(Editor’s note: In recognition of National Nutrition Month, the Rowan County Health Department has partnered with multiple authors from various health-related sectors to bring a four-part series on different areas of nutrition. The series will appear in the Salisbury Post’s Tuesdays editions throughout March.)

By Ruth Gagliardi

For the Salisbury Post

In celebration of National Nutrition Month, we are looking at the benefits of good nutrition throughout the lifecycle. We will start with infant nutrition. The standard of good nutrition for a healthy, full-term infant is mother’s own breast milk. Breast milk is known to have many health benefits. In addition to providing the nutrients and calories that a baby needs to grow and develop, breast milk can also help establish a healthy immune system. 

One part of a healthy immune system is a healthy gastrointestinal (GI) tract. We have a healthy GI tract when we have a healthy microbiome. Our microbiome is a community of microorganisms. This can include bacteria, fungi, protozoa, bacteriophage and viruses. An infant is born with an immature GI tract that doesn’t have a complex microbiome. The microbiome must grow or develop. As a baby is exposed to the environment outside of mom’s body, baby is adding microorganisms to the GI tract or gut. A GI tract that has a healthy microbiome helps babies to stay healthy and prevent problems and diseases. One of the ways we can encourage healthy microbiomes in the GI tract is by eating prebiotic foods and foods with probiotics. A prebiotic food promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut. For babies that means a prebiotic can positively impact development of the immune system. Probiotics are microorganisms that have a beneficial impact on health.

Sugars called human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are abundant in breast milk. There are over 200 oligosaccharides in human milk. Human milk oligosaccharides are the third most abundant solid component of breast milk. Lactose is the largest component; fats are the second largest component and then HMOs. Human milk oligosaccharides are produced by the mother. Each mother makes a different set of HMOs. It is believed which HMOs a mother produces are determined genetically. That means each mother produces a unique combination of HMOs for her baby.  

These sugars are not digested to provide calories for baby’s growth but are used to feed healthy or beneficial bacteria in the gut. Two specific examples of beneficial bacteria in the gut are Lactobacillus bifidus and Bifidobacterium infantis. Lactobacillus bifidus increases the acidity in the intestine which restrains growth of pathogens. Bifidobacterium infantis helps protect against diarrhea and respiratory infections. Another role of HMOs in the gut is to attach to pathogens. This prevents the pathogens from attaching to GI epithelial cells. Instead of remaining in the gut where they can grow and cause disease the pathogens can be excreted out of the body through feces.

Another aspect of breast milk that supports healthy microbiomes is that breast milk is rich in probiotics. Human breast milk contains large amounts of bacteria. Mother passes her microbiome to the infant through the breast milk. Some examples of bacteria found in human milk are Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Lactobacillus, Pseudomonas, Edwardsiella, and Bifidobacterium. An example of how these bacteria are beneficial is strains of Lactobacillus have been found to lessen symptoms of rotavirus infection and compete with pathogens for nutrients so that the pathogens cannot multiply as easily.

All babies will develop a microbiome in the GI tract. Breast milk helps create a healthy microbiome in multiple ways. First mom passes probiotics from her body to baby through breast milk. Second, breast milk supports the growth of beneficial bacteria by feeding them with prebiotic human milk oligosaccharides. Those human milk oligosaccharides also can decrease competition from pathogenic bacteria in the gut by making it harder for them to establish themselves and grow.

Ruth Gagliardi is the Rowan County Public Health WIC nutritionist.