From Gut-Brain Secrets.

How the microbiome gets established

Medical science used to think babies were born with a sterile digestive tract. But we now know that baby’s GI tract gets lightly populated with limited microbiota species in-utero as a primer. The real colonists arrive shortly thereafter through the birthing process and the feeding of colostrum and breastmilk.

As baby travels through the birth canal, it swallows its first mouthfuls of full-spectrum bacteria and other microbiota. This inoculates baby with microbial starter cultures that colonize its entire intestinal tract and body, over its first month or two. So whatever microflora lives in the mother’s vagina will become the bulk of the baby’s microbiome. Other sources in baby’s environment, such as pacifiers, pets and floors, make up the rest.

Breast feeding is the next biggest contributor to the establishment of baby’s new microbiome. In the course of breastfeeding, baby touches and suckles mom. And microbes are taken in from the environment. What’s interesting is, some native populations have used the breastfeeding process to help establish a healthy microbiome. Mothers spread a thin layer of yogurt or other probiotic cultures on the nipples to suppress yeast growth and inoculate baby with probiotic organisms that it needs.

And, even before that, mothers to-be applied yogurt or cultures to the crotch, and under the arms, to increase probiotic populations, and decrease pathogens like yeast when the immune system is suppressed in pregnancy. Further aiding the process, breast milk, with its high sugar, cholesterol, and nutrient content feeds microflora as they colonize the nooks and crannies of baby’s digestive tract. Milk also stimulates the production of mucus, which coats and protects the microbiome in development.

Breastfeeding lays the foundation for baby’s immune system

Breastmilk is basically a mother’s whole blood, without the red blood cells. Mother’s milk consists mostly of: (1) cholesterol and other fats that supply the building blocks for a rapidly developing brain and nervous system, (2) white blood cells, (3) nutritional components, and (4) immune factors. These components give baby an external source of antibodies that protect it from infection and disease while nursing. This is one reason that learning and behavior problems often don’t show up until after a child is weaned.

The big a-ha is that microbiota in mom’s digestive tract migrates to and colonizes her birth canal, which she passes on to baby at the time of birth. So mommy’s microflora becomes the vast majority of baby’s microbiome. And, with it, health or imbalance is passed from generation to generation. Dads aren’t exempt from the process either. His gut flora migrates to the groin area, which is shared with mommy on a regular basis. So daddy’s gut flora has an indirect effect on baby’s gut flora profile too. Caretakers and baby’s surroundings also contribute to the baby’s microflora when baby feeds, bathes, or touches anything.

This is how a person’s microbiome gets established in the first twenty days of life. And it’s the mechanism by which gut flora is transferred from generation to generation. It sets the tone for a person’s mental, physical, and immunological health or sickness for the rest of their life.

Crucially, the first bacteria that colonize the gut inform the immune system which species are your own friendly flora that need to be favored and protected for the rest of your life. This establishes who is welcome in your gut by receiving virtual paperwork signifying that they are natural-born citizens of that microbiome. Or, through their absence, this establishes who is a foreigner, and needs to be deported by the immune system. Obviously, this works in your favor when you get the right microbiota from the start. On the other hand, getting started on the wrong foot with unfriendly flora puts you at a disadvantage in correcting your microbiome, and keeping it in balance.

Probiotics are the higher-successional life form

Having co-evolved and cooperated with their hosts for ages, probiotic microbes support the health of their host, and are supposed to make up the bulk of its microbiome – both man or animal. Probiotics are higher up the evolutionary scale and are stronger than pathogens. Nature designed it this way, and enforces its rule through better weaponry. That is, each microbial class – probiotics and pathogens – make and use pesticides against each other. But probiotics are supposed to have the upper hand.

Historically, they always had a stronger “offense” in the form of enemy-fighting chemicals, so they didn’t need great defense in the form of chemical resistance. Probiotics could basically get the pathogens, before the pathogens got them. Probiotics are also more resistant to oxidation than pathogens because they hold on to their electrons more tightly due to higher electrical charge. This is Nature’s way of protecting probiotic organisms when the body uses free radicals and inflammation to clean up an area. Oxidation does harms probiotic cells, but pathogens are hurt more, giving probiotics a competitive advantage.

Oxidation: The process of stealing electrons with free radicals to destroy things.

Point is, good bacteria are supposed to rule the inner terrain of the gut. But when they’re assaulted by forces with bigger guns (antibiotics), they’re defenseless. They get wiped out, leaving vast stretches of untended space in the gut for pathogens to set up shop.

How the gut gets corrupted

C-section and bottle feeding can help corrupt the microbiome

Not inevitably. Instead, they setup a neutral situation that favors neither good bacteria nor bad (as natural childbirth and breastfeeding is meant to). You see, Nature intended the holiest of holies, your microbiome, to be setup by the transfer of microbiota from mother to baby during birthing and breastfeeding. But C-section and bottle feeding allow the environment to dictate which starter cultures get into baby’s gut and colonize it.

With all that fertile ground waiting to be colonized, baby’s microbiome is going to get populated with something, one way or another. But modern rearing practices have circumvented the natural seeding of the microbiome. So any random microbes that baby is exposed to in their first twenty days of life become the majority of their microbiome – including those in the maternity ward, on healthcare workers hands, in baby’s food, and anything baby touches or puts in its mouth.

Unfortunately, repeated sanitizing of surfaces tends to produce particularly nasty strains of drug-resistant organisms. Not only do microbial survivors develop drug resistance through frequent exposure and regrowth. But repeated sanitizing lets pathogens dominate relative to probiotic strains. That’s important: good to bad ratios, not total populations, because probiotics are meant to suppress pathogens. However, when the good guys are worn down, pathogens take over. Once again, man has stuck his nose into Nature’s business, and now we’re paying the price.

Modern weaning can corrupt the gut

Early in the second half of the 20^th Century, pediatric associations tried to convince mothers that breastfeeding was not as healthy for infants as formula and commercial baby food. Isn’t that a laugh! Food companies actually had the gall to claim that the formula and mush they make was healthier for baby than Nature’s own. Today, that idea has been debunked by insurmountable evidence that mother’s milk is perfect and cannot be improved upon. But it does go to show you how ridiculous their claims have been through the years. Indeed, nothing has changed.

Here’s what Nature says: Until baby has teeth to chew, and they want it, you shouldn’t force them to eat solid food – even if you blend solids into mush. Their digestive systems are not ready for it. We’re talking teeth, chewing and swallowing coordination, maturation of digestive organs, and a mature microbiome. Sure, if you force food into their mouth and they’re hungry, eventually you can get them to swallow it. But Nature designed teeth and solid food to go together. For example, the production of enzymes that digest solid food is supposed to precede the introduction of solid food. So mother’s milk is best, until baby’s whole body is ready to chew, swallow, digest, metabolize, detoxify, and eliminate solid food.

The real damage is done by ingredients and contaminants in food

Instead of all the precious stuff in mother’s milk – including cholesterol, saturated fat, immune factors, balanced nutrients, and foundational microflora – commercial manufacturers add substances that are harmful to babies. Commercial baby food has too much sugar, salt, carbohydrates, grains, GMOs, glutamate-based flavor enhancers, and fluoride. All of which baby’s immature digestive system is ill-equipped to handle. Sugar and refined carbs over-activate baby’s pancreas and insulin system. Grains start them down the path to leaky gut and gluten sensitivity. GMOs are bad for the body all around. And glutamate-based flavor enhancers contribute to brain cell death through excitotoxicity.

These reactions are bad enough for adults, but babies are far more susceptible to insults, considering their weight, immature immunity, rapid development, and heighten sensitivity. When the gut is healthy and balanced, baby might escape unharmed. But when a gut is corrupted from the get-go, the damage may deepen due to premature introduction of solid food – particularly these food stressors.

Gut flora are under constant attack from these offenders and more

• antibiotics
• chlorine/chloramine in water
• herbicides, insecticides, GMOs
• vaccines
• birth control pills, medications, steroids
• heavy metals in dental work
• hormone mimics
• plasticizers
• chemicals found in personal care products.

The problem is, this damage accumulates, so each generation inherits more deeply-disturbed gut flora than the one before. We’re slipping further and further into gut dysbiosis, which is not only rising, it’s accelerating. We’re seeing it in our families, friends, relatives and neighbors. We’re seeing it in our communities, social services and healthcare systems. And we’re seeing it in disease rates that are almost beyond comprehension.