Preventing Infant Starvation: How probiotics can help encourage weight gain in malnourished infants.

One of the newer discoveries in the field of science, the gut microbiome’s effects on health are versatile and possibly severe. Scientists of all focuses are examining how the bacteria in one’s stomach can influence levels of sickness in patients. Gut microbiomes are incredibly unique, with factors like genetics, environment, and diet lending themselves to the smallest of changes in the composition of bacteria in an individual. 

Usually, one’s foundational gut biome is formed during infancy, with much of that bacterial balance coming from breast milk. Unfortunately, that beneficial and necessary transaction can be severely limited in regions with widespread starvation and malnutrition— unhealthy mothers typically produce limited quantities of breast milk, and this can lead to very early degeneration of infant gut biomes and early malnutrition, with dire outcomes. 

Bifidobacterium infantis

        Prior research has identified bacterial strains fundamental to healthy infant development, one such bacteria being Bifidobacterium infantis (or B. infantis) which promotes weight gain in babies. Weight is incredibly important during early development, and a progressive increase in weight is essential in infant health, so when this foundational need is compromised, babies can quickly deteriorate, first becoming malnutritioned, and eventually, dying. B. infantis levels in infants with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) are harmfully low, so many believe this bacterium to be the primary proponent of healthy infant development. 

        Recent research has proposed a method to combat low B. infantis levels in malnutritioned babies: B. infantis was administered to undernutritioned infants in the hope that the bacterium would be able to colonize the gut, even after its typical introduction deadline passed. A strain of B. infantis that is commercially available in the United States, called EVC001, was used to treat Bangladeshi infants with SAM, and the results are promising. 

EVC001 treatment not only promoted healthy weight gain in malnutritioned babies, but also decreased intestinal inflammation that typically occurs in unhealthy gut biomes. Scientists are not just stopping there, however, as plans are currently being made to further this study and examine different strains that can diversify and strengthen the measured benefits the research has already had on suffering infants. 

An infant with SAM before and after a treatment