Treating babies with antibiotics soon after birth affects their gut microbes

Treating babies with antibiotics in the first week of life is linked to a decrease in healthy bacteria necessary among others to digest milk and an increase in antimicrobial resistance research suggestsAccording to experts clinicians should consider using antibiotics in a way that causes least harm to the newborns microbiome the community of microbes that live in our bodyUnder current guidelines antibiotics directed at a wide range of bacteria are prescribed to four to 10 per cent of all newborns for suspected infectionsHowever experts say that in most cases the antibiotics are prescribed unnecessarily as only a small proportion of those who receive the drugs are eventually diagnosed with an infectionThis overprescription is to ensure early treatment for those who are ultimately found to have an infection as any delay may quickly become lifethreateningThe study published in Nature Communications found a change in 251 of 695 different bacteria after treatment changing the balance between good and bad bacteria in favour of more potentially harmful microbesThough gradually recovering over time the changes to the microbiome and to antimicrobial resistance genes persisted for at least 12 months and did not improve with breastfeeding which is known to help a babys immune systemWe were surprised with the magnitude and duration of the effects of broad spectrum antibiotics on the infants microbiome when compared to effects of those same antibiotics on adults microbiota said lead author Professor Debby Bogaert chair of Paediatric Medicine at the University of EdinburghThis is likely because the antibiotic treatment is given at a time that infants have just received their first microbes from their mother and have not yet developed a resilient microbiome Bogaert addedResearchers conducted a clinical trial involving 227 babies to analyse how antibiotics affect a newborns microbiomeThe samples were analysed for the microbes that made up their newly forming microbiome and for bacterial genes related to antimicrobial resistanceFor newborns that had been prescribed antibiotics there was found to be a significant decrease in the levels of different Bifidobacterium species compared with babies who had no antibiotic treatmentThese microbes aid in the digestion of human breast milk and promote gut health while also supporting the immune defence against infectionThe team also found an increase in potentially diseasecausing bacteria and in the number and abundance of genes related to antimicrobial resistance in the group that received antibioticsFurther of the three antibiotic treatment regimens tested the combination of penicillin and gentamicin was found to have the least detrimental effect on a babys gut microbiome and the number of antimicrobial resistance genes that emergeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever