising our children, so we felt compelled to gather it all in one book and make it accessible to the everyday parent.
We start off by explaining a bit about microbes, and then explore what happens to a pregnant woman’s body in terms of her microbiota and how it affects her child(ren) for life. We then discuss the delivery process, breastfeeding, solid foods, and the first years of life from a microbial perspective. In the middle of the book we cover lifestyle issues (Should I get a pet? What do I do with a dropped pacifier?) and the use of antibiotics. The latter part of the book features chapters dealing with specific diseases that are growing by leaps and bounds in our society, and the microbes that seem to affect them. These include obesity, asthma, diabetes, intestinal diseases, behavioral and mental health disorders such as autism, and a whole array of diseases in which, even five years ago, we had no clue microbes might be involved. Readers may want to skip over particular chapters if you feel that they are not applicable to you. However, each one is full of information that will educate you about the processes involved in these health issues. We think the section on the gut–brain connection (chapter 14) is particularly interesting in its exploration of how microbes might affect the brain and mental disorders. We finish the book with a discussion on vaccines and a futuristic view of what we can expect in terms of new therapies and medical interventions in the next few years. Each chapter ends with a few Dos and Don’ts—these are not meant to be comprehensive medical advice, but suggestions about things to do (or not do) that are based on current scientific evidence.
What we have learned in writing this book, and what we hope to convince readers of, is that microbes play a very large part in our children’s lives. Even as scientists in the field, we were stunned to discover some of the profound roles these microscopic bugs have in normal childhood development. No doubt many of these findings, and many more to come, will have a major impact on how we think about raising our children.
—B. Brett Finlay and Marie-Claire Arrieta
Let Them Eat Dirt
PART ONE
We