During the first 1,000 days of a baby’s life, a type of programming takes place. This programming helps to determine a child’s lifelong health and has been directly linked to a wide range of metabolic and immune mediated disorders that fit under the umbrella of chronic disease, sometimes referred to as noncommunicable disease or noninfectious disease. And because of something called epigenetics, programming can even be carried from one generation to the next.

No pressure or anything.

During a baby’s first 1000 days, you have the opportunity to make a big impact in everyday ways, like simple lifestyle or diet shifts.

As a baby grows, their gut matures and their immune system gets a little more skilled at identifying friend versus foe. Gut maturity is marked by diversity. After birth, the first major leap we see is when a baby begins eating solid food.

Parents have the biggest impact on a baby’s gut health during pregnancy and a baby’s first 12 months. As a toddler, there are gradual shifts towards a more diverse and adult-like microbiome that stabilizes between 3 and 5 years old.

Factors that affect baby gut health include vaginal birth or C-section, breastfeeding or formula feeding, and the use of antibiotics.

During the first year, a baby’s microbiome sees the most dramatic shifts and this path sets the trajectory for childhood and adulthood. What’s more, certain strains are more or less dominant at different points in time. It’s believed that this helps to support immune development.

The best way to track a baby’s gut health is with a series of tests.

For this reason, we encourage parents to sample as soon as possible, from age 0 to 3 years old and beyond. We currently have reference ranges for: 7-days, 30-days, 60-days, 90-days, 6-months, 12-months, 18-months, and 24-months.

But testing can happen at any time and is ideally customized to each baby’s needs.

In short, it’s never too late to test. The sooner you have a baseline sample, the better.

Keep in mind that the gut is still developing until the age of 3 - 5 years old. Up until this point, you have an opportunity to check in on your little one’s gut health and make changes, if needed.

For older children, testing can reveal a lot about their gut health. Including levels of hidden gut inflammation, levels of bacteria that make anti-inflammatory short-chain fatty acids, microbiome diversity, and biomarkers for immune health and fiber digestion.  

Even if your child’s gut has reached adult-maturity, there’s still an opportunity to influence their dietary, supplement needs, and lifestyle choices.

Conventional medical practitioners don’t get training for microbiome health and as such, are not always familiar with the latest research and recommendations in this field of medicine. However, our tests are developed by a team of leading pediatric scientists and physicians who are on the cutting edge of this impactful field.

Often, it’s up to your doctor to keep up on the latest research and most don’t have the time. In addition to this, it can take 10 - 15 years for academic research to be put into medical practice. So it’s possible that your doctor hasn’t heard about the gut microbiome.

But that doesn’t mean that it’s something to wait on. Especially during pregnancy and the first few years of life.

Recent studies show just how important the microbiome is to your baby’s immune development. You can use microbiome testing to make sure your baby has bacteria that protect health.

With a database of over 130,000 genomes mapped out, we’re able to provide:

• A comprehensive list of all bacteria fungi, parasites, viruses, and archaea found in your baby’s microbiome
• Your baby’s Tiny Health Gut Type
• Key Insights about your baby’s microbiome and what this means for their health
• Condition Biomarkers, which may give you clues about what’s happening in your baby’s body and the risk for specific conditions
• Associations between any symptoms your baby might have and their microbiome
  

It is not possible to detect specific allergies or sensitivities through any gut microbiome test.

But we can show associations between your baby’s gut microbiome and their symptoms of eczema or allergies. Or the potential risk of these conditions developing.

How do we do this?

We use something called biomarkers. Microbial biomarkers are bacteria associated with a higher or lower likelihood of developing a particular condition.

Our microbial biomarkers are developed from research.

The Tiny Health Bioinformatics Pipeline uses a custom built database of over 120K complete microbial genomes. We sift through the research surrounding the microbiome and use this information to develop a  list of bacteria that we feel are important to track in early life.

Beyond the gut, there are a lot of other factors that can contribute to these conditions. Like genetics, lifestyle, and environmental exposures. If your child has eczema or food allergies, Tiny Health can show whether or not biomarkers for these conditions are present. And how to best support gut health.  

There is no gut microbiome test that can detect lactose intolerance.

At Tiny Health we can help you understand your gut health and how it may contribute to symptoms of lactose intolerance.

Lactose intolerance refers to trouble digesting the milk sugar, lactose.

This is different from cow milk protein allergy, which involves an immune response. Cow milk protein allergy is somewhat common in babies whereas lactose intolerance is very rare in children under the age of 5 years old.

There are two types of lactose intolerance:

1. Primary lactose intolerance: This is rare in babies and all about genetics. In this case, the body cannot make enough of the enzyme, lactase. This is the enzyme that helps break down and digest the lactose milk sugars.

Primary lactose intolerance is not caused by gut microbes. But symptoms may improve with helpful bacteria like Streptococcus thermophilus.

2. Secondary lactose intolerance: This is all about damage to the gut lining. Lactose digestion takes place in the small intestine and when the lining of the small intestine is damaged, we see secondary lactose intolerance. Which makes it hard to digest lactose. Usually this happens in adults after a long period of gut inflammation.

Secondary lactose intolerance can be caused by gut microbes if these microbes are making the gut inflamed. Repairing an injured gut and clearing inflammation can help support the digestion of lactose.

If your child is having issues with dairy it is important to talk to their healthcare provider to help understand the cause. In older children, lactose intolerance is often diagnosed by dairy elimination and/or a hydrogen breath test.

It’s never too late to test. Testing outside the biomarker window is a good idea because it may show signs of gut dysbiosis. Or underlying imbalances that could trigger other problems.

The baby’s gut doesn’t fully mature until 3 to 5 years old. This means that within this period of time, you can still influence the trajectory of their gut and immune development.

To find out more about allergies and food sensitivities, read here about the 4 most common types of food allergies in babies.