Healthy Bacteria

Where to Find it and Why Babies Need It

By Felicia Hodges

When you hear the word bacteria, you probably think of those nasty little microbes that cause sickness and infection. But did you know that certain types of bacteria are necessary for healthy body function for both you and your baby?

Holistic practitioner Natasha Trenev, author of "Probiotics: Nature's Internal Healers," says the average person has about 3.5 pounds of bacteria in their bodies -- more than the total number of cells. "You are a walking, talking bacteria-manufacturing machine," she says.

Trenev adds that healthy bacteria -- such as Bifidobacteria and Bene bacteria -- guard against the permeability of bad germs in the large bowel and stimulate weight gain in infants. Ninety-nine percent of the cultural flora in the large intestine is made up of Bifidobacteria, which also makes up a large part of our fecal matter. Bene bacteria helps form the immune system by setting up a protective barrier in the intestinal wall. Babies get the head start they need for making their own healthy bacteria from their moms, who colonize it in their own bodies. When a baby passes through the birth canal, healthy bacteria is passed from mother to child. Unfortunately, our lifestyles are making it more difficult for moms to pass on these organisms to their children.

"What we've done environmentally is sterilize everything. Healthy bacteria can't thrive," Trenev says. As a result, she says, about 70 percent of urban mothers are not passing on bacteria to their children in the right strain or in the right numbers. "Without good doses of [Bene bacteria], you see high incidence of asthma and ear infections. The average baby has had four doses of antibiotics by the time he or she is a year old," Trenev says.

Because of our obsession with sterilization and cleanliness, the hospital environment -- almost always the first one a newborn experiences -- can often make the situation worse. A study done in the Scandinavian countries of Sweden and Astonia by Agnes Wold found that babies raised in sterile hospital environments experienced a six-fold increase in allergies. Trenev attributes the findings to the inability of the body's healthy bacteria to survive and grow in such an artificial setting.

Trenev says the complexities of the body's bacteria are often misunderstood by the medical community. Some physicians and clinicians have even bucked tradition, blaming modern medicine for some of its more harmful tendencies.

Want to see more?

• Schedule of Childhood Vaccinations
• When to Call the Doctor
• Probiotics: Nature's Internal Healers
• Evolution of Infectious Disease