Bacteroides-dominant gut microbiome of late infancy is associated with enhanced neurodevelopment.

Dysbiosis of gut microbiota has been retrospectively linked to autism spectrum disorders but the temporal association between gut microbiota and early neurodevelopment in healthy infants is largely unknown. We undertook this study to determine associations between gut microbiota at two critical periods during infancy and neurodevelopment in a general population birth cohort.Here, we analyzed data from 405 infants (199 females) from the CHILD (Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development) Cohort Study.

Ethnicity Associations With Food Sensitization Are Mediated by Gut Microbiota Development in the First Year of Life.

Background And Aims: Increasing evidence supports the role of early-life gut microbiota in developing atopic diseases, but ecological changes to gut microbiota during infancy in relation to food sensitization remain unclear. We aimed to characterize and associate these changes with the development of food sensitization in children.

Methods: In this observational study, using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, we characterized the composition of 2844 fecal microbiota in 1422 Canadian full-term infants.

From Birth to Overweight and Atopic Disease: Multiple and Common Pathways of the Infant Gut Microbiome.

Background & Aims: Few studies, even those with cohort designs, test the mediating effects of infant gut microbes and metabolites on the onset of disease. We undertook such a study.

Methods: Using structural equation modeling path analysis, we tested directional relationships between first pregnancy, birth mode, prolonged labor and breastfeeding; infant gut microbiota, metabolites, and IgA; and childhood body mass index and atopy in 1667 infants.

Vitamin D supplementation in pregnancy and early infancy in relation to gut microbiota composition and colonization: implications for viral respiratory infections.

In Canada and the US, the infant diet is supplemented with vitamin D via supplement drops or formula. Pregnant and nursing mothers often take vitamin D supplements. Since little is known about the impact of this supplementation on infant gut microbiota, we undertook a study to determine the association between maternal and infant vitamin D supplementation, infant gut microbiota composition and colonization in 1,157 mother-infant pairs of the CHILD (Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development) Cohort Study over 2009-2012.

Colonization Is Differentially Associated With Gut Microbiome Profiles by Infant Feeding Modality at 3-4 Months of Age.

Colonization with occurs in up to half of infants under the age of 3 months, is strongly influenced by feeding modality and is largely asymptomatic. In spite of this, 's presence has been associated with susceptibility to chronic disease later in childhood, perhaps by promoting or benefiting from changes in infant gut microbiome development, including colonization with pathogenic bacteria and disrupted production of microbial bioactive metabolites and proteins. In this study, the microbiomes of 1554 infants from the CHILD Cohort Study were described according to colonization status and feeding mode at 3-4 months of age.

Postnatal exposure to household disinfectants, infant gut microbiota and subsequent risk of overweight in children.

Background: Emerging links between household cleaning products and childhood overweight may involve the gut microbiome. We determined mediating effects of infant gut microbiota on associations between home use of cleaning products and future overweight.

Methods: From the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) birth cohort, we tested associations between maternal report of cleaning product use and overweight at age 3, and whether associations were mediated by microbial profiles of fecal samples in 3- to 4-month-old infants.

Association of Exposure to Formula in the Hospital and Subsequent Infant Feeding Practices With Gut Microbiota and Risk of Overweight in the First Year of Life.

Importance: The effect of neonatal and infant feeding practices on childhood obesity is unclear. The gut microbiome is strongly influenced by feeding practices and has been linked to obesity.

Objective: To characterize the association between breastfeeding, microbiota, and risk of overweight during infancy, accounting for the type and timing of supplementary feeding.

Sex-specific impact of asthma during pregnancy on infant gut microbiota.

Asthma during pregnancy is associated with retardation of fetal growth in a sex-specific manner. Lactobacilli microbes influence infant growth. This study aimed to determine whether lactobacilli and other microbes are reduced in the gut of infants born to an asthmatic mother, and whether this differs by the sex of the infant.

Cesarean Section, Formula Feeding, and Infant Antibiotic Exposure: Separate and Combined Impacts on Gut Microbial Changes in Later Infancy.

Established during infancy, our complex gut microbial community is shaped by medical interventions and societal preferences, such as cesarean section, formula feeding, and antibiotic use. We undertook this study to apply the significance analysis of microarrays (SAM) method to quantify changes in gut microbial composition during later infancy following the most common birth and postnatal exposures affecting infant gut microbial composition. Gut microbiota of 166 full-term infants in the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development birth cohort were profiled using 16S high-throughput gene sequencing.

Exposure to household furry pets influences the gut microbiota of infant at 3-4 months following various birth scenarios.

Background: Early-life exposure to household pets has the capacity to reduce risk for overweight and allergic disease, especially following caesarean delivery. Since there is some evidence that pets also alter the gut microbial composition of infants, changes to the gut microbiome are putative pathways by which pet exposure can reduce these risks to health. To investigate the impact of pre- and postnatal pet exposure on infant gut microbiota following various birth scenarios, this study employed a large subsample of 746 infants from the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development Study (CHILD) cohort, whose mothers were enrolled during pregnancy between 2009 and 2012.

Infant gut microbiota and the hygiene hypothesis of allergic disease: impact of household pets and siblings on microbiota composition and diversity.

Background: Multiple studies have demonstrated that early-life exposure to pets or siblings affords protection against allergic disease; these associations are commonly attributed to the "hygiene hypothesis". Recently, low diversity of the infant gut microbiota has also been linked to allergic disease. In this study, we characterize the infant gut microbiota in relation to pets and siblings.

Gut microbiota of healthy Canadian infants: profiles by mode of delivery and infant diet at 4 months.

Background: The gut microbiota is essential to human health throughout life, yet the acquisition and development of this microbial community during infancy remains poorly understood. Meanwhile, there is increasing concern over rising rates of cesarean delivery and insufficient exclusive breastfeeding of infants in developed countries. In this article, we characterize the gut microbiota of healthy Canadian infants and describe the influence of cesarean delivery and formula feeding.