The condition of a children’s gut health can reveal a lot about how they are feeling internally. Parents can improve children’s gut and overall health by putting these suggestions into practice.

If you’ve noticed that your child is in pain or starting to have digestive issues, you need to take action right away! Constipation can cause far more serious problems, such as behavioral issues or trouble potty training if it is ignored for a long time.

Therefore, it’s crucial to give your child a healthy gut from the start. Undoubtedly, a happy child is a healthy child.

The Significance Of Gut Health

The digestive system in our body is made up of organs that extend from the mouth to the rectum. The gut microbiome or gut microbiota refers to all the microorganisms residing in the gut. These include a variety of beneficial bacteria that function to keep the gut’s ecosystem healthy, including those that aid in digestion, immunity, and nerve health.

Infants have a sterile gut when they are born, but soon after, the intestinal flora begins to proliferate. Therefore, factors like diet, microbial exposure, and antibiotic use all affect the health of the gut. By the time a child reaches the age of three, their gut microbiome is more or less similar to that of an adult and will remain with them throughout their lives.

That is why it’s crucial to establish good gut habits from the beginning. An unhealthy gut is obvious from all kinds of tummy problems like diarrhoea or constipation, vomiting or indigestion, fussy eating or overall crankiness. Or, as it was with my son, not being able to perform to your full potential or being unable to be who you truly are.

What Roles Do The Guts Play?

The gut performs a wide range of vital tasks, including

• aiding digestion
• the absorption of nutrients
• waste removal

In addition to communicating with the rest of the body, particularly the brain, your gut also affects the immune system, which is necessary to ward off bugs.

Absorption Of Nutrients

Almost all of the nutrients we consume are absorbed through the gut. Consequently, when a child has a healthy gut, they get the most nutrition possible from the food they consume. The key nutrients absorbed in the gut are iron, proteins, sugars, and fats. These nutrients are essential for growing bodies.

The Gut-brain Axis

The bodily and chemical link between your gut and brain is known as the gut-brain axis. To be clear, it is a network made up of millions of nerves that communicate in both directions. The brain communicates with itself by sending and receiving chemicals known as neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and GABA (which regulates feelings of fear and anxiety). These are created in the gut in large quantities. For your child’s good mental and physical health, a thriving, healthy gut microbiome helps produce the chemicals and signaling messages needed.

The Immune System

70% of the body’s immune system resides in the gut. Additionally, it serves as the primary point of entry for insects into the body. As a result, your child will be more likely to contract harmful bugs if their gut does not act as a strong barrier. Ailment may result from this. According to research, gut-related allergies like asthma and eczema can be more likely to develop in children if their gut bacteria are not balanced. By encouraging the growth of the good bacteria in your child’s gut, you can aid in the development of their immunity. Children will continue to feel healthy and energized as a result of this.

Elimination Of Waste

The gut eliminates waste from the body. This is crucial to supporting liver function. Encourage your child to eat a diet rich in fiber to maintain regular bowel movements (and avoid uncomfortable constipation). Include wholegrains, vegetables, and fruit, for instance, in their diet. This will maintain regular bowel movements and feed the beneficial gut bacteria. Keeping your bowel movements regular and soft requires drinking water.

How Can We Enhance Children’s Gut Health?

Avoid Overeating

It might be alluring to heed your parents’ advice that you should feed your child frequently because they are growing, but make sure to keep it within a reasonable range. Proper portion sizes for children should be followed, and what works for one child may not work for another. To help you feed your child, you can use this feeding guide.^2,3

Watch your child’s diet carefully to make sure they are getting enough food so they won’t go hungry, but don’t overfeed them to the point where their digestive systems might not be able to handle it.

Feed The Good Bacteria

They prosper off of dietary fiber, the complex carbohydrates found in plants. What transpires when your child’s gut bacteria aren’t receiving enough dietary fiber? They’ll begin devouring her! According to research, the mucus that lines and shields the inner walls of the intestine is consumed by a gut microbe that is starving. Bacteria can set off alarms within the immune system if they get too close to these walls, causing a simmering state of inflammation that can eventually result in autoimmune disorders like inflammatory bowel disease, allergies, and asthma. Your child’s growing microbiome will be well-nourished if you give her a diet full of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and legumes.

Of course, many high-fiber foods aren’t particularly appealing to kids right away, to put it mildly. Start by making choices that you are familiar with. carrots dipped in hummus, steamed edamame, or black-bean quesadillas with avocado on whole-grain tortillas. You could also use your child’s imagination if you believe she will enjoy it. We have explained to Claire and Camille that each of us has a bacterium inside of us that requires care. When our daughters are presented with a plate of vegetables (which is typical at our house), we remind them that their pet is hungry, and they are typically happy to comply. We used to give a stuffed bacterium to each daughter to hold on her lap during mealtimes in order to really drive the point home. GiantMicrobes.com, which sells adorable plush ones, is one of my favorite websites.

Foods That Positively Impact Gut Health

• Yogurt contains prebiotics and probiotics which promote good bacteria growth in the gastrointestinal tract.
• Water keeps you hydrated, aids in digestion by helping move foods along and helps prevent constipation
• Fruits and vegetables are high in fiber. Apples, beans, or fruits with skin support a healthy digestive system, and tomatoes and berries are packed with antioxidants. The best way for parents to encourage their children to eat fruits and vegetables is to set an example and use creative approaches.
• Paired snacks like carrots and ranch or apples and peanut butter help kids feel full and energized from fat and protein.
• Low-fat cheeses are a good source of calcium if a child cannot tolerate milk. Lactose levels in cheese are naturally lower.

Foods That Negatively Impact Gut Health

• Foods containing dyes, like candy and bright-colored snacks, tend to be unhealthy by nature. They typically have high sugar content and refined carbs, which are poor sources of fiber.
• Sodium is stressful on the kidneys and can cause dehydration. It is concealed in processed foods like chips.
• Sauces like gravy, cheese dip, and soy sauce have hidden sodium and unhealthy fat.
• Fried foods extract the nutritional value and don’t provide as many nutrients as their raw or baked counterparts, like a baked potato with skin versus french fries.
• Sugary drinks should be limited or avoided altogether. Sports drinks are only intended for athletes after a workout and also contain sugar. It is still preferable to eat an apple than to drink apple juice, even with juice.

Eat Bacteria Itself

According to research from Georgetown University Medical Center, consuming live and active cultures (another name for good bacteria), such as those found in many yogurts, may lessen the frequency of illnesses in children, especially troublesome gastrointestinal infections.

In addition to miso and unpasteurized sauerkraut, which I find to be less kid-friendly, kefir, a fermented dairy beverage, is a source of edible bacteria. But be careful when shopping because many yogurts marketed to kids are loaded with sugar, and products like yogurt-covered pretzels and salad dressings made with yogurt frequently don’t even contain live cultures. I initially added a teaspoon of maple syrup to the yogurt in order to get my kids to enjoy the distinctive tang of the unsweetened variety, and I gradually decreased the amount over a period of weeks. The day we ended up staying at a hotel that offered sweetened yogurt is one I’ll never forget. The fact that my kids complained that “something tasted weird” about it is evidence that you can influence the flavors that young children perceive as “normal.””

As parents, we naturally want to protect our children from illness-causing bacteria like strep and E. coli, but by sterilizing everything our kids touch we also reduce their contact with the good bacteria needed in their gut. Swedish researchers recently discovered that children were less likely to experience eczema and asthma if their parents sucked their pacifiers rather than boiling them on the stove to clean them. It’s likely that by not sterilizing the pacifiers, these parents exposed their child to more bacteria, which in turn boosted their developing immune system. Dentists may draw attention to the possibility that this practice could increase the risk of tooth decay, but I still maintain that we should limit how frequently we sterilize our children’s surroundings. If the pacifier trick doesn’t work for you, try using hand sanitizer with restraint or switching to natural cleaning supplies instead of ones that contain bleach. When it comes to bacteria, our family regularly weighs the costs and benefits. In our pesticide- and herbicide-free yard, if my kids have been gardening, I feel confident letting them skip hand washing before snack time. However, washing your hands thoroughly before eating is essential if you’ve spent the day at a public park or the zoo, places that are likely to be rife with bacteria and contagious viruses.

Play In The Garden And Snuggle With Your Pets

Both of these are simple ways for your child to come into contact with healthy bacteria while avoiding those that can make him sick. In actuality, our dog acts as an excellent conduit between our kids and the bacteria-filled dirt in our yard. I consider the advantages the bacteria he is carrying can give my daughters instead of cringing when I see him nuzzling and licking them. For instance, a study that appeared in JAMA suggested that infants who are raised around dogs have a lower risk of developing asthma before the age of six. Growing plants exposes kids to animal and soil-borne bacteria. My kids regularly use their bare hands to dig carrots from our garden, quickly brushing the dirt off, and then munch on them. In fact, I consider every unwashed carrot my daughters eat to be the best vitamin there is: a fiber-filled supplement that nourishes the gut microbiome. My kids hardly ever get sick, and when they do, their illnesses don’t last for very long, even though I don’t have any lab results to show that their guts are getting better.

Avoid Unnecessary Antibiotics

These medications may be life-saving, but that doesn’t mean they are without risks. Because they kill bacteria without regard to their species, they also eliminate the beneficial components of your microbiome. And you might be surprised to learn how much more of an effect that loss may have on your child’s long-term health. Antibiotic use in children is associated with excess weight gain throughout childhood, according to a recent study from Johns Hopkins University and a 2014 mouse study from the University of Chicago that connected antibiotic use with peanut allergies. I believe that the gradual alteration of the microbiome’s functionality brought on by antibiotics is what caused this effect. It is critical now more than ever for parents and pediatricians to only prescribe antibiotics when absolutely necessary in light of this new research. With my children so far, this approach has been successful: Camille has only ever taken oral antibiotics once in her life to treat an ear infection, while Claire has never received a prescription for them.

Exercise

Whether at home or on the playground, let your kids exercise. They need exercise in either case to maintain a healthy, happy body and to encourage the growth of good bacteria. When children exercise, endorphins are released, which reduce stress and promote better gut health. They will also be able to absorb vital vitamin D, which is important for their bones, calcium levels, as well as the health of their skin and hair, if you let them exercise outside in the early morning hours.